Local Health Department

Dare County Health Department contracted with NCIPH to conduct an evaluation of the community impact of the Peer Power Program. Peer Power is a health education program for middle school who are taught selected health topics by local high school students. Dare County Health Department personnel train the high school students as peer health educators. NCIPH conducted interviews and focus groups with students, school personnel, and parents to determine the community benefit of the program. Project Contact: Mary Davis, DrPH, MSPH

State Health Department

In collaboration with the North Carolina Center for Public Health Preparedness, an NCIPH project, the NC Division of Public Health wanted to evaluate improvements in public health capacity to plan, prepare for, and respond to public health emergencies. Using a multiple case study design, the NCIPH evaluation team conducted interviews and reviewed documents to compare DPH capacity between Hurricanes Floyd and Isabel. The evaluation also identified key areas of improvement, areas for further improvement, and implications for agency preparedness. Project Contact: Mary Davis, DrPH, MSPH

Federal

Since 2000 the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has administered the National Public Health Leadership, a year-long leadership development program for senior public health leaders. Funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this program enrolls teams of leaders who complete leadership projects with coaching to improve health in their regions, in addition to attending on-site learning sessions at APHA and in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The Institute runs this program and staff its evaluation, and has used comprehensive process and impact evaluation methods to improve the program over time and to measure its impact on leaders and their organizations and communities. Project Contact: Karl Umble, PhD, MPH

School of Public Health

Since the inception of the Public Health Leadership Program MPH, NCIPH staff have provided comprehensive program planning and evaluation services to this degree program. NCIPH staff conducted comprehensive studies of the first MPH cohort experiences and attitudes about the program and examined the impact of the degree on participants' improvements in public health and leadership skills. NCIPH staff continue to provide program evaluation services for new cohorts. Project Contacts: Mary Davis, DrPH, MSPH, Karl Umble, PhD, MPH

Educational Media

Several educational media projects have utilized the NCIPH evaluation services. The largest of these is ĦA su salud! (to your health), a multi-media DVD and web-based course designed to promote Spanish language competency for intermediate-Spanish speaking healthcare providers. Since the first year of the project evaluation has focused on cost-effective development of materials as well as performance testing and program acceptability to users. Outcome measures have included technical (grammar, vocabulary) and functional (oral, aural) skills as well as Latino cultural competency. Other educational media projects include Conspectus of the Arts (humanities program), From Concept to New Product (new product design and development), and DNA Microarrays. Project Contact: Claudia Fernandez, DrPH