Iowa has made progress in terms of recruiting and retaining a trained epidemiologists. Prior to 2021 there was no job classification for Epidemiologists. Title V staff at the federal level as well as past reviewers have highlighted this fact as a challenge. In early 2021, the state’s personnel department approved two new epidemiologist job classifications: Epidemiologist and Senior Epidemiologist.  With these new classifications, the Department has been able to recruit highly skilled epidemiology staff.

Bureau of Family Health has had a long lasting relationship with the CDC. Dr. Debra Kane has been the MCH Epi Assignee since 2005 and serves as the BFH Senior Epidemiologist.   As the result of the new classification, two epidemiologists have been added to the team, Brooke Mehner and Amanda Hagerman.  Brooke Mehner has been providing epidemiologic support as the PRAMS Data Analyst and Oral Health Epidemiologist since 2017.  Amanda Hagerman joined the team in spring of 2021 with a focus on program level child health and newborn screening.

Dr. Debra Kane received a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Marian College of Fond du Lac, WI and her Master’s Degree in Community Health Nursing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  Prior to seeking her PhD, she held a variety of community health and public health nursing positions at the City of Milwaukee Health Department and the State of Wisconsin Division of Health.  Debra obtained a PhD from the University of Illinois-Chicago, School of Public Health. In 2005, she completed a CDC-ORISE sponsored post-doctoral fellowship in MCH Epidemiology at the Mississippi State Department of Health.

Dr. Kane has worked extensively with data linkages, vital records data, Iowa’s Barriers to Prenatal Care Survey data, Medicaid paid claims data, the Iowa Hospital Discharge data file, and Title X data. She has provided data analysis to support and guide numerous programs and initiative, most recently, Iowa’s AIM project and data dashboard.  Dr. Kane’s research interests include women’s reproductive health, access and barriers to health care, and the use of data to promote public health action.  Dr. Kane’s recent publications include:

Zapata, L. B., Pazol K, Curtis, K. M., Kane, D. J., et al. Need for Contraceptive Services Among Women of Reproductive Age — 45 Jurisdictions, United States, 2017–2019. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2021;70:910–915. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7025a2.

Okoroh, E.M., Kane, D.J., Gee, R.E., Kieltyka, L., Frederiksen, B.N., Baca, K.M., Rankin, K.M., Goodman, D.A., Kroelinger, C.D., & Barfield, W.D. (2018).  Policy Change is Not Enough: Engaging Provider Champions on Immediate Postpartum Contraception.  American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology. DOI.org/10.41016/j.ajog.2018.03.007

Frederiksen, B.N., Kane, D.J, Rivera, M., Wheeler, D. & Gavin, L. (2017). Use of Clinical Performance Measures for Contraceptive Care in Iowa, 2013. Contraception. 96 DOI: 10.1016/j.contraception.2017.05.008. 

Frederiksen, B.N., Lillehoj, C.J., Kane, D.J, Goodman, D., Rankin, K. (2017). Iowa severe maternal morbidity trends and maternal risk factors: 2009-2014. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 21.  DOI:  10.1007/s10995-017-2301-4. 

Amanda Hagerman is the Newborn Screening and Childhood Epidemiologist at Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) and has been a part of the team since 2019. She is responsible for the analysis and dissemination of the following programs, EHDI (Early Hearing Detection & Intervention), 1st Five Healthy Mental Development, Childhood Lead, Ages & Stages Questionnaire-3 (ASQ-3), Adolescent Well-Visits, and more, within the Bureau of Family Health. Apart from data evaluation, Amanda performs education, technical assistance, and data dissemination with a variety of stakeholders at state and national conferences, state committees, CDC workshops, and at the local level. Amanda has more than eight years of experience in qualitative and quantitative research, monitor and evaluation, and program planning and implementation in the realms of health policy, nutrition, and maternal and child health. Currently, Amanda is working on a publication to help inform audiologists and stakeholders in the realm of EHDI on the children who do not receive a diagnostic assessment after they fail a hearing screen. 

Amanda received her Bachelor’s in Nutritional Sciences & Dietetics at University of Arizona and worked as a university dietitian for three years. She also implemented nutrition programming for Hispanic/Latino children and individuals from the Tohono O'odham nation. She received her Master’s in Public Health from Washington University in St. Louis and worked as a Data Analyst and Public Health Consultant for a USAID funded program, called Jordan Communication Advocacy and Policy (JCAP) Project. She performed quantitative and qualitative data analysis for the Demographic Health Survey (DHS) that was conducted in Jordan in 2015 and evaluated the socioeconomic factors and gender roles that influenced the usage of modern family planning. Amanda also performed research on Vitamin A Supplementation (VAS) Policies in Kenya and her work was presented at the VAS symposium in Nairobi in 2016. 

Brooke Mehner received a Bachelor of Science in Applied Health Sciences and Biology from University of Wisconsin - Parkside in Kenosha, WI and her Master’s Degree in Public Health Epidemiology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.  Prior to becoming an Epidemiologist at the Iowa Department of Public Health, Brooke worked as a research assistant and data analyst in social welfare and epidemiology. 

In her current role, Brooke has utilized her data collection, analysis, visualization, and program evaluation skills to aid in understanding oral health and pregnancy outcomes, behaviors, and access among Iowa populations and share them with others. She has worked extensively with Pregnancy Risk Factor Surveillance System (PRAMS), I-Smile and other oral health program data, the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, Iowa’s Barriers to Prenatal Care Survey data, and the Iowa Hospital Discharge data, among others. Brooke is passionate about using of data to understand health concerns across the state and promote public health action.  Brooke’s recent publications include:
 

Segre LS, Mehner BT, Brock RL. Perceived Racial Discrimination and Depressed Mood in Perinatal Women: An Extension of the Domain Specific Stress Index. Women’s Health Issues. 2021 May-Jun;31(3):254-262. doi: 10.1016/j.whi.2020.12.008. Epub 2021 Feb 23. PMID: 33637396.

Iowa Department of Public Health. Bureau of Family Health. Oral Health Iowa Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System. 2021. Web.

Iowa Department of Public Health. Bureau of Family Health. 2019 PRAMS Survey Frequencies. Des Moines: Iowa Dept. of Public Health. 2021. Web.

Iowa Department of Public Health. Bureau of Oral and Health Delivery Systems. The Hidden Cost of Tooth Decay. April 2020. Web.

Iowa Department of Public Health. Bureau of Oral and Health Delivery Systems. 2020 Inside I-Smile: Update on Children’s Oral Health in Iowa. January 2021. Web.

Iowa Department of Public Health. Bureau of Oral and Health Delivery Systems. WIC-Enrolled Children and Oral Health. December 2019. Web.

The Iowa Title V CYSHCN program is able to access the resources available through the University of Iowa and does not employ dedicated epidemiologists for data management and analysis. CYSHCN staff includes members with expertise in data management and analysis. Approximately 0.6 FTE is dedicated to data management and analysis, through two Program Managers and one Electronic Medical Records Specialist. One Program Manager has an MPH in Community and Behavioral Health with primary responsibilities for evaluation activities. Over the past 10 years, the Evaluation Program Manager has managed evaluations for numerous projects funded through SAMHSA, HRSA, and state entities including the Iowa Department of Human Services. The Policy and Measurement Program Manager has an MPH in Public Health Policy and Administration. The Policy and Measurement Program Manager has over 20 years of experience, including 17 years doing health policy data analysis for statewide programs including Medicaid and CHIP, and the Iowa Child and Family Household Health Survey (2000, 2005, 2010). The Electronic Medical Records Specialist brings significant expertise required to extract data from Electronic Medical Records in a format that is useful for data analysis purposes.

The program also leverages expertise in qualitative analysis through a Program Coordinator with an MPH in Community and Behavioral Health and several other staff members. Additionally, the program is part of the University of Iowa, and has regular access to faculty biostatisticians from the University of Iowa Department of Biostatistics when additional support or advisement is necessary. The CYSHCN program has a relationship with the College of Public Health and over the past 3 years has sponsored two MPH Practicum students specializing in Quantitative Methods through the Department of Biostatistics. With the full support of faculty from the Department of Biostatistics, these students provided expertise and analysis for specific projects including multivariable analyses of data from the National Survey of Children’s Health regarding 1) family stress for families of children with medical complexity and 2) food insecurity for CYSHCN. This served to increase the capacity of the CYSHCN program, as well as helping add to the MCH quantitative analysis workforce.