Public Health Infrastructure


Global One Health initiative (GOHi)

Development of global public health infrastructure requires multi-disciplinary, cross-national, and collaborative investments and efforts. The Center for HOPES is proud to serve as part of The Ohio State University’s consortium of partners from Brazil, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mexico, Tanzania, Thailand, and Uganda that constitute the Global One Health initiative (GOHi). GOHi works to build capacity within cross-cutting issues including zoonotic diseases, antimicrobial resistance, cancer, maternal and child health, medicinal plants, food safety and curriculum twinning, and sharing information through innovative e-learning technology. The Ohio State University and GOHi are part of the CDC’s Global Action in Healthcare Network (GAIHN), a global collaboration that addresses emerging threats in healthcare settings through rapid detection and response. The Center for HOPES provides monitoring and evaluation support on GOHi activities.

 

Building community capacity for health equity

The Center for HOPES is a subgrantee on a CDC-funded project with the City of Columbus and the Center for Public Health Innovation. The Center has a contract to provide support for strategic planning and evaluation of community partnerships in service of enhancing the city’s response to racism as a public health crisis. We work directly with the Executive Officer, who provides recommendations to the Mayor of Columbus.

 

Supporting community engagement in research

The Center for HOPES is excited serve on the Wexner Medical Center’s Community Engagement Workgroup (CEW). Dr. Joshua Joseph convened the group, which is primarily made up of clinicians, to improve the relevance of clinical trials by incorporating community engaged research practices. Dr. Joseph invited the participation of the Center because of our track record in working across the university and with communities to conduct community-informed and -driven projects. The CEW provides a setting in which Center staff help clinicians understand how to engage communities in trials in ways that prioritize the agency and values of the community itself while maintaining the integrity of the research process.

 


Public Health and Social Services Evaluation Certificate Program

In the spring of 2021 (May 10-June 18), the Center for HOPES piloted this non-degree certificate program for public health and social service professionals and researchers. The aim of the self-paced, virtual course is to address fear or resistance to program evaluation and empower the public health and social services work force to use data to assess programmatic needs and ultimately, to improve population health.

Through a series of asynchronous modules and activities, supplemented by synchronous office hours and group discussions, participants learn about best practices in program evaluation and refine their skill in thinking critically about the connections between investments, practice, and outcomes.

The inaugural cohort for the Introductory modules of this program included 27 students from diverse professional backgrounds, including community health workers, social workers, program managers, epidemiologists, and health services policy analysts.

The pilot of the Introductory modules is the first step in an effort to develop a three-level course in program evaluation for public health and social services professionals. The Center for HOPES is committed to providing high-impact educational programming to sustain and advance the public health workforce.

Read Center for HOPES launches evaluation certificate (Center for HOPES News, 6/29/21) for interviews with two members of the inaugural cohort.

 


Introductory Modules

Introduction to Public Health Evaluation

  • Understand the basic concepts and differences in evaluation, quality improvement, surveillance, community needs assessments, community health improvement plans, strategic plans, etc.
  • Be able to determine the right kind of evaluation necessary and feasible for any given public health program or initiative
  • Understand the basic tenets of evaluation: ethics in research, use of PII and ensuring confidentiality and consent (HIPAA, etc.), to IRB or not to IRB, culturally responsive evaluation

Designing Program Evaluation

  • Be able to develop a Logic Model based off PH Framework (i.e. Engaging stakeholders, etc.)
  • Be able to develop/formalize performance measures
  • Be able to design program evaluation components

Implementing Program Evaluation

  • Learn to create an Outcomes & Evidence Framework based off of your logic model
  • Be able to map your data collection strategies to your OEF
  • Be able to choose the right data collection method per necessary data

 


Intermediate Modules

Enrolling now for November 2 – December 10, 2021!

View full details for Intermediate pilot

Register by emailing Anne Trinh by Friday, October 15. 

 


Advanced Modules

Coming Spring 2022

 


About the Instructor

Veronica Kapnick, PhD is a monitoring, evaluation and learning professional with over fifteen years’ experience working in non-profit and government sectors. Veronica specializes in formative, developmental and summative evaluation, and the implementation, execution, and management of performance measures, quality assurance protocols and impact monitoring strategies, including the facilitation and articulation of Theory of Change and logic models, and their accompanying outcomes and evidence frameworks.  Veronica is a trained sociologist and is certified in Results Based Accountability and human-centered design with many years’ experience facilitating cross-sector collaborative action and stakeholder engagement. In the past, Veronica taught graduate Research Methods at the City University of New York’s Murphey Institute School of Labor and Urban Studies, and has successfully designed and executed research studies and program evaluations in the areas of public health, youth and workforce development, education, community revitalization and urban planning, collaborative action, and financial inclusion and empowerment. Veronica came to be the course instructor after working with Dr. Saira Nawaz on an evaluation of a state-wide contact tracing program and shares a love of “doing evaluation in the real world” with her colleagues at the Center for HOPES.

Anne Trinh, MPH serves as a Community Engagement Specialist and Evaluator for the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Evaluation Studies. Before joining the College of Public Health, Anne served as maternal and child health epidemiologist and program manager at Columbus Public Health. During her seven years with the city, she performed outbreak investigations and developed and led community coalitions to work with diverse partners to reduce Franklin County’s infant mortality rate. She is also Senior Program Manager for the university’s Addiction Innovation Fund and provides instructional support for the Evaluation Certificate program.