Iowa has made progress in its efforts to recruit and retain program level epidemiologists. Prior to 2021 the State of Iowa did not have a job classification for Epidemiologists. Title V staff at the federal level as well as past reviewers have highlighted this fact as a challenge.

The Bureau of Family Health has had a long lasting relationship with the CDC. Dr. Debra Kane has been the MCH Epi Assignee since 2005.  As the result of the new classification, three epidemiologists have been added to the team, Brooke Mehner, and Claire Carlson. Brooke Mehner has been providing epidemiologic support as the PRAMS Data Analyst and Oral Health Epidemiologist since 2017. We currently have a vacancy in one epidemiologist position that supports the child health and newborn screening programs.

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 initiatives, 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. More recently, Dr. Kane has been representing the Bureau of Family Health on the Syndromic Surveillance Team. In this role she is developing a business case for the Bureau’s involvement in Syndromic Surveillance and developing and testing relevant case definition in ESSENCE. Dr. Kane’s recent peer-reviewed publications include:

Dr. Kane’s recent agency level publications and presentations include:

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 uses 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:
 

Claire Carlson received her Bachelor of Science in Nutritional Science from Iowa State University in 2020 and her Master of Public Health in Epidemiology from the University of Iowa in 2022. Claire recently joined the Iowa Department of Public Health as an Epidemiologist in February of 2022. Prior to joining the Department, Claire worked as a local COVID-19 Contact Tracer and a Maternal and Child Health Research Assistant.

Currently, Claire serves the Home Visiting team by providing epidemiological support, leading continuous quality improvement initiatives, creating reports for HRSA and program use, and planning for the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting program (MIECHV) coordinated state evaluation. Additionally, Claire manages contracts for two local implementing agencies and for the home visiting data system, DAISEY. Claire provides survey development, data analysis, and data visualizations for the program’s benefit. In collaboration with Dr. Kane for her applied practice experience, Claire discovered a useful indicator for maternal transfusions in the state of Iowa using administrative data. She will also serve as a home visiting representative to the Safe Sleep Initiative at the Department. Claire’s specific research interests include safe sleep, breastfeeding, maternal mental health, severe maternal morbidities, and data communication.

The Iowa Title V CYSHCN program does not employ dedicated epidemiologists, however staff have significant expertise in data management and analysis. A total of 0.6 FTE is dedicated to data analysis, which includes time from two Program Managers, a Program Coordinator, and an Electronic Medical Records Specialist. With an MPH in Public Health Policy and Administration, emphasis in Family and Child Health from the University of Michigan, Jean Willard, manages the Title V CYSHCN program and brought 17 years of professional experience in research, evaluation, data collection, and analysis prior to joining DCCH in 2013. Ms. Willard’s experience includes health policy data analysis for statewide programs including Medicaid and CHIP, and the Iowa Child and Family Household Health Survey (2000, 2005, 2010). Jennifer Cook, Associate Director of DCCH has an MPH in Community and Behavioral Health from the University of Iowa and has primary responsibilities for evaluation activities. Over the past 10 years, Ms. Cook has managed evaluations for numerous projects funded through SAMHSA, HRSA, and state entities including the Iowa Department of Human Services. Qualitative data analysis is provided by an experienced Program Coordinator with an MPH in Community and Behavioral Health.

DCCH data activities rely heavily on data retrieved through Electronic Medical Records. Extracting data from Electronic Medical Records in a format that is useful for data analysis purposes is provided through invaluable support and expertise from Deanna Wahl. Additionally, the program is part of the University of Iowa, and has regular access to biostatisticians from the University of Iowa Department of Biostatistics when additional support or advice is necessary. The CYSHCN program has a relationship with the College of Public Health and over the past several years has sponsored 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 data analysis projects including multivariable analyses of data from the National Survey of Children’s Health regarding family stress for families of children with medical complexity and food insecurity for CYSHCN. This relationship serves to increase the capacity of the CYSHCN program, as well as helping add to the MCH quantitative analysis workforce.