The Elm

UMSON faculty, staff, and students from the Department of Family and Community Health present the Community Public Health and Environment Initiative at state and national conferences

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Three UMSON faculty members, two staff members, and one graduate student delivered six presentations recently about the grant-funded Community and Public Health Environmental Initiative, housed in the Department of Family and Community Health. The initiative provides environmental health support, health oversight, and nursing services to families and staff at Early Head Start and Head Start Centers in Baltimore City and four Maryland counties. The initiative is funded by the Mary Catherine Bunting Foundation, the Maryland State Department of Education, and the Maryland Higher Education Commission. 

At the Maryland Nurses Association’s annual conference in October:

• Amy Nahley, MS '17, RN, OCN, program manager, delivered a spotlight presentation entitled “Reimagining health promotion in early childhood education: Collaboration is the key.”

At the American Public Health Association’s annual conference in Boston in November:

• Laura Allen, MA, MS '15, RN, program director for the initiative, delivered a roundtable presentation entitled “The Community and Public Health Environmental Initiative: Bringing nursing services to early childhood education programs in Maryland.”
• Robyn Gilden, PhD '10, MS '01, RN, associate professor and director of the Environmental Health Certificate, presented a poster entitled “State-wide expansion of a public health school nurse model in low income child care centers in Maryland."
• Martine Kirwin, MS, RN, program manager, presented a poster entitled “Implementing the ‘Core 5’ screening tool in early childhood education settings."
• Katie McElroy, PhD '16, MS '10, BSN '97, RN, assistant professor and vice chair, Department of Family and Community Health, delivered a podium presentation entitled “Health promotion in the Head Start/Early Head Start setting: Where are the nurses?”
• Rachel White, BSN, RN, a graduate student in the Master of Science in Nursing Community/Public Health Nursing speciality, delivered a podium presentation for the Emerging Scholars Theater entitled “Eco-healthy homes for children: A guide to a safer home."