Before the winter break, Ms. Angie Alaniz, CCHD Administrative Director, and Ms. Katy Nimmons, Director of CCHD’s National Community Health Worker Training Center, traveled to the School of Public Health (SPH) campus in McAllen. Katy spent the week with SPH and AgriLife faculty and staff who have partnered to implement the “Working on Wellness” (WOW) project in Hidalgo County. Angie joined Katy later in the week to meet with University of Texas Rio Grande Valley officials to discuss a potential joint project.

The WOW project will focus on improving access to healthy foods and developing safe, neighborhood options where Hidalgo County residents can be physically active. The project, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in October 2014, is led by Principal Investigators Dr. Marcia Ory from SPH and Dr. Carol Rice from AgriLife. The project aligns with CDC’s aim to reduce chronic diseases, promote healthier lifestyles, reduce health disparities, and control health care spending.

The WOW team met in McAllen to lay the foundation for project planning, implementation, and evaluation. Katy represented CCHD’s NCHWTC, which will be involved in the WOW project by providing community-based, culturally competent outreach and promotion related to physical activity and healthy food environments. Ms. Paula Saldana and Ms. Dinorah Martinez, current NCHWTC staff who are state certified Community Health Workers (CHW) and CHW Instructors, will contribute to the WOW project in addition to three new CHW members who are expected to join the NCHWTC team within the next month.

The NCHWTC team is excited to be a part of the new partnership between AgriLife and SPH which will address environmental strategies for obesity prevention. Katy notes that “this is a great opportunity to demonstrate both the effectiveness of the new partnership and to contribute to improved health outcomes for Hidalgo County residents.”

While in South Texas, Angie and Katy met with officials from the newly established University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) who had contacted the Center about conducting CHW certification training courses in Hidalgo and Cameron County. As a result of the meeting, the UTRGV has continued discussions with the NCHWTC about creating a CHW certification course with a special emphasis on behavioral health training. Katy emphasized that, “This partnership will build upon the training center’s history of collaboration with UT in South Texas. We have a long-standing relationship with UT-Brownsville. Most recently, they contracted with us to deliver a customized, in person CHW certification class to 13 UT Brownsville CHWs.”

Last week, CCHD Research & Evaluation Associate, Ms. Whitney Garney, attended the Southwest Educational Research Association (SERA) Conference in San Antonio, Texas. SERA is a regional educational research association dedicated to furthering the advancement of research in education. Over one hundred individuals participated in the three day annual SERA Conference which provides professionals with an opportunity to share research findings and ideas.

With the help of Ms. Jennifer Farmer, a Ph.D. candidate in the Texas A&M Health & Kinesiology Department, Whitney provided a training on factor analysis. The purpose of the training was to review traditional factorial methods, and then introduce attendees to an alternative two-mode factor analysis technique called the Q-technique. The workshop also highlighted other analytical methods and provided real research examples of data collection, analysis and interpretation.

Whitney and Jennifer will also be offering this training to graduate students later this month at the School of Public Health. If you are interested in taking the free training, please email Whitney Garnery.

Ms. Shayna Spurlin is the Program Director for the Region 17 Regional Healthcare Partnership (RHP), a nine-county partnership created under the State of Texas 1115 Medicaid Waiver. RHP 17 consists of Brazos, Burleson, Grimes, Leon, Madison, Montgomery, Robertson, Walker and Washington counties, all of which have partnered with CCHD in past on community assessment and research activities. Given CCHD’s close ties with RHP 17 communities, it was logical that the RHP 17 staff would be housed within CCHD to share resources and knowledge about the region.

Although RHP 17 is technically supported through the College of Medicine, CCHD celebrates the accomplishments of our office colleagues as well. RHP 17 Regional Director, Ms. Shayna Spurlin was recently appointed to a statewide 1115 Medicaid advisory committee referred to as the Clinical Champions Workgroup. This workgroup was established assist the state with 1115 Medicaid Waiver renewal activities.

“It is a great honor to be nominated to participate in the workgroup,” says Shayna. Shayna’s expertise in waiver operations and her experience guiding RHP 17 projects, make her a perfect addition to the group. The workgroup will hold monthly meetings through June and provide their feedback to HHSC in time to submit the renewal proposal in September 2015.

For more information about RHP 17 and the 1115 Medicaid waiver, click here.

We are proud to announce that CCHD Research and Evaluation Associate, Ms. Whitney Garney, will be defending her dissertation entitled “Participation in Exergames from an Ecological Perspective” on March 3rd. The concept of her defense stems from her research project, Geocaching for Exercise and Activity Research (GEAR), on which she served as Co-Principal Investigator. Her defense will be held in Room 110 of the School of Public Health Classroom Building.