2013 Community Health Conference
September 25-27, 2013
Cragun’s Conference Center, Brainerd
Sponsored by the State Community Health Services Advisory Committee (SCHSAC) and the Minnesota Department of
Health Office of Performance Improvement.
Minnesota’s overall health ranking from the United Health
Foundation has slipped from first to fifth in the past decade.
Working together, we can do better. We must look beneath
the averages to reveal the complexity and health challenges
faced by populations and communities in our state.
Currently, all Minnesotans do not have an equal opportunity
to be healthy. This can be seen in each area of public health
responsibility. What trends do we need to address to make
Minnesota the healthiest state again? Our health has been
impacted by five key things: increasing diversity distributed
unevenly throughout the state, persistent health disparities;
decreasing investment in public health, decreasing
investment in education (an important predictor of health),
and a lack of understanding about what creates health.
2013 Community Health Conference participants will explore
these ideas with other public health leaders from state and
local health departments, city and county government, tribal
nations, and community health organizations. The Healthy
Minnesota 2020 Statewide Health Improvement Framework,
developed by the Healthy Minnesota Partnership, will serve as
our guide.
The framework seeks to generate action based on factors that
create health rather than on disease and other health
outcomes. The framework invites everyone in Minnesota to
participate in creating a healthy future for our state.
 Connect emerging national and state public health issues
to public health at the community level,
 Discover creative ways colleagues are approaching public
health practice,
 Increase skills to engage diverse communities in public
health partnership, and
 Improve knowledge of health disparities and their impact
on achieving health equity.
Concurrent Sessions: Series C
SCHSAC Executive Committee Meeting
SCHSAC Meeting
Community Health Awards Ceremony
Resource Displays, Refreshment Break
General Session: Shawna Suckow
General Session: Rex Archer
Community Health Awards Reception
Dinner
Breakfast
Breakfast
Opening and Welcome: William Groskreutz
General Session: Shawna Suckow
General Session: State Agency Panel
Resource Displays, Refreshment Break
Concurrent Sessions: Series A
Concurrent Sessions: Series B
Lunch
Concurrent Sessions: Series D
Resource Displays, Refreshment Break
Remarks: Larry Kittelson
General Session: Shawna Suckow
Closing Comments: Commissioner Ed Ehlinger
General Session: Syl Jones
Conference Adjourns, Lunch with “To Go” Option
Shawna Suckow has been planning meetings and events since 1992. In 2008, she founded SPIN, the
Senior Planners Industry Network, which is now the world’s largest association for senior-level
planners. Honors include being named to Successful Meetings Magazine's Top 25 Most Influential in
the Meetings Industry in 2012 and 2013, being named one of the Top 8 Speakers of 2013 by
MeetingsNet, and one of the Top 10 Women Influencers in Meetings & Events in 2012. She's published
two books: Planner Pet Peeves in 2012, followed in 2013 by Supplier Pet Peeves. Shawna has written for
several industry publications and spoken worldwide to industry audiences. Her philosophy:
“What are you waiting for? Take the risk, or you will never know what could have been.”
Ed Ehlinger
Commissioner,
Department of
Health
Tom Landwehr
Commissioner,
Department of
Natural
Resources
John Linc Stine
Commissioner,
Pollution
Control Agency
Dr. Rex Archer is the Director of the Kansas City Health Department in Kansas City, Missouri. Rex plays
a part in health care throughout Kansas City and the country. He has been an advocate for smoke-free
workplaces, and his work has led to legislation in Missouri and beyond. He is dedicated to preventing
the need for health care. In his role as Kansas City's Director of Health, Archer studies risk factors that
place people in the health system. He is a past president of the National Association of County and
City Health Officials (NACCHO), and is currently a member of the Public Health Accreditation Board
(PHAB). In January 2013, Rex participated in PHAB's Health Equity Think Tank, which discussed best
practices in health equity for public health. The Kansas City Health Department became nationally
Syl Jones is an award-winning transformational thinker, journalist, playwright, and video producer. He
writes for corporations and nonprofits and, from 1994-2004, authored a widely read opinion column
for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Syl lives by his personal mission statement, aiming to "bring clarity to
people about complex issues." He consults with various organizations about change management,
employee engagement, and diversity and inclusion. His adaptation of George Schuyler’s Black No More
won the Kennedy Center Prize for New Plays, and he recently scripted a film for HealthPartners on
health care disparities in the African-American community. Syl currently serves as Director of Mixed
Blood Theatre’s On the Job program, which provides customized theatrical presentations to address
issues of inclusion in the public and private sectors.
Charles Zelle
Commissioner,
Department of
Transportation
A1
Adapting an
B1
Learn and Live:
C1
Promoting a
D1
All Our Babies:
Evidence-Based
Cancer Education and
Preventive Health Culture
Improving Rural Birth
Curriculum for the
Screening in the Hmong
in the Latino Community
Outcomes in Minnesota
Somali Community
Community
Lakeshore 4
Lakeshore 1
Lakeshore 2
Lakeshore 1
A2
B2
C2
D2
Playing in the Same
“You Helped Me to
The Role of
Preparing for our
Sandbox: Hospitals and
Be Healthy”: A Public
Local Health Departments
Future by Linking
CHBs Working Together
Health Nurse’s Role in an
in Addressing Health
Succession Planning
on Community Health
Adult Literacy Center
Inequity
and Diversity
Assessment
Paul Bunyan 2
Lakeshore 2
Lakeshore 2
B3
C3
D3
Paul Bunyan 2
A3
Cross-Jurisdictional
Minnesota’s State
Accelerating
Upstream Health:
Sharing: Practical Tips and
Innovation Model (SIM)
Community Engagement
Health in All Policies as a
True Stories
Grant: Opportunities for
to Expand Health Equity:
Catalyst for Change
Paul Bunyan 1
Local Public Health
SHIP 3.0 Framework
Lakeshore 3
Lakeshore 2
Paul Bunyan 3
B4
C4
A4
Move More: The
Staying Power:
Adverse Childhood
D4
Nutrition on a
Power of Physical Activity
Building Sustainable
Experiences in Minnesota:
Mission: A Public-Private
to Improve Health and
Collaborations
How Communities can
Partnership that will
Academic Performance
Lakeshore 4
Reduce ACEs and
Change the Health of
Build Resilience
Minnesota Forever
Lakeshore 3
Paul Bunyan 1
C5
D5
Lakeshore 1
A5
Circle of Health: A
B5
The Infant Mortality
Catch Up with the
The Weigh-In: Clinics,
Partnership between the
Crisis in Minnesota’s
Minnesota Chlamydia
Health Plans, and Commu-
Medical Community and
African-American
Partnership
nity Partners Achieving
Public Health
Community
Paul Bunyan 2
Healthy Weights for Kids
Lakeshore 3
Lakeshore 3
A6
B6
The Great Flood of
Pairing Powerful
Lakeshore 4
C6
Child Sexual Abuse:
the North: Behavioral
Public Narratives and
Through a Mother’s Lens
Health Response
Policies to Advance
Paul Bunyan 1
and Recovery
Health Equity
Paul Bunyan 3
Paul Bunyan 1
A7
B7
Creating a Victim-
Suicide Prevention:
C7
Disparities Related to
Centered Response to
Hope for Today, Promise
Sexual Orientation and
Trafficked Youth
for Tomorrow
Gender Identity: LGBTQ
Lakeshore 4
Paul Bunyan 3
Health in Minnesota
Lakeshore 1
Recognition of the accomplishments of local and state
public health staff and elected officials has long been a
highlight of the annual conference. Commissioner Ed
Ehlinger will present these awards Wednesday evening.
A reception with dinner-worthy hot and cold appetizers
will be served immediately following the ceremony.
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The Healthy Minnesota 2020 Statewide Health
Improvement Framework advocates a conversation about
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health that involves all sectors of Minnesota communities,
so that together we can create the conditions that assure
all people can be healthy. Ed Ehlinger is the current
Commissioner of Health; he will be joined by state agency
commissioners in discussing what their departments do to
create opportunities for health.
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Networking is the number one reason Minnesota public
health professionals say they attend the Community
Health Conference. Shawna Suckow will focus on
increasing networking skills and engaging conference
participants in new ways to form partnerships.
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The National Diabetes Prevention Program is an evidencebased curriculum, but in practice, this curriculum has not
been a perfect fit for the Somali clients served by Wellshare
International. The presenters will offer insights into novel
ways to use evaluation findings to improve services to your
target population, and discuss how they used religion-based
health messages and revamped messages about food
groups, calories, and culturally-specific foods.
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Since Minnesota CHBs and private, non-profit hospitals
must complete community health assessments, both have
identified the value of working together. Each gains much
by collaborating on collecting data, identifying priorities,
and developing a shared vision for the community’s health.
In this session, three health departments will share their
successes and lessons learned in partnering with hospitals.
You won’t want to miss this fun, interactive play session with
a former Farmington Education Association Teacher of the
Year, to learn how movement improves math and reading
scores. The Move More initiative has provided an
opportunity for public health and local school districts to
focus on the interconnection between physical activity,
health, and academic achievement. At this session, you will
learn how to work successfully with schools to make
sustainable changes to increase physical activity. A media
presentation will highlight additional teachers’ stories about
how this has impacted fitness and test scores in Dakota
County.
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Circle of Health is a public-private and medical-community
project initiated by Dr. Zook’s Stearns-Benton Medical
Society to address community health issues. Presenters will
outline how data mobilized the local medical society to
focus on pertussis, with an expanded, future goal of
improving the health in Benton and Stearns counties. While
this project is in its beginning phase, it sets the stage for
discussions to more successfully integrate medical care and
public health services.
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Minnesota is one of 16 recipients of a two-year grant
designed to help health departments explore how crossjurisdictional sharing might better equip them to fulfill their
mission of protecting and promoting the health of the
communities they serve. This interactive panel discussion
will feature current local cross-jurisdictional sharing projects
that enable health departments to share programs, services,
and resources. Presenters will talk about the continuum of
options for cross-jurisdictional sharing, stakeholders, lessons
learned so far, and factors for success.
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Is your community prepared for all aspects of a disaster?
Presenters will discuss the community behavioral health
response and recovery to the June 2012 flooding in
northeast Minnesota. Participants will learn about the
phases of disaster mental/behavioral health response and
recovery, and hear about the local and regional long-term
community behavioral health recovery grants and services
that are currently being provided to communities impacted
by the flood.
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In 2011, Minnesota passed a law that decriminalizes
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prostitution offenses for youth under 18. The
The State Innovation Model (SIM) grant is an important step
implementation of the Safe Harbor Law is a huge shift in our
forward in an effort to improve the health of all
state, in terms of how we view and respond to victims of
Minnesotans. It aims to help transform the system for
trafficking—similar to when our state changed our laws and
delivering and paying for health care; integrating medical,
response to victims of domestic violence. Attendees will
public health, and human service systems; and rethinking
learn about the law and the response that the community
the definition and measurement of health. Learn more
worked together to develop, “No Wrong Door to Services
about SIM grant implementation with presenters who will
for Sexually Exploited Youth.”
emphasize "on the ground" experiences with community
care teams and electronic health records/information
technology adoption. Participants will also learn about
opportunities for local public health to create accountable
communities for health.
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The Hmong American Partnership launched its first breast
and cervical cancer project, Learn and Live: Kev To Taub
Yuav Cawm Tau Koj Txoj Sia, in 2011. Learn and Live is
currently the only Hmong breast and cervical health
program to operate at a local and national level and to be
driven by a Hmong organization. Learn about the multigenerational family approach used to reach participants and
engage them in cancer screening and education.
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Private-public partnerships can implement of innovative
solutions to better meet the health needs of communities
by combining and building on mutual assets. This session
features three partnership models implemented by MDH
Eliminating Health Disparities Initiative (EHDI) grantees.
Models include: a partnership to improve immunization
rates; a partnership to implement programming at different
sites including a faith community, school, and community
agency; and a partnership to guide practice and advocate
for change, where partners meet regularly to share best
practices.
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Olmsted County Public Health has partnered with an adult
literacy program with 1,500 learners from over 40 countries,
and provides the program with a school public health nurse
(PHN). The PHN provides health education activities linked
to the curriculum, and refers individual learners to
community health resources. The PHN’s presence has
enhanced emergency preparedness outreach to persons
with low English literacy, improved adult flu vaccine rates,
and helped to implement a tuberculosis screening program.
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Hear recommendations, made from a community
perspective, on ways to improve poor birth outcomes.
Community Voices and Solutions Advisory Group (CVAS) is
a partnership between three components of the Minnesota
Department of Health and representatives of Minnesota’s
African-American community, which aims to improve the
overall quality of life of African-American mothers and
children. New research links maternal and infant health
disparities among African-Americans in Minnesota to
significant life stressors during pregnancy.
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Presenters from St. Mary’s Health Clinics (SMHC) will share
their successful, multi-sector, collaborative model of
The narratives that currently dominate public discussions
outreach, which provides diabetes prevention activities and
and policy development center on health care and
education to Latino immigrants in trusted community
individual behavior. This prevents decision makers from
settings. SMHC has successfully partnered with faith
recognizing the role played by policies that support
organizations and the Consulates of Mexico and Ecuador, to
education, economic opportunity, and neighborhood
promote a preventive health culture that strengthens the
conditions. The Healthy Minnesota Partnership is doing
Latino community’s overall health by tailoring health
groundbreaking work to change the public conversation
outreach activities to be more culturally appropriate and
about health, by drawing attention to the diverse public and
accessible. SMHC is based in the Twin Cities Metro Area, but
private policies that create and improve health. Gain new
also travels to Greater Minnesota.
skills for advancing health equity by pairing powerful public
narratives with policy.
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What do we mean when we talk about health equity and
The number of suicide deaths in Minnesota has increased
health disparities? What are local health departments doing
since 2000 and, in 2008, surpassed the number of deaths
to address health inequity? What are the challenges and
from motor vehicle crashes. Suicide may stem from a
barriers to initiating and sustaining health equity efforts at
combination of factors, such as mental illness, substance
the local level? Presenters conducted key informant
abuse, culture, and adverse childhood experiences.
interviews with local public health directors and local public
Significant advances have allowed gatekeepers and health
health staff throughout Minnesota, to better understand the
care professionals to better identify individuals at risk for
readiness, capacity, and current efforts of local health
suicidal behavior, and refer them to science-based
departments to address health inequities.
treatment. In addition, using recommended communication
strategies can convey messages of help, hope, and
resiliency. Learn how one Minnesota suicide prevention
program used these strategies to engage its community and
implement a public health-based prevention plan.
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Minnesota continues to rank as one of the healthiest states
in the United States, but persistently has some of the
greatest health disparities, due to institutionalized racial bias
and significant inequities in income, education, housing, and
resources. The Minnesota Department of Health intends to
address these inequalities by prioritizing health equity in the
third round of the Statewide Health Improvement Program
and her daughter is told after many years of healing,
(SHIP 3.0). Learn about this new health equity framework
processing, and seeking solutions to end child sexual abuse.
that introduces strategies and builds skills to engage
Their story about surviving the abuse—and the responses
communities as they develop solutions to improve health.
from family, community, and systems—is told with the hope
Come prepared to discuss what would need to happen in
that focusing on the behaviors of perpetrators will result in
your community to improve health equity. This is not a SHIP
closing the gap between current responses to child sexual
grantee training session.
abuse and what survivors really need.
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Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ)
The scientific community has come to understand that
compared with non-LGBTQ residents. However, because
childhood experiences significantly shape the developing
most health research does not ask about sexual orientation
brain, and impact lifelong health and well-being. Adverse
or gender identity, LGBTQ health disparities have remained
childhood experiences (ACEs) like abuse, neglect, and
relatively invisible until recently. This session will present
exposure to household dysfunction are linked to poor
results of the first-ever statewide LGBTQ health survey. This
physical and mental health, chronic disease, lower
presenter, representing the only organization collecting
educational achievement and economic success, and
health data on LGBTQ community in Minnesota, will teach
impaired social success in adulthood. Learn how
participants ways to effectively advocate for LGBTQ health.
Minnesotans experience significant health disparities when
communities have reduced ACEs, and built resilience in their
populations.
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Chlamydia is the most frequently reported sexually transmitted infection in Minnesota, and has reached epidemic
proportions; approximately one-third of the state’s cases are
reported from Greater Minnesota. Presenters will discuss the
collaboration between the Minnesota Chlamydia Partner-
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Shawna will get attendees energized for the afternoon by
engaging first-time participants and conference veterans to
exchange ideas.
ship, the Minnesota Department of Health, local health
departments, and four Minnesota health plans to increase
screening and treatment through provider training and
utilization of a new Chlamydia Screening Provider Toolkit for
clinics, public health, and/or community agencies.
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Rex Archer will share the Kansas City Health Department’s
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Sandy Davidson is an enrolled member of the White Earth
Band of Ojibwe and the mother of Cristine, a survivor of
long-term child sexual abuse. This presentation by a mother
response to community dissatisfaction with the limitations
of current public health interventions. This department’s
novel approach to creating community partnerships for
health has led to innovative health improvement strategies,
and created numerous allies who understand and value the
role of governmental public health. Rex is a national public
health leader who is firmly grounded in the realities of
informal conversations. Bring questions that you would like
operating a local public health department—expect to be
to discuss, and emerging issues that affect your
challenged and to leave with concrete ideas to bring back to
communities that you would like to share. All are welcome!
your own setting. The Kansas City Health Department
became nationally accredited by PHAB in August 2013.
Please join the Minnesota Public Health Association (MPHA)
for a special screening of the documentary
The Waiting Room, which goes behind the doors of an
American public hospital struggling to care for its
community.
Join Commissioner Ed Ehlinger, members of the MDH
Executive Team, and your colleagues after dinner for
Indian women will help each other return to their traditional
birthing roots. This session will include information from a
doula’s perspective, and identify areas where local public
health and health care can work together to improve rural
birth outcomes.
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Succession planning that accounts for diversity and equity
can help provide a rich talent mix. Presenters will share
tools, resources, and practical approaches used by
Rural women are more likely to be poor and lack health
businesses like Honeywell, Inc. and Fairview Health to help
insurance, and must often travel significant distances to
make a difference in an organization's future. Hear lessons
access the obstetric care they need. Doulas are an emerging
learned and early results from a local health department
profession in rural areas, and provide a low-cost way for
that developed and conducted its succession planning with
pregnant women to receive ongoing support and birth
workforce diversity and health equity in mind.
education. Doulas from tribal communities are working to
revitalize birth traditions, with the hope that American
initiatives. Learn how the group is working to assess ways to
incorporate community health workers into clinical practice,
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and is bringing together stakeholders to support
breastfeeding.
A Health in All Policies approach serves all residents of a
community by promoting fairness and opportunity, and
eliminating inequities in decision making. Elected leaders
and staff are guided by a common mission and vision that
exemplify fair and just guiding principles as foundational
components. The Public Health Law Center and Blue Cross
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and Blue Shield of Minnesota’s Center for Prevention have
been working together to advance understanding and use
of this type of policy. Presenters will share progress and case
studies.
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A county public health department, a school district with a
diverse student base and a forward-thinking nutrition
Learn how to continue the connections you have made after
the conference ends.
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program, and a local chef with a proven record of nutritional
success in schools partnered to create a proactive, evidencebased, and innovative nutrition plan that can be replicated
throughout the state. Chef Marshall O'Brien is at a different
school cafeteria 20 days each month, giving him insight into
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what motivates students and cook staff. Learn about how
the Healthy Food Index and Healthy Meal Index aid schools
in offering the right choices, and educate students on the
right foods to eat.
Playwright Syl Jones will share his own compelling, personal
story related to Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). By
asking us to think deeply about the connections between all
forms of trauma and the many different health problems we
are seeing today, Syl will close the Community Health
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The Minnesota Partnership on Pediatric Obesity Care and
Coverage identifies ways that health plans, with community
partners, can support pediatric clinical practices to improve
healthy weight management services for children. The
group facilitates key activities like improving data collection
and community referrals, and communicating evidencebased tools and resources, in order to focus on addressing
health equity and aligning with other public health
Conference by challenging us to work together to develop
strategies for healthier communities.
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Larry Kittelson, Chair, Horizon CHB
(Pope County Commissioner)
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Karen Ahmann, Polk-Norman-Mahnomen CHB
(Norman County Commissioner)
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Ken Bence, Minnesota Council of Health Plans
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Deb Burns, MDH Office of Performance Improvement
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Xiaoying Chen, MDH Office of Minority &
Multicultural Health
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Jackie Dionne, MDH Tribal Health Director
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Dee Finley, MDH Community & Family Health
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Bill Groskreutz, Faribault-Martin CHB
(Faribault County Commissioner)
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Allison Heinzeller, MDH Office of Statewide Health
Improvement Initiatives
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Ardis Henriksen, SWHHS CHB
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Helene Kahlstorf, North Country CHB
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Amy Kenzie, MDH Health Promotion & Chronic Disease
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Ann Kinney, MDH Health Policy
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Dan Locher, MDH Environmental Health
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DeeAnn Pettyjohn, Dodge-Steele CHB
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Deb Radi, MDH Office of Emergency Preparedness
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Theresa Evans Ross, Annex Teen Clinic
(Eliminating Health Disparities Grantee)
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Jacob Zdon, MDH Infectious Disease Epidemiology,
Prevention & Control
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Liz Arita, MDH Office of Performance Improvement
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Becky Buhler, MDH Office of Performance Improvement
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Peggy Malinowski, MDH Office of Performance
Improvement
2014
September 17-19, 2014, Cragun’s Conference Center
2015
September 30, October 1-2, 2015, Cragun’s Conference Center
Visit www.health.state.mn.us/chc to access presentation slides and
handouts during and after the Community Health Conference.