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Dr. Steven Stack, commissioner of the Kentucky Department for Public Health and current ASTHO President, tells us about ASTHO’s upcoming leadership transition; Madison Novosel, North Dakota’s Lead Program coordinator discusses the program’s new...
Dr. Steven Stack, commissioner of the Kentucky Department for Public Health and current ASTHO President, tells us about ASTHO’s upcoming leadership transition; Madison Novosel, North Dakota’s Lead Program coordinator discusses the program’s new home in the state’s Department of Health and Human Services; an ASTHO blog article explains how the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment is making improvements to their hiring practices; and a new ASTHO resource provides strategies for enhancing governmental public health workforce well-being and retention.
Scott Harris, MD, MPH, FACP, FIDSA Biography
The North Dakota Lead Poisoning Prevention Program
SUMMER JOHNSON:
This is the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Wednesday, October 23, 2024. I'm Summer Johnson. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.
STEVEN STACK:
What an honor and privilege it has been to serve for a year as the president of this group.
JOHNSON:
Tomorrow, Dr. Steven Stack, Commissioner of the Kentucky Department for Public Health, and current ASTHO President, will hand over the reins to Dr. Scott Harris of Alabama. Stack presided over the organization in a time of change.
STACK:
One of the things that during my time, obviously will be of enduring impact for astho is our prior CEO, Mike Fraser, moved on to another opportunity, and we welcomed Joe Kanter as our new CEO, and I have the greatest admiration for both of those men.
JOHNSON:
Stack is proud of the work ASTHO accomplished during his year as president, but knows there's still a lot of work to be done, especially when it comes to misinformation.
STACK:
As a society, we will suffer for that if we don't find a way to better bridge that divide and have more individuals choose to rally around science and facts.
JOHNSON:
While stack is sad to go, he knows his successor, Dr. Scott Harris, will do great things for ASTHO.
STEVEN STACK:
Scott just needs to be Scott. He is a kind and gentle, an inspiring leader, one who leads through example, and one who, I think just intrinsically has what it takes to do a wonderful job in this role.
SUMMER JOHNSON:
We will have more coverage of the transition later this week.
In North Dakota, the lead program for the state recently transitioned from under the Department of Environment to the Department of Health and Human Services. Madison Novosel is North Dakota's Lead Program coordinator.
MADISON NOVOSEL:
They felt that we were more specialized in dealing with the human health side, so, you know, talking with patients. So, that was initially why the decision was made. So, yeah, ever since then, we've been working together to let the lead program thrive.
JOHNSON:
Overall, the transition has been a positive one, but a lot of work.
NOVOSEL:
We really took the program over and just kind of rebuilt it from scratch. We got some of the materials from them, so we still use, like, their- some of their screening forms and their testing forms, but we basically took everything and wanted to build the foundation
JOHNSON:
Clearly defining roles and definitions have helped make the transition successful.
NOVOSEL:
We established an official case definition that's adopted from the CSTE position statements, and we clearly set the rules between the Department of Environmental Quality and our team at HHS.
JOHNSON:
Also today, an ASTHO blog article outlines how Colorado is improving hiring as a whole. The blog article and video explain how the process has streamlined approaches, processes, and procedures to remove biases that commonly plague hiring practices. Read the article and watch the video now by clicking the link in the show notes.
Finally, this morning, an ASTHO resource helps identify needs and gaps related to workforce, well-being, and retention. You can check out the worksheet. It's online now. Click the link in the show notes to learn more.
That'll do it for today. We're back tomorrow morning with more ASTHO news and information. I'm Summer Johnson. You're listening to the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition. Have a great day.
