Jeanne Alhusen, MSN, PhD Student
School of Nursing

Project: Pointe Coupee Parish Better Access Community Health (BACH) Program
Target Population: Diabetic residents of Pointe Coupe Parish.
Location: Pointe Coupe, LA

"This experience has been invaluable for me as I move forward in my professional career. I have a new-found understanding and appreciation about working with a community-based organization in a resource-limited rural environment.  It was also remarkable to observe the organization grow the past two years.  I learned the importance of having a staff buy-in from the very beginning, working with staff to translate skills to them so that once I leave, capacity is left behind."

Bridget Ambrose, MPH, PhD Student
Department of Epidemiology

Project: Kingsley House Location:New Orleans, LA
Target Population: Uninsured and underserved residents of New Orleans.
Website: www.kingsleyhouse.org/

“Epi-Info will continue to be used in the future as new projects arise. There has been some discussion about the possibility of HCFA staff training other Kingsley House employees in the use of Epi Info, utilizing the training manuals and materials developed for this partnership. I really hope this happens, as expanded training on evaluation methods and database management will help ensure the sustainability of all of the great programs the Kingsley House offers to women, children, the elderly and all those in need.”

Abdulgafoor Bachani, MHS, PhD Student
Department of International Health

Project: Epiphany Community Outreach Services (ECHOS)
Target Population: Underserved population displaced by Katrina and residing in Houston.
Location: Houston, TX
Website: www.echos-houston.org

"During my two year tenure as a J&J Scholar providing technical assistance to ECHOS, I learned a great deal, both in the technical aspects of database creation and management as well as problem solving and effective communication. ECHOS staff members were involved in the process right from the beginning. As a result, there is a sense of ownership among them for this undertaking, and the process has already yielded impressive results. The executive director of ECHOS mentioned at the last site visit that the skills and data had been used to obtain grants from 5 different foundations."

Anna Copeland, MSN, DrPH Student
Department of Population, Family & Reproductive Health

Project: St. Charles Community Health Center
Target Population: Hispanic pregnant women residing in St. Charles Parish.
Location: Luling, LA
Website: www.stcchc.org

“As a result of this process, I have also learned first-hand, in a hands-on fashion how to do a program evaluation from start to finish.  This is something that I would not have been able to do otherwise, especially with the guidance of Dr. Fonseca-Becker who obviously is an expert in community-based program evaluation.  I am grateful for this experience and know that I will utilize the skills gained for years to come.  It also makes me realize that community health centers and programs need to do more evaluation in order to maintain the quality of care and better serve their clients – something that I could have been doing, or at least encouraging to the administration, at the clinics I used to work at as a nurse practitioner before starting school at Johns Hopkins. The work at CPP and STCCHC is invaluable and I am grateful to Johnson & Johnson for funding them to get them through the period where there was no federal help (through Medicaid) to offer prenatal care services to the new immigrant women in New Orleans."

Tianjing Li, MD., PhD Student
Department of Epidemiology

Project: Sight Savers of Alabama
Target Population: All sixthgrade students residing in the Black Belt Region
Location: Birmingham, AL
Website: www.sightsaversamerica.org

“I have learned a great deal more about the Black Belt region and the project. Comparing with the academic setting the community-based health care program functions with limited financial and personal resources. The staff members are committed to work for the under-served population. They appreciate training opportunities, including the program evaluation skills that we brought to them. The program staff are always responsible and affective. I learned from them in particular the way they work with local schools, hospitals, private practitioners, cooperates, as well as academics and politicians. They coordinate and collaborate with different sectors, and have been extremely successful in exploring new opportunities and obtaining funding to sustain and expand the project. "

Jennifer Mendel, PhD Student
Department of Health Policy Management

Project: MS Children's Justice Center
Target Population: Abused and neglected children residing in six counties, most affected by Katrina.
Location: Jackson, MS
Website: www.mscjc.org

“I have learned about how to collaborate on monitoring and evaluation techniques with staff in a community settings. In addition, I have benefited tremendously from the opportunity to give so many presentations (including the one at APHA). In-house capacity was improved through a community-academic partnership.   All staff had input in the design of the evaluation plan that increased ownership of the process by the staff.  The executive director of CJC has said that this process opened her eyes to thinking about why you collect certain information and what can be done with it. Data management and presentation skills were also left behind at CJC. ”

Jennifer Piver-Renna, PhD
Department of Health Behavior & Society

Project: Tombigbee Healthcare Authority, CATCH Program
Target Population: Rural population affected by Katrina with no access to health care.
Location: Demopolis, AL
Website: www.bwwmh.com/healthstart.html

“ The CATCH program was quite successful and has greatly benefited the communities in which they serve. As the Johnson & Johnson Scholar it was also wonderful to see how the program itself has grown over the past two years. Given that the CATCH program was only recently initiated, I believe that it greatly benefited from the direction provided through the technical assistance from the Johnson & Johnson Health Care Program. The staff of the Grants Research & Outreach Division have also grown and have expressed excitement about continuing to use the skills they have learned through the Johnson & Johnson program in future projects.”

Hilary Schwandt , MHS, PhD Student
Department of Population, Family & Reproductive Health

Project: Amite County Medical Services, Inc.
Target Population: Underserved, uninsured, rural residents of Amite County, Mississippi.
Location: Amite County, MS

“As a Johnson & Johnson Scholar in this program I learnt a great deal about the challenges and successes of working with a community-based organization in a resource-limited, rural environment. I learned the importance of engaging staff from the beginning and ensuring their continued participation throughout the process. I have learned that the process of learning about evaluation and putting an evaluation plan into practice takes a lot of work and patience – as the fruits of the work are not evident until the group can analyze the data, see the graphs, and feel excited about the findings that show off the effects of their labor.”

Patrick Shaw, PhD Student
Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

Project: Second Mile Mission Center
Target Population: Uninsured Katrina evacuees settled in Fort Bend County.
Location: Stafford, TX
Website: www.secondmile.org

“In-house capacity at the Second Mile Mission Center was improved through this program in the form of evaluation capacity in general and baseline data for a burgeoning Diabetes Education Program specifically. Multiple staff members are now versed in database creation, data evaluation and evaluation design. Not only will the techniques employed during this program continue to be useful for future evaluation but recent data analysis resulting from this project will be used to submit grants for additional funding, providing a competitive edge amongst grants without concrete demonstrations of evaluation capacity. Furthermore, as a student of the basic sciences with very little exposure to public health practice this has been a priceless experience with regard to my formal education and I have developed professional and personal relationships that will last a lifetime.”