Texas Technical Assistance Workshop

El Paso, Texas

CHW-NEC Partner's Workshop

El Paso, Texas

Presenters

Leticia Flores

CHW-NEC Core TA Institutional Partner Community Health Worker Program El Paso Community College Dept. ISC 200 W. Rio Grande El Paso, TX 79902 LeticiaF@epcc.edu

Lety Flores is the coordinator and developer of the El Paso Community College (EPCC) Community Health Worker Program. She has 21 years of experience as a health care provider and holds a BS from the University of Texas at El Paso and a Masters in Public Health from the University of Texas—Houston School of Public Health. She has been working with curriculum development for Community Health Workers (CHWs) since 1999. Ms Flores is the recipient of EPCC Faculty Achievement Award. The EPCC Community Health Worker Program is a community driven program assisted by nationally recognized “Promotoras” from El Paso. The focus of the curriculum is designed to address border health issues and to train CHWs for community outreach and lay health promotion. The EPCC program was the first to be certified by the state of Texas and received exemplary status by the Texas State Department of Health Services for training community health workers, also known as “promotoras and promotores de salud.” Lety is a Certified Health Education Specialist, a CAPPA Certified Lactation Educator, and is currently serving as a research partner with the University of Arizona CHW-NEC project and with the University of Texas at El Paso – CHW NIH project

Donald E. Proulx

Director of the FIPSE Funded "National Community of Practice for College Responsive CHW Education," also known as "The Community Health Worker-National Education Collaborative (CHW-NEC)" University of Arizona Area Health Education Centers Program 1834 East Mabel St. Tucson, AZ 85721 phone:(520) 626-4026 dproulx@u.arizona.edu

With the University of Arizona, Don served as the director of the Arizona Border Health Education and Training Centers (HETCs) program. This program addressed health personnel and consumer training, with an emphasis in border public health issues. Training was included for community health workers, known as promotores. Promotores are integral to effective border health services outreach, and they are included in interdisciplinary health professions student teams. Cross-border and bi-national programs were included in the work of the HETCs to address health disparities and access to care issues unique to the border region. Mr. Proulx now serves as associate director of the Arizona Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) program, and he is the principal investigator and co-director of the Community Health Worker National Education Collaborative, funded by the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) of the U.S. Dept. of Education. A higher education and microbiology graduate of the University of Arizona, the emphasis of Don's graduate work in higher education was in curriculum and instruction. Mr. Proulx has served the Arizona AHEC program since 1989 both as a founding center (AHEC) director and as the Arizona AHEC Program associate director. Don served as instructional dean and district director for all the Health Sciences Programs with Pima Community College in Tucson for 15 years (1970-85). He was field director, stationed at Pan American University in Texas, for Project HOPE's Southwest Mexican Border Health Workforce Development Program from 1985-88. This program collaborated with nine institutions of higher education all along the Mexican border region from Texas to California to develop, implement, and evaluate accredited programs in nursing and allied health disciplines, include community health workers/promotores. Project HOPE provided recruitment, retention, and placement services for border area Hispanic students indigenous to the border neighborhoods; the project improved border area Hispanic representation in the delivery of health and human services.

E. Lee Rosenthal

Co-director of the CHW-NEC Project Assistant Professor, College of Health Sciences University of Texas at El Paso 1101 N. Campbell Street El Paso, TX 79902 (915) 747-8233 Cell: (520) 909-0262 Fax: (915) 747-8315 elrosenthal@utep.edu

Lee is an Assistant Professor in Health Promotion at the University of Texas at El Paso. Her interests include community-based public health research projects and a broad array of community health worker program research and field development efforts throughout the United States. She is currently co-director of the Community Health Worker National Education Collaborative and an associate scientist to a Community Health Worker National Workforce Study; both projects are federally funded. She also serves as a co-investigator on a newly funded study entitled: "Can Promotores Change Clinical Outcomes for Chronic Disease?" This was funded in fall 2005 by the National Institute's of Health National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities. Recent research areas have included an analysis of rural domestic violence issues facing rural Pima County immigrants at the Arizona-Mexico border as well as work exploring ways to strengthen migrant farm worker CHW/promotora programs along the U.S.-Mexico border. Among her most notable accomplishments is her work as the director/initiator of the National Community Health Advisor Study (University of Arizona, 1998) and as consultant/initiator of the Community Health Worker Evaluation Tool Kit (University of Arizona, 2000); both projects were funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Lee has served on the Governing Council of the American Public Health Association (APHA) and was instrumental in the development of the Community Health Worker Special Primary Interest Group of the APHA. She served as an advisory committee member of the national Center for Sustainable Health Outreach throughout its five years of federal funding. Lee also served as a member of the National Expert Panel to the Health Resources and Services Administration's Evaluation of Community Health Workers. Currently she has joined El Paso Community College's Community Health Worker Program Advisory Council and the Health Advisory Committee of the El Paso Independent School District. Dr. Rosenthal's Ph.D. was completed with the University of Massachusetts at Boston; her dissertation is entitled "The Sustainability Dance: Lessons to Learn for an Emerging Force in Community Health-Community Health Workers." Her Master's degree in Public Health with a specialty in policy and administration is from the University of California at Berkeley.

Carl Rush

CHW-NEC Project Expert Consultant Community Resources, LLC P. O. Box 700373 San Antonio, TX 78270 (210) 745-0560 or (210) 241-3983 carl@chrllc.net

Carl Rush recently served as Director of the New Jersey Community Health Worker Institute, a project of the New Jersey Area Health Education Centers program, and continues to work with NJCHWI as a consultant He is working for the American Dental Association on training requirements for a new dental specialist CHW position. He was also recently a member of the research team for a national workforce study on CHWs for the Health Resources and Services Administration, and he serves as a consultant to The California Endowment on a statewide study of CHWs. He recently convened a national invitational conference for a group of funders to draft a national research agenda on CHWs. Before serving in New Jersey, he was coordinator (and principal instructor) of the Community Health Worker program at Northwest Vista College in San Antonio, Texas. He was CEO of the Family Health Foundation in San Antonio from 1997 to 2001, developing initiatives to apply the capabilities of Community Health Workers to problems of health care access under Medicaid and SCHIP. Carl has worked with the Health Education Training Centers Alliance of Texas on various projects, including the Border Visión Fronteriza initiative and the organization of statewide conferences and workshops for CHWs. He currently serves as Secretary of the Executive Board of the CHW Special Primary Interest Group of the American Public Health Association, and on the Policy Committee of the new American Association of CHWs and the Advisory Board of the Center of Excellence in Women's Health, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. In San Antonio, Carl was a founding member of Health Care for Every Child, the Bexar County Health Literacy Coalition, and the South Texas Asthma Coalition. Carl's earlier experience includes over 20 years in nonprofits as a grant maker, project director, researcher, and management consultant. He holds a Masters of Regional Planning degree from Cornell University.

Mark Homan

CHW-NEC Core TA Institutional Partner Pima Community College (520) 206-6958 Mark.Homan@pima.edu

Mark has been playing off Broadway for twenty-seven years at Pima Community College, and he has also taught and lectured in graduate and undergraduate programs at numerous colleges and universities in the United States and abroad. He has been the primary instructor for the Community Health Worker Education Program at Pima Community College since its inception in 1998. Mark has been active in community development work throughout his career, and he often serves as consultant to public and private groups working to strengthen communities. Mark is the author of two widely used books: Promoting Community Change: Making It Happen in the Real World (3rd ed.) and Rules of the Game: Lessons From the Field of Community Change. Mark Homan is the former Chair of the Social Services Department at Pima Community College. In addition to his duties at Pima, Mark has served as an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Sociology and Social Work at Northern Arizona University, the Graduate School of Social Work at Arizona State University, the Counseling, Deafness, and Human Services Department at the University of Tennessee, and the Human Services Program at St. Edward's University. He has also been a guest lecturer at other colleges, universities and training consortia in the United States, Russia, and Sweden. He received his MSW from Arizona State University in 1975 and is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. Mark is a strong advocate of community empowerment. He uses his own very active involvement in the community to contribute to its improvement and to increase his own learning. For over thirty years he has worked with diverse populations in urban, rural, and reservation communities on a broad range of issues, including neighborhood stabilization and empowerment, hunger, reproductive rights, children with special health care needs, community mental health, family planning, community health work, capital punishment, public schools and community development, political campaign organizing, foster care, and adoption. In addition to his roles as organizer, lobbyist, consultant and teacher, Mark has developed and directed several human services programs. He has also been a founding member of many community organizations and agencies and has served on numerous community boards and councils. Mark's textbook, Promoting Community Change: Making it Happen in the Real World, 3rd ed., is used in colleges and universities throughout the United States and abroad, as well as by public and private groups. His book, Rules of the Game: Lessons from the Field of Community Change, which is also used both as a textbook and as a guide for community change agents, is based on his many years of experience in community organization and development work. He has also been the author of numerous articles related to community work. Mark served on the Editorial Board of two national publications: Human Service Education, the Journal of the National Organization of Human Services; and Frontline Initiative, the publication of the National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals, published by the University of Minnesota. Mark has been the keynote speaker for significant state and national conferences. He has been the recipient of the numerous awards including the Outstanding Faculty Award from Pima Community College, Outstanding Field Faculty award from Arizona State University, and the President's Award and the Lenore McNeer Award given by the National Organization for Human Service Services, and the Lifetime Achievement award from the National Association of Social Workers, Arizona, District II. At this stage of his career Mark has come to accept the fact that he will not be playing shortstop for the San Francisco Giants.

Durrel J. Fox

Co-chair of the CHW-NEC Project National Advisory Council New England HIV Education Consortium (NEHEC) and Massachusetts Association of Community Health Workers (MACHW) 23 Miner Street Boston, MA 02215 (617) 355-8421 Fax (508) 856-4850 dfoxnehec@aol.com

Durrell is a past chair and founding member of the Massachusetts Community Health Worker (MACHW) Network. He is employed by two agencies, 1) the Boston HAPPENS (HIV Adolescent Provider and Peer Education Network for Services) Program at Children's Hospital and 2) the New England HIV Education Consortium (NEHEC). For 15 years, at Children's Hospital Boston, he has worked with adolescents/young adults living with and at risk for HIV. The first two years were spent mainly at a community health center affiliated with Children's called Martha Eliot. The rest of those years (and still counting) have been with the Boston HAPPENS program where he provides direct care, counseling -testing and group facilitation. In his CHW role he also provides outreach to HIV+ and at risk adolescents, trains and supervises youth peer educators. He also worked for 10 years as a street outreach worker-CHW (evening-night shifts) for the Boston Street Youth Outreach Program and drop in center, a project of JRI Health and Children's Hospital. He has been with NEHEC, a Minority AIDS Initiative (MAI) Program, for 7 years and his duties include coordinating a regional (the six New England states) consortium of agencies that provide capacity building opportunities and HIV related training programs developed for full spectrum of HIV care and service providers of all disciplines, clinical and non-clinical. Durrell is currently a governing councilor and the immediate past chair of the Community Health Worker Special Primary Interest Group (CHW SPIG) of American Public Health Association (APHA). He was one of the original members of the Lay Health Worker/Promotores National Network Executive Committee when it was founded in 1998. He also served on the reader's panel for National Community Health Advisory Study (late 90s) and as an advisory council member for the Center for Sustainable Health Outreach (CSHO). He is also an advisory board co-chair for the CHW- National Education Collaborative (CHW-NEC). He also volunteers on many community based initiatives including as one of the founding steering committee members of Critical MASS (statewide initiative to eliminate racial and ethnic health disparities), the New England Regional Eliminating Health Disparities Planning Group and as a board member of Health Care For All of Massachusetts (HCFA). Durrell is a CHW, who has been active in the CHW movement on many levels over the last 10 years through his involvement in organizations like APHA, CSHO, Lay Health Workers/Promotores National Network, and MACHW. Over these years he has done over 100 CHW focused presentations at conferences/workshops across the country and in South Africa. He is also involved in parents committees at his children's schools (4 children ages Darnell-26; Dallas-18; Andrea-13; Daysia-9) and volunteers for several youth and community programs including the Paul Robeson Institute for Positive Self Development, a Saturday program operated by Concerned Black Men of MA.

Anne Willaert

Healthcare Education Industry Partnership Director of Project Design and Development Minnesota State Colleges and University System MSU, 124 Myers Field House Mankato, MN 56001 507.389.2590 Anne.willaert@mnsu.edu

Anne is the Director of Program Design and Development with the Healthcare Education and Industry Partnership (HEIP), a project sponsored under Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system. Through her work at HEIP, Anne develops partnerships between higher education and healthcare industry to form solutions to meet the increased and critical needs in the healthcare workforce. Anne currently is managing four statewide healthcare projects, one of which is directing the Minnesota Community Health Worker Project. The Minnesota CHW project has developed and is publishing an 11-credit core curriculum which is currently being implemented at five higher education institutions in Minnesota. The CHW project is also doing work around policy and workforce development supporting the role of the Community Health Worker Before coming to work for HEIP, Anne did consultant work and created two local Mankato area non-profit organizations. Anne"s background is in social worker, and she is currently working on her master"s degree in non-profit administration and anthropology. Ms. Willaert serves as a Core Technical Assistance Higher Education site in the CHW National Education Collaborative in which she is supporting CHW college-responsive program development with four colleges in Minnesota and with Ivy Tech State College in Indiana.

Cindy Tsai

Community Health Works San Francisco State University 1250 Adison Street, Suite 109 Berkley, CA 94703 cystsai@sfsu.edu

Cindy is the Director of Special Projects and Training for Community Health Works, a joint program of San Francisco State University and City College of San Francisco. Founded in 1992, Community Health Works serves to link colleges and universities with communities to eliminate health inequalities. Working side-by-side with community partners, Community Health Works developed the first college-supported community health worker certificate program that combines performance based and popular education approaches. The certificate program is now fully institutionalized at City College of San Francisco. Using her background in public health and urban adult education, Cindy worked with a dynamic team to develop the community health worker curriculum and performance exam, and she is currently working on the first community health worker textbook. The textbook hopes to not only provide information on basic skills for community health workers, but to also examine social injustice as the key cause to health inequalities and how community organizing and mobilization affects the health of communities. Cindy has also written many training manuals and curricula, most notable the comprehensive community health worker manual for the YES WE CAN Asthma Toolkit, which, recently highlighted by CDC, has one of six effective interventions for asthma management. Her recent areas of work include: development and piloting of a health and social justice documentary film class at SFSU, policy for community health worker reimbursement for chronic disease management and the development of online education modules. Her personal/professional interest is working to make healthy places for California"s growth by examining built environment and how it intersects with public health.

Linda Scheu

The Partnership 2525 E. Broadway, Suite 100 Tucson, AZ 85716 (520) 624-5800 ext. 1424 lscheu@thepartnership.us

Linda is an Evaluator working for The Partnership, a non-profit organization in Tucson and is currently the external evaluator for the CHW National Education Collaborative. She has received her Masters in Agricultural and Resource Economics and a Masters in Public Health from the University of Arizona. Linda has over five years of evaluation experience and has assessed programs ranging from sustainable agricultural development to the prevention of diabetes, infectious diseases, HIV/AIDS, substance use etc. to educational programs to substance abuse treatment. She has worked with Community Health Workers as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Honduras, as well as in Brazil and in Southern Arizona.

Kimbro Talk

Community Health Representative Navajo (Dine’) Nation CHW-NEC National Advisor

Kimbro is Navajo and Santo Domingo Pueblo Indian from Shiprock, New Mexico. He is married and has three children. His clan is Edgewater and was born from the salt people, his maternal grandfather is Mexican and his parental grandfather is named Red Running Into Water. He has worked as a senior community health representative, representing the Beclabito community in northwest New Mexico. Beclabito has a population of nine hundred people. It consists of a Headstart, K-4th grade day school, senior center, store with gasoline on hand and a chapter house. Community health representative services are delivered at the community level; Kimbro’s primary role is to educate and promote health. He has attended workshops, conferences, in-service trainings, and has earned CEU’s related to his position. On a monthly basis, he spends 10 percent of his time doing administrative work. He spends 20 percent of his time at the community hospital with clients for interpreting or to address missed appointment. He spends 30 percent of his time at the chapter meetings and other meetings. And he spends 40 percent of his time caring for the clients and providing health education at the community level. Kimbro Talk participated in a mass prophylaxis clinic emergency drill for his community, and he is currently involved with ALERT (All Local Emergency Response Team). Mr. Talk has taken public health courses at Shiprock’s Diné College. He received a certificate of recognition for excellence in serving the community, which was awarded by the Indian Health Services at Shiprock Northern Navajo Medical Center. Kimbro serves on the National Advisory Council for the CHW-NEC Project.

Ann Withorn

Professor University of Massachusetts College of Public and Community Service 100 Morrissey Blvd. Boston, MA 02125 (617) 287-5000 ann.withorn@umb.edu

Ann is a Professor of Social Policy and Faculty Coordinator for Experiential Learning Evaluation at the College of Public and Community Service (CPCS), University of Massachusetts Boston. CPCS has a forty year record of providing Bachelors degrees for adults from a wide range of backgrounds. Since 1978 she has been working to develop models for evaluating competencies based on prior learning in a range of professional fields. Most recently she has been working with Boston CHWs to implement a college-credited training curriculum with a strong prior learning evaluation component. Ann has contributed to the CHW-NEC project as an expert consultant to help college faculty and administrators better understand what it means to demonstrate student competence through the evaluation of prior experiential learning. Her presentations involve a strong interactive component, where educators and CHWs get a chance to "try out" what it means to be evaluated for one’s own prior learning