Fairbanks School of Public Health Blog – Improving the health of Indiana and beyond

From PhD to Pandemic: Alumna Shares COVID-19 Impact

Posted on July 6, 2021 by Adrianne Robertson

By Crystal Jones

Dr. Shirley Payne, MPH 2011 Alumna

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Shirley Payne, MPH’11, has balanced her role as an adjunct faculty member at IU Bloomington with a job transition at the Indiana Department of Health (IDOH). In July 2020, she graduated with her Ph.D. in Health Behavior, her fourth degree from Indiana University. In each of these roles, she has utilized her optimistic outlook and understanding of public health and human behavior to extend grace to individuals when needed and to make a difference.

Dr. Payne, whose MPH double major focused in Epidemiology and Behavioral Health Science, believes that her epidemiology training prepared her to have an informed look at the data and the disbursement of disease. The behavioral health training underscored the impact the pandemic had on everything. In November of 2020, this understanding, combined with her educational and career achievements, helped prepare her to become the Assistant Commissioner of the Public Health Protection Commission at the IDOH after nine years of serving in the Children’s Special Health Care Services Division, including seven as the Director.

In her new role, Dr. Payne oversees the Food Protection, Environmental Public Health, Immunization, Lead and Healthy Homes, Emergency Preparedness, and Vital Records Divisions. She is excited about this role, as it allows her to use her skills and expertise in new ways.

Her ability to adapt and manage multiple priorities has helped her adjust and transition to the roles requested by the IDOH during the COVID-19 response. She has served by assisting with drive-through testing and as the vaccine project manager.

“I hope people learn how important public health is because of the pandemic. Even in typical times, it impacts everything,” she said. “The pandemic also shined a light on the social determinants of health and health equity by showing the difference in populations, the spread of disease, and access to health care all over the country.”

Dr. Payne applauds all public health professionals who have had to adapt and adjust continually throughout the pandemic. “In collaboration with my colleagues, I was able to use the public health data and education received by Fairbanks (then the Department of Public Health) to help make informed decisions. This included utilizing the data to help target the best areas to implement testing and vaccination clinics and to understand the demographics in each area to help with targeted outreach and planning. The knowledge gained from my MPH along with my experience at IDOH allowed me to understand the different roles that academia, public service, and practical experiences play in serving the public.”

Dr. Payne also recognizes the long hours, hard work, and the impact of long-term stress that individuals have experienced from the pandemic.

“When I look at the work that our team did here to ensure that individuals had PPE gear or that public health professionals had the pertinent information ready and available to share with the public, I couldn’t be more proud of our team. Not only because of their work during the pandemic, but because of the passion and belief they have in good health for all.”

Dr. Payne describes the past year as truly two years or more worth of work for many individuals who sacrificed by working double or triple the hours required to respond – missing important appointments or events and choosing to care for others and Indiana more than themselves.

It is because of this that when the nation crossed the threshold of 500,000 deaths from COVID-19, Dr. Payne declared that week a self-care week for her IU students. She encouraged them to find time to reflect and process the impact the pandemic has had on them and the world. It’s been a hard year and so many individuals lost their lives, jobs, and more.

Dr. Payne believes individuals must give themselves permission and space to mentally process the stress and even trauma, and find ways that will continuously fill them up to keep moving forward.

“I know that we may be tired, and we may be exhausted, but we all feel truly blessed to have a job that makes a difference. There are so many individuals who lost a lot during this pandemic, and every second of work my colleagues did was to prevent as many losses as possible. I’m beyond thankful to work with this team and all public health professionals in the past year.”

Alumnus Encourages Others to Embrace Communication Skills in Public Health

Posted on June 9, 2021 by Adrianne Robertson

Greg Budney, MPH’11

By Crystal Jones

When Greg Budney, MPH’11 completed his capstone course during his undergraduate program at Butler University in public relations, he began to think he might have chosen the wrong career path.

“At Butler, you had to run a public relations campaign, and my client was the Butler University Health Center,” Budney said. “They wanted to understand if eligible students would take the Gardasil HPV vaccine if offered, and if interest was high, to do an informational campaign encouraging students to take the vaccine offered at the Health Center. It allowed me to tie my formal training in public relations to my interest in science. After that, it took some time for me to find the MPH program, but when I did, I applied immediately.”

Budney encourages students and alumni with nontraditional paths seeking education and a career in public health to leverage the communication skills and confidence gained from their journey to impact the field.

“I always thought that I had an advantage over some of the science students. I was formally trained in communication and understood how to write in a non-scientific manner, but I understood the science because of my public health education. This has helped me acknowledge the data and communicate it in a meaningful way to community members and leaders.”

Budney believes interdisciplinary training is critical in public health. It has helped him and his colleagues tremendously in the messaging shared to encourage mask usage and vaccine uptake.

Reflecting on his time as a student, Greg recalls the advice he received from Professor Gregory Steele, who encouraged him to search for jobs with titles beyond “epidemiologist” and to understand the total value they gain as a student.

“While I’m technically an epidemiologist at Denver Public Health, I’m also a project manager. Students should look for positions with titles like project manager, data analyst, informaticist, or biostatistician.”

Budney also encourages students to emphasize what they have learned beyond their classroom experiences when applying for positions. “When students manage multiple classes, you have to shift gears and learn multiple things at once. The program is also an education in balancing competing priorities and time management to get everything done. You learn at a very foundational level how to carry a caseload.”

During his time as a student, Greg met one of his future supervisors, who served as a guest speaker in one of his classes. Several months after graduating, Greg saw a position was open on a job board. He reached out directly to that individual, introduced himself, reflected on the information shared by the speaker, and connected with them before applying for the position.

“Once I applied for the position, I emailed the supervisor directly and exchanged communication about my interest in the position, my classes, and my experience. And while it can be scary to email an alum or guest speaker, emailing about a job with someone you have a tangential relationship with is important because otherwise, how will they know who you are? Sometimes you hear back, and sometimes you don’t. But if you’re able to somehow connect it to how you might know them or where you might have seen a presentation of theirs, that enhances the communication you have with them. You can always find some little kernel or nugget that you can lean on to make the communication easier.”

Greg encourages students and alumni to stay connected to the school and each other. He is very open to networking with undergraduates to speak about how he got to where he is.

“I know a lot of people are always scared to reach out to alums. One of the biggest [concerns] I get on career panels is students or young alums feeling like they don’t have the skills and experience needed for a position. I’ll ask them to pump the brakes for a moment and ask them if they manage a personal budget, showing those skills transfer to managing a grant budget as well as other opportunities to transfer skillsets. I’m always happy to share little tips and tricks like that with students.”

Budney believes that it’s all about leaning on networks and staying connected to the school as alumni to not only share with others but also to improve consistently.

“I still occasionally connect to career advisors from past institutions. I believe alumni and students should use these resources as students and after graduation. In some ways, it helps everyone. The career advisor may need me to speak at a career panel but can also provide me some updated industry tricks for my resume.”

Kreg Gruber Leads Health System through COVID-19

Posted on March 25, 2021 by Adrianne Robertson

Leading in Health Care

By Maggie Scroop

Beacon Health System CEO, and IUPUI Alumnus Kreg Gruber, reflects back on a year like no other. He offers his perspective and advice as a healthcare leader, as he uses the learnings of last year to transform healthcare.

Kreg Gruber, Chief Executive Officer, Beacon Health System

Key Learnings

“It was mid-March and I was at home catching up on the evening news. There was a report in New York of a health care worker who was in tears because her hospital was not providing her with the protective equipment and materials she needed to protect herself, and therefore her son. The next morning, I told our CFO and our supply chain executive to prepare for the worst. And that we would NOT be that organization. We would protect our workers. I knew it was only a matter of time before we would be faced with what New York and others were and would experience. I continued this level of hyper vigilance throughout the year.”

Beacon’s supply chain teams immediately began building and tracking its own inventories. Due to their hard work and proactive diligence, Beacon experienced no shortages in Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), even during the peak surge of patients in October and November.

At first, 50 patients felt overwhelming to many on Beacon’s staff. But when you go from 50 to 200 in a short period of time, and you have to deliver the same high level of life-saving care, Beacon’s staff quickly recognized their ability to adapt and rise to the occasion.

“As numbers continued to rise, our concern became wear and tear on our staff, emotionally and physically. We realized that we had to ask our community to do their part to help. We met with city officials, with members of the media, and anyone else we could talk to, about how they could help slow the spread of this virus.”

“One of the things that really hit home for me through all of this is that our associates are just incredible people,” says Gruber of Beacon associates. “We all had to rely on the dedication of those around us. Each of us giving our unique talents to provide the care our community so desperately needed.”

Predictive Modeling

Beacon used predictive modeling techniques since the beginning of the pandemic, with mixed results. “No one model got it exactly right, but it was helpful information to have, as it gave us a possible target; something to work toward. Predictive modeling informed how we thought about where we were at, and how we organized ourselves as a system.”

A Light at the End of the Tunnel

“Right now, things feel pretty good, which is a reprieve from what we saw earlier in the pandemic. We have lived through the surge that took place in the fall, and while we are not yet out of the woods, we are pleased with the role we are now able to play in the distribution of the vaccines. We have a great team, who has jumped right in. Everyone who goes through our clinic raves about how easy it was to navigate, and I am optimistic about the future.”

Creating the Workforce of the Future

Beacon is working with local colleges and universities to increase the numbers of students going into clinical and other healthcare careers. “We need to figure out how we increase the number of people interested in clinical fields to help build the future workforce we will need in our area in the very near future. We are actively working to attract and recruit top clinical talent,” adds Gruber. “I also worry about people leaving their current positions due to the stress of this last year. That’s a very real possibility and we need to plan for all eventualities.”

Kreg’s Advice for Students

“One thing we all should walk away from this experience knowing, is to trust your instinct. To look at the things that keep us up at night, and make deliberate and proactive choices on how to mitigate or prepare for those scenarios.”

“The other thing that I would tell students is that I realized my job as a leader is to offer a clear, strong voice of confidence. To clearly communicate the details of supply acquisitions, or public policy, or any issue that presents itself. As a student, think about your communication capabilities to understand where you might improve. As a leader, your job is to move towards the problem, communicate clearly, and don’t ever shy away.”

“What I’ve learned throughout my career is that I cannot do this by myself. I need, and actively seek out, the support and expertise of the entire organization. I rely on great relationships and I count on others every day.”

“When people are first starting out in their career, they tend to want to dive right in and make their mark. The sooner you realize that you can’t carry it all on your own back, the sooner you will succeed as a leader.”

Students Express Thanks for Scholarship Donations (Part 3)

Posted on March 24, 2021 by Adrianne Robertson

By Catherine Jeffery

Tyler Cunningham, BSPH in Environmental Health Science

Tyler Cunningham
2020 Undergraduate Scholarship Recipient
BSPH in Environmental Health Science

Tyler Cunningham came to IUPUI in fall of 2016, originally as a chemistry major. He met someone who was an environmental health science major and they told him about the program. He knew it was exactly what he wanted to do.

As an EHS student, Tyler now understands the environmental work he can do in response to housing, agriculture and soil conditions. In 2020, he received the Undergraduate Scholarship, which is helping alleviate his student debt.

“I’ll take all the help I can get when it comes to fighting off of these loans,” Tyler said. “Each year, my federal aid keeps getting less and less.”

Tyler would like to thank everyone who donated to help make the scholarship possible.

“I really do value the scholarship and I was very happy to be selected. I’m grateful to be a part of Fairbanks and have alumni that care.”

Amadou Sylla, BSPH in Epidemiology

Amadou Sylla
2020 May’s Family RISE Scholarship Recipient
BSPH in Epidemiology

Amadou Sylla received the May’s Family RISE Scholarship in 2019 and 2020. Because of COVID-19, his hours were reduced from full-time to part-time.

“The scholarship has helped me be able to use the funds that I was going to use for tuition to pay for my utilities,” he said.

In 2019, the first scholarship covered his remaining tuition bill, “which was very helpful,” he said.

“It’s meaningful for students who come to IU from outside of the United States and who struggle to find employment as foreign students. This scholarship has helped me fund my education, and it has also helped build my resume.”

Are you a Fairbanks student who will be enrolled during the 2021-22 academic year?

Apply for 2021 FSPH Scholarships by March 26.

Students Express Thanks for Scholarship Donations (Part 2)

Posted on March 22, 2021 by Adrianne Robertson

By Catherine Jeffery

Micaela Gaviola, BSPH in Community Health and Epidemiology

Micaela Gaviola
2020 May’s Family RISE Scholarship Recipient
BSPH Community Health & Epidemiology

Micaela Gaviola is currently a double major in community health and epidemiology. After her freshman year, she loved all of the support she received in public health and how applicable each course was to life.

“With epidemiology, even though it has a reputation that you are in a desk and getting stats all day, getting feedback from your colleagues and working with community partners really motivates you to do good work and stay passionate about what you are doing,” she said. “Just emphasizing the importance of collaboration in public health is what I have taken away from both of my majors.”

For Micaela, the scholarship is helping her achieve her dream of receiving an education.

“My family immigrated from the Philippines and my parents have stressed education my entire life. My parents inspired me to do better and achieve my educational dreams and this scholarship allowed me to achieve my educational dreams and create a better future for myself.”

Micaela said she is not sure there is a way to properly thank FSPH donors enough.

“They are building futures through these donations. I’m fortunate for this financial support and I know that not everyone has this opportunity. Alumni giving has definitely made an impact on my life.”

Kaley Liang, MPH in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Kaley Liang
2020 FSPH Graduate Scholarship Recipient
MPH – Social & Behavioral Sciences Concentration

Kaley Liang went to IU Bloomington for undergraduate studies and majored in biology. “My goal was to go to med school but I was also heavily involved in a public health organization that was a big part of my undergrad experience,” Liang said.

“I decided to come to IUPUI to pursue a different masters and took an optional elective through that program.”

Since she already had an interest in public health, she took an Intro to Public Health course and loved it.

“I realized after that course, that is where I wanted to go. Dr. Jack Turman and others helped me recognize my passion and that is how I ended up here.”

Kaley said receiving the FSPH Graduate Scholarship came at a time when she had reduced hours as a server.

“This scholarship helped cover my tuition during the fall and alleviated some of the stress I felt. I knew in the summer that I received the scholarship which allowed me to focus on my school priorities during the summer instead of focusing on earning money to cover my fall tuition.”

Kaley feels FSPH is very supportive of her passions, career and studies.

“It’s incredibly heartwarming and generous. Philanthropy has allowed me to enjoy my experience more. Thank you so much to FSPH donors!”

Are you a Fairbanks student who will be enrolled during the 2021-22 academic year?

Apply for 2021 FSPH Scholarships by March 26.

Students Express Thanks for Scholarship Donations

Posted on March 10, 2021 by Adrianne Robertson

By Catherine Jeffery

Leah Amstutz, MD/MPH

Leah Amstutz
2020 FSPH Graduate Scholarship Recipient
Doctor of Medicine and Master of Public Health

Leah Amstutz applied for the MPH program the summer she started medical school, and received the FSPH Graduate Scholarship last year. She is pursuing an MPH degree to help her be more aware of the social determinants of health and influence her patients’ health.

“I believe it is essential to be mindful of these things, so I chose to pursue a concentration in Social & Behavioral Sciences,” she said.

Leah thanks FSPH donors for helping make the graduate scholarships possible. She recognizes the importance of collective action to get things done, and these donations help show the importance of giving.

“If lots of people give small amounts, it adds up and makes a difference.”

Megan Lisch
2020 Graduate Scholarship Recipient
MPH, Health Policy and Management

Megan Lisch, MPH Student at FSPH

Megan Lisch did not know about public health until she entered her undergraduate program, but knew she wanted to stay in Indiana. Today, she is a graduate student working in public health, helping to address food insecurity in Indiana. Receiving an FSPH scholarship not only helped fund an internship she completed, but it also helped cover the costs for a business certificate.

As a Fairbanks student, Megan appreciated the resources available to her. She mentioned the tobacco and opioid reports as great resources for students to utilize in their projects and work after graduation.

“Each report was helpful for academic resources and it was cool to be taught by the authors,” she said.

Megan also values the interactions she had with alumni, immediately referencing Dr. Jennifer Sullivan. Megan shadowed her as a student, and it’s a full-circle moment now that Megan is working alongside her.

“I would like to thank the donors for their support and investment in student development and growth, said Megan, who believes alumni give back to Fairbanks because of all they received from the school.

Are you a Fairbanks student who will be enrolled during the 2021-22 academic year?

Apply for 2021 FSPH Scholarships by March 26.

Establishing Contact Tracing for Indiana: Alumna Shares Her Story

Posted on March 4, 2021 by Adrianne Robertson

By Adrianne Robertson

Nicole Stone, 2016 MPH Alumna of Fairbanks School of Public Health

Nicole Stone, a 2016 graduate of the MPH in Epidemiology program at IU Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health, played an integral role in establishing contact tracing for Indiana and continues to make an impact on the state’s COVID-19 response.

She served full time on COVID-19 activities from February 2020, before the first US cases were identified, taking on a variety of supportive and leadership roles. In the spring she lead the investigations team in the Epidemiology Resource Center at the Indiana Department of Health (IDOH), and managed a team of roughly 50 staff members in assisting a subset of local health departments with completing investigations on people suspected of having COVID-19.

“We utilized a REDCap form to house the investigation and managed the entire process as things were moving to all virtual,” she said.

Eventually, Indiana decided to take a more centralized approach and Stone was tasked with building the process for investigating cases and identifying/contacting all close contacts of COVID-19.

“My input was used to build the platform we used to house this information,” Stone said. “I trained and maintained scripts for the contact tracers, and managed the workflow between development, the call center, and the local and state public health workforce.”

Stone lead the statewide contact tracing effort until November 2020 and said the effort was a success.

“The fact that Indiana was able to pull this off to meet the requirements put forth was a huge success initially. There are literally hundreds of individuals involved in contact tracing when all sides are taken into consideration, so putting something brand new together in about a month’s time was no small feat. The early work put into building the contact tracing program by the IDOH staff (including many other FSPH alumni) was truly extraordinary!”

Stone said the biggest success overall was being able to get so many different organizations with varied goals and perspectives on the same page to get contact tracing up and running.

“Before I transitioned off, I saw a lot of growth on the internal IDOH contact tracing team to understand how the process works, the flow of data, and being able to answer difficult questions and make tough decisions regarding the citizens who become cases and close contacts of COVID-19.”

Thinking back, Stone says she is proud to know that the hard work she put into developing the contact tracing program was built from public health best practices and truly kept in mind the science that was known at the time.

“We tried to stay as close to successful investigation and contact tracing activities as we could and consulted with other areas of public health and organizations to make contact tracing the best it could be in a mostly unknown situation.”

She is most proud that she was able to fully and successfully transition off the team knowing that it was in excellent hands.

“I am proud to have been a part of a once in a lifetime pandemic and did what I could to help protect the health and safety of all Hoosiers. This pandemic has opened our eyes to how vital a strong public health structure is to our communities and society, but also how bad things can get when we fail to properly fund or acknowledge best practices in public health.”

Stone thinks now more than ever, students and graduates should be proud to have chosen a field that has always been important, but also opens new doors to innovative thinking and opportunities.

“My advice would be to get out there (maybe not literally right now) and try interning, volunteering, and working in different areas of public health as much as you can. You never know when things will “click” and you will find the perfect niche for your career.”

She encourages students to apply to as many jobs as possible, as it can take a while to get where you want to go. Often, starting as an intern can lead to future opportunities.

“I know that my passion for infectious disease epidemiology is what led me to the opportunities I’ve had, and keeping that passion is what’s kept me going.”

Alumna Supports COVID-19 Response as a Traveling Epidemiologist

Posted on February 25, 2021 by Adrianne Robertson

By Crystal Jones

In June 2020, Andrea Radford, MPH’10, learned about a contract epidemiology position in Florida. As a public health professional who was actively following social distancing protocols, she decided to use her vacation time to serve as the Cancer Control Strategic Partnerships Manager at the American Cancer Society. After speaking it over with her husband, she submitted her resume and was selected by the agency to serve as a contact tracer in Florida.

When she returned, she realized how exciting it was to work in a position like that in another state, and gain a different perspective of public health outside of Indiana.

Andrea Radford, 2010 MPH Alumna of Fairbanks

Now, she is serving as a COVID Investigator in Texas. In this role, she contacts anyone who has a positive COVID test to identify if they recently traveled out of the state, visited anywhere locally, what medical risk factors there may be, and if they experienced symptoms. After collecting this information, she counsels individuals on the protocols they must follow to help stop COVID-19 spread in Texas.

“These include isolation, household contacts quarantine, and I answer any questions they may have to help provide education,” Radford said. “The most frequent question we receive is if they can contract COVID-19 again and if they’re eligible for the vaccine. And, most people are surprised to learn that if they have a family member with a positive COVID-19 test, that they must stay home for 20 days.

“Every single time I am speaking to someone, I think about my time as a student and I think about Dr. Greg Steele. He would always tell us how different public health would be if people would practice simply washing their hands. I often think about his research in various outbreaks, and rely on that education. I’m always reminding people to wear their masks and wash their hands.”

COVID-19 has impacted all nonprofits financially, and this opportunity helped Radford continue to serve the community in a different capacity.

“This is an excellent opportunity to gain experience and learn skills to collect data and provide education to the public, but the hours are long and there are different restrictions for each traveling position,” Radford said.

“There are some weeks where I’ve worked 40 hours, and there are some where I am working 57. But it’s risky. There have been outbreaks among the team I am on.”

One of the reasons these positions are available is the lack of public health workforce in the country. In addition to supporting Texas contact tracing efforts, Radford is training individuals in epidemiology work.

“Some individuals have never heard of public health before! This is new work, and this is the first time they interact with the health department and are learning about community spread,” she said.

“We are still battling COVID. We just faced a winter storm, and soon we will head into hurricane season. Public health teams, pandemic response and emergency preparedness will have to work together to ensure we can face acts of nature without an increase in COVID cases.”

As a student in Dr. Cynthia Stone’s policy class, and Radford wasn’t aware at the time just how meaningful that education would be. Having been a part of the response in three different states, she has witnessed first-hand just how essential policies are in an emergency like COVID-19.

“The policies that are in place to keep us safe matter, and having consistent policies in place can help protect us.”

While Radford does not know how long she will be supporting the response in Texas, she encourages FSPH students and alumni to be open to new opportunities. Sometimes opportunities present themselves in ways they were not expecting.

“Remember that public health is everywhere and we are always needed.”

Get Involved in a Study on Food-related Work and Health

Posted on February 10, 2021 by Adrianne Robertson

Researchers at Indiana University and the University of Washington are interviewing people working in food service, delivery, or provision to understand their work experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.

People working in the food industry (groceries, restaurants, delivery, factories) during COVID have had a higher risk of getting the illness. Through this study, researchers are aiming to find ways to create more protections for food workers.

Does your job involve food? This could be a number of things, like working at a grocery store, fast food restaurant, food delivery service, food preparation plant/factory, or a number of other jobs.
Are you 50 years of age or older?
Do you live in the state of Indiana or Washington?

If you answered yes to these three questions, Fairbanks wants to talk with you! To see if you are eligible, please take this quick survey or call 317-935-7847.

If you are eligible, someone from the study team will review more information with you about the study to see if you would like to participate in an interview.

The interview will take up to 90 minutes to complete. Each person who completes an interview will receive a $40 gift card as a thank-you for their time and participation. Learn more on our website!

A Year In Review: Fairbanks COVID-19 Research and Impact

Posted on February 3, 2021 by Adrianne Robertson

Dr. Paul K. Halverson, Founding Dean of the Fairbanks School of Public Health

By Adrianne Robertson

When the coronavirus pandemic made its way to Indiana in March of last year, Dean Paul Halverson of the IU Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health took immediate action to help with the response. Efforts led by him and researchers at Fairbanks have made an impact at the university, city and state levels, and have served as a guidepost for national leaders on COVID-19 emergency response.

Dean Halverson was asked to join IU’s executive leadership team under President Michael McRobbie’s direction that focused on incident management guidance for IU.

“We were happy to provide the public health perspective to IU as they began their quest to manage the current crisis, which ultimately resulted in our campuses closing.”

He has also worked closely with IU School of Medicine’s Dean Jay Hess and IU School of Public Health’s Dean David Allison on the university’s Restart Committee appointed by President McRobbie to provide public health guidance and medical direction for the university’s reopening.

In addition to serving the IU community, Dean Halverson and researchers at the Fairbanks School of Public Health have served as resident experts for local organizations. Dean Halverson’s team worked closely with IU Health to assist with their planning efforts for the impending national crisis.

“We created a modeling team, led by Dr. Brian Dixon and Thomas Duszynski, that focused on ultimately developing a model that could be used by hospitals, but also our public health colleagues to anticipate likely caseloads and resource needs,” said Dean Halverson, who was also joined on the team by Drs. Nir Menachemi, Constantin Yiannoutsos, and William Fadel.

Using an existing model for influenza from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a framework, the researchers built an Indiana-specific COVID-19 model.

“We used what we knew from other countries and earlier experiences in this country, Washington state most notably,” he said.

“We started working pretty collaboratively with the Indiana Hospital Association, offering webinars and assistance to all of the hospitals in the state related to doing modeling for their hospitals,” Dean Halverson said. “We also provided the state health department on a weekly basis with updated models for each of the ten preparedness districts.”

Citywide Impact and Contact Tracing

A Fairbanks Contact Tracer stands outside talking with a woman while holding a tablet, social distancing and wearing a mask. — Fairbanks contact tracers practice social distancing and wear masks when interacting with others while on the job.

The Indiana COVID-19 model opened the door for Fairbanks researchers to begin working with the Marion County Public Health Department (MCPHD) and Dr. Virginia Caine, director of the MCPHD, to provide forecasting and modeling for all of Marion County, its hospital systems and health department.

Under the leadership of Dr. Joshua Vest in the Center for Health Policy, the school provides continuing guidance to the MCPHD on matters such as reopening plans, guidance for k-12 schools and higher education institutions, and contact tracing.

As the need for contact tracing became more apparent, the MCPHD and city of Indianapolis asked to work with Fairbanks to implement contact tracing. Aiming to make contact with hard-to-reach populations within Indianapolis, the team – led by principle investigator Shandy Dearth – recognized that simply doing contact tracing by phone would not be effective.

“It was with that in mind that we entered into an agreement with the city of Indianapolis for about $10 million to actually hire up to 300 contact tracers and mount that effort,” Dean Halverson said. “My thanks to IU because they were very supportive. The people in human resources and finance, in particular, bent over backwards to accommodate our need to bring on a lot of people in a hurry to support this effort. We appreciate that.”

Statewide Prevalence Testing

Wanting to understand the potential for additional testing in Indiana, Governor Eric Holcomb also reached out to Fairbanks.

“We brought up the idea of developing randomized prevalence testing for the state where we proposed a model that would allow us determine how many people on a scientific basis actually had contracted the disease,” he said.

Within roughly three weeks’ time, the dean’s team received the governor’s buy-in and conducted the first randomized COVID-19 test.

“We were the first state in the country to actually conduct random sample testing – that’s a big deal,” Dean Halverson said. “We were the first to estimate the people who were not necessarily patients in hospitals, but who had the disease.”

Dean Halverson, Dr. Nir Menachem and Gov. Eric Holcomb gather around board table. — Dean Paul Halverson (right) and Dr. Nir Menachemi (middle) joined Governor Eric Holcomb (left) for several Governor’s Press Conferences to discuss the COVID-19 Prevalence Study.

The study’s first publication has aided greatly organizations such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in their forecasting and estimating.

Phase three of the statewide prevalence study wrapped in mid-November and results have been released.

Advocacy for Vulnerable Populations

During the statewide testing initiative, Dean Halverson’s team advocated for testing in vulnerable populations. They worked collaboratively with churches and other faith based organizations to provide testing for more diverse populations.

“That’s one of the ways in which we discovered the disproportionate positivity of populations of color, many of whom fill the roles of essential workers,” Dean Halverson said. “That was really, really important for us – to document the disparities and to recognize the special needs of populations of color.”

Sign at an FSPH COVID-19 testing site — The Fairbanks School worked collaboratively with churches and other faith based organizations in Indiana to provide testing for more diverse populations.

Dean Halverson said his team recognizes the many ways in which people of color are disenfranchised or not benefitted by mainstream public health services and how important it is to improve health equity for all.

“Public health has always been focused on health equity, but we need to continue to focus on highlighting the importance of addressing disparities.”

Amidst the pandemic, social unrest within Black communities across the nation grew, and Indiana was no exception. What started as one national emergency, quickly escalated into multiple. After protests began in Indianapolis, a resolution was brought by the chairman of the Indianapolis City-County Council to designate racism as a public health emergency and Dean Halverson spoke in strong support of the resolution.

“The importance of the resolution is that it highlights the differences in life experience and the importance of closely keeping track of progress (or lack of progress) in addressing some of the disparities that we in public health care deeply about.”

Modernization of Public Health as a Whole

In the midst of a pandemic and national emergency, the nation is recognizing that there is a need for public health attention, funding and support. Dean Halverson said the pandemic points out the vulnerability of the public health system in this country, and specifically in Indiana, and how unprepared we’ve been.

“We’ve seen almost a 30 percent reduction in public health funding for emergency preparedness and response since 2001. This is a pattern. We have a national emergency, we invest in public health, everything is over and then we begin disinvesting and reducing our commitment to public health. And when something else arises, we are surprised that our system is not as prepared as it should be.”

In a new article published by Dr. Brian Dixon, Dean Halverson and Dr. Virginia Caine, the team suggests a new organization for public health that conceptualizes health in all policies and a long-term permanent commitment to public health by our policymakers.

The researchers wrote that while public health agencies were challenged when trying to coordinate efforts during the pandemic, the lack of integrated data and the inability to rapidly analyze the data contributed to the slow response to COVID-19.

“We do not have to reinvent the wheel; a framework to address these problems already exists,” said Dean Halverson. “The Public Health 3.0 model supports a transformation of our current public health system by developing multisector coalitions, integrating health into all policies and expanding the public health workforce.”

In addition to utilizing the structure of the Public Health 3.0 framework, the researchers call for advancing U.S. public health information systems by adopting the use of interoperable electronic health records with health care organizations.

In another report, Fairbanks researchers provide an actionable framework for improving public health in Indiana that includes four recommendations to improve the system’s capacity and effectiveness.

The report, “Indiana Public Health System Review,” was led by Paul Halverson, professor and founding dean of the Fairbanks School of Public Health, and Valerie Yeager, associate professor of health policy and management with the school. They designed the report to suggest recommendations for achieving better health for Hoosiers through a more robust public health system that ensures core public health services are provided to all communities.

“COVID-19 sounded the alarm for the shortcomings of our public health system,” Dean Halverson said.

“Indiana ranks 41st of the 50 states for overall health, which is the result of our public health system being chronically underfunded and undervalued. This is the first systemwide report that comprehensively covers a wide range of best practices for state and local health departments and steps for implementation.”

Looking Ahead

Dean Halverson and researchers at the Fairbanks School of Public Health continue to share their learnings and advice to other states and universities, participating in local media interviews, international panels and forums. They are involved in countless briefings and press conferences for the governor’s office, the state and county health departments, state medical society, and chamber of commerce.

The team plans to continue working closely with local leaders, as many of the school’s researchers are involved with the state’s vaccine planning efforts.