Public Health Activities & Partnerships
Improving the Health of Indiana
through Community-Based Public Health Partnerships
The MPH Program strives to ensure that the efforts of faculty, staff and students are connected to the community-based efforts to improve the public health of local communities. Below is a listing of community organizations with which the core MPH faculty have current partnerships. MPH and other students routinely work with faculty on these initiatives. MPH students interested in learning more about these partnerships can contact the faculty members that are associated with each project.
Indiana Partnerships
Meadowood Retirement Community (Bloomington, IN)
Description: Dr. Huber has worked with Meadowood Retirement Community for 14 years. Examples of her service contributions to this agency include serving as the Secretary for the Meadowood Memorial Fund, a private Foundation established at Meadowood for the purpose of supporting residents who may have outlived their assets and activities that fall beyond the scope of what the corporation would normally provide. She also provides lectures and works with student volunteers.
Bell Trace Retirement Community (Bloomington, IN)
Description: Dr. Huber has worked with Bell Trace Retirement Community for 14 years. Examples of recent public health service activities include providing lectures for residents on topics such as “Strategies for Improving Your Memory,” coordinating and working with student volunteers and interns, providing educational training for staff, and conducting tours of the IU Living Lab for Bell Trace residents.
Monroe County Health Department (Bloomington, IN)
Description: Dr. Ona was part of the MoCHA health assessment and provided expertise using GIS and RS. He was involved in 11 town hall meetings and creating a health atlas using morbidity and mortality data from partnering groups including Bloomington Hospital, Monroe Hospital, Stonebelt, and United Way.
Bloomington Hospital of Orange County (Paoli, IN)
Description: For a year and a half, Dr. Sherwood-Laughlin coordinated and implemented a community needs assessment in Orange County, IN. This project was a collaborative effort between Bloomington Hospital, Indiana State Department of Health and Indiana University. She coordinated the development of the needs assessment, data analysis and dissemination of the results.
St. Vincent Health of Jennings County (North Vernon, IN)
Description: Dr. Sherwood-Laughlin collaborated with St. Vincent Health of Jennings County in 2008 on the implementation of a community health needs assessment in Jennings County Indiana. She assisted with the development of the needs assessment, data analysis and dissemination of the results. Dr. Sherwood-Laughlin, in collaboration with an MPH student, presented the results of the needs assessment to community leaders and key individuals.
Volunteers in Medicine of Monroe County (Bloomington, IN)
Description: Dr. Sherwood-Laughlin assisted with the planning of a patient education program for clients with chronic conditions who utilized Volunteers in Medicine clinic in Bloomington, IN. Implementation and evaluation of the patient education program will took place in 2009-2010. This project is a collaborative effort between Indiana University, Volunteers in Medicine and AmeriCorps.
Monroe County Community School Corporation (MCCSC) (Bloomington, IN)
Description: Since 2004, Dr. Sherwood-Laughlin has provided service to MCCSC, related to coordinating needs assessments in the areas of sexual health and the coordinated school health program. She assisted with the implementation of the School Health Institute’s needs assessments at the two local middle schools and developed reports based on the results and a report outlining grant opportunities for the schools to research for implementation funding. She also coordinated the development a survey instrument for middle and high school students to address knowledge, attitudes and behaviors surrounding sexuality. Dr. Sherwood-Laughlin was responsible for data collection and dissemination. The results of this project lead to a number of community presentations about the project and increased knowledge about sexual health issues among adolescents.
Ruth Lilly Center for Health Education (Indianapolis, IN)
Description: From 2006 to 2008, Dr. Sherwood- Laughlin assisted with the data entry and analysis of tobacco education program implemented in central Indiana middle and high schools. Data was collected via pre/post and six week follow-up survey from students who participated in the educational program. A final report was developed for the Tobacco Free Youth middle school program (for both students who participated at the Center and students who received the program in their schools) and the Up In Smoke high school program.
Bloomington Hospital (Bloomington, IN)
Description: Dr. Ona provided technical and advisory support on the True Time Study for the Bloomington Hospital.
IU Division of Residential Programs and Services (Bloomington, IN)
Descriptions: Dr. Middlestadt has been involved with the IU Division of Residential Programs (IU RPS) and Services since 2005. She has served IU RPS with support to assess what services might be used by Indiana University students who live in on-campus housing.
Bloomington Hospital Positive Link (Bloomington, IN)
Description: During 2008, Dr. Reece and Dr. Dodge worked closely with Bloomington Hospital Positive Link to help conduct a needs assessment of HIV risk behaviors among young men who have sex with men and are currently engaged in helping Positive Link to use the data from that study to complete an application for funding that will be help the agency to implement a community-based risk reduction intervention. In 2006, Dr. Reece served as the invited keynote speaker to kickoff the Bloomington AIDS Walk at the request of Positive Link. During previous years, 2001-2007, Dr. Reece has consulted with Positive Link on program development and program evaluation efforts.
Bellflower STD/STI Screening Clinic (Indianapolis, IN)
Description: Dr. Dodge is a behavioral scientist consultant and partner working on several research and community-based sexual health testing, treatment, and care initiatives based at the Bell Flower Clinic (Indiana University School of Medicine and the Marion County Health Department) in Indianapolis. He serves on the Sexual Health Testing in the Clinic and Community (SHTICC) committee – a program aimed at making STI diagnostic and treatment options more widely available in the Indianapolis community. He also conducts semi-annual lectures in the STD Fellows’ Seminar in the School of Medicine on sexual health among men who have sex with men (MSM).
Damien Center UNISON Project (Indianapolis, IN)
Description: Dr. Dodge is a behavioral scientist consultant and partner of the UNISON project, a collaboration among the Center for Sexual Health Promotion, The Damien Center, and the Bethlehem House in Indianapolis. The aim of this partnership is to respond to the lack of academic-community partnerships focused on HIV prevention and care in Indiana. In 2008-2009, Dr. Dodge conducted a series of trainings for a community outreach project aimed at understanding the needs and providing sexual health services to street-based female, male, and transgender commercial sex workers in Indianapolis. The Damien Center is also a collaborative partner in a new federally funded project entitled “Sexual Health among Bisexual Men” being led by Dr. Dodge.
Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Agency (Indianapolis, IN)
Description: Dr. Torabi was a Gubernatorial Appointment to be a Member of the Executive Board of Directors to oversee policies, budget, strategic planning, and implementation and evaluation of tobacco education, prevention, and cessation for the State of Indiana.
Indiana State Department of Health (Indianapolis, IN)
Description: Dr. Torabi serves on the Advisory Board to the Indiana State Health Commissioner, with regard to block grant disposition and oversight of expenditures for building infrastructure for State of Indiana public health.
National Partnerships
Positive Impact, Inc. (Atlanta, GA)
Description: Dr. Reece has worked closely with Positive Impact, a community-based organization, since 1997. This agency provides mental health care to individuals living with HIV who would otherwise lack the resources for such care. Since 2001, Dr. Reece has served as the lead evaluator for all of Positive Impact’s clinical programs and been responsible for assisting the agency to improve its data management systems, particularly those used to monitor client retention in care. Dr. Reece has also volunteered as a grant writer for Positive Impact since 2001.
Community Healthcare Network (New York, NY)
Description: Dr. Middlestadt has worked on a joint service project involving Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center (New York, NY), Community Healthcare Network (New York, NY), Lutheran Medical Center (New York, NY), Montefiore Medical Center (New York, NY), University of Miami (Miami, FL). She has guided the sites in developing approaches to encourage HIV positive individuals that were immigrants from the Caribbean to seek care in a timely fashion.
Academy for Educational Development (Washington, DC)
Description: Dr. Middlestadt has been involved with a variety of service over the years, including helping the Academy for Educational Development obtain funds to implement public health projects like youth improved eating and physical activity, international reproductive health programs, and breastfeeding programs. She has also provided input on evaluation plans, reviewed documents produced for CDC and for USAID on programmatic implications, and provided names and input on candidates for positions.
International Partnerships
Academic Model for the Prevention and Treatment of HIV/AIDS (AMPATH) (Kenya)
Description: Dr. Reece has worked with the Academic Model for the Prevention and Treatment of HIV/AIDS (AMPATH) program in rural western Kenya since 2003. Dr. Reece’s primary service contributions have been related to working with AMPATH’s psychosocial support groups to help them develop evaluation protocols, develop data management systems for evaluation, and general consulting with the support groups on the overall implementation of a large HIV-related support group program. Dr. Reece has also volunteered to teach graduate courses for the Moi University School of Public Health, both in 2005 and 2007. On three occasions, MPH students have accompanied Dr. Reece to Kenya for service-learning experiences. Dr. Herbenick also has volunteered with AMPATH, spending four weeks in Kenya in 2007 consulting with community partners on their development of a woman’s focused HIV and reproductive health clinic. Dr. Herbenick also volunteered to teach a graduate course for the Moi University School of Public Health in 2007.
Cluster Ecoturistico Constanza (Dominican Republic)
Description: Dr. Robert Goodman and Dr. Fernando Ona work with Dr. David Compton (from the Department of Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Studies) in collaboration with the Cluster Ecoturistico Constanza in the Dominican Republic. The Cluster is a group composed of local business and hotel owners supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Dominican Sustainable Tourism Alliance (DSTA), a destination of the Global Sustainable Tourism Alliance (GSTA). The USAID supported initiative seeks to stimulate economic development in the region through ecotourism. The Cluster has a larger mission of improving community health and alleviating poverty. In this context, the collaboration with the Cluster Ecoturistico Constanza aims to contribute to the local development efforts through a collaboration that has three components: (1) community health, (2) environmental health, (3) and economic development through sustainable tourism. In addition to the Cluster, the team is collaborating with local government agencies and the municipal hospital Dr. Pedro A. Cespedes. This initiative aims to improve community health, reduce infectious diseases, and understand the burden of agrochemical exposures on the health of community members. This collaboration includes faculty and student exchanges, trainings, the provision of technical assistance, and service, teaching and research activities using a participatory approach.
