Lauren welcomes UI College of Public Health alumna Madison Snitker Harrelson, who is currently serving as a health educator and emergency preparedness coordinator for Dodge County Public Health in Minnesota.

The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the student hosts, guests, and contributors, and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the University of Iowa or the College of Public Health.

Lauren Lavin:

Hello everybody and welcome back to Plugged Into Public Health. Today’s episode highlights the kind of public health work that often happens behind the scenes, but has a massive impact, emergency preparedness and community health engagement and learning. We’re joined by Madison Snitker Harrelson, a graduate of the University of Iowa’s MPH program, and now a health educator and emergency preparedness coordinator for Dodge County Public Health in Minnesota. Madison brings a unique perspective to her dual role combining both strategic planning with community engagement to prepare for everything from extreme weather to infectious disease outbreaks.

In this episode, you’re going to hear how a foundational public health course sparked your career change and how she uses community-based data to drive real-world interventions and what kind of skills from her MPH she uses every single day. Whether you’re interested in grant-funded public health work, community partnerships, or just curious about what it’s like to prepare a community for the unexpected, this conversation has something for you.

I’m Lauren Lavin, and if it’s your first time with us, welcome. We’re a student-run podcast that talks about major issues in public health and how they are relevant to anyone, both in and outside the field of public health. Now let’s get plugged into public health. Plugged Into Public Health is produced and edited by the students of the University of Iowa College of Public Health, and the views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the student hosts, guests, and contributors. They do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the University of Iowa or the College of Public Health. Well, thank you so much for being on the podcast today Madison. Do you want to go ahead and introduce yourself to our guest to start with?

Madison Snitker Harrelson:

Yep. My name’s Madison Snitker Harrelson. I graduated with my Bachelor of Arts in 2020 in public health and my master of public health in 2021 in community and behavioral health. I also hold a CHES certification, so I’m a certified health education specialist. I am a health educator at Dodge County Public Health here in Minnesota, and I’ve been here for about three years.

Lauren Lavin:

And where is Dodge in relation to Minneapolis? People know where Minneapolis is.

Madison Snitker Harrelson:

Yeah. I feel like a lot of people in Iowa know where Rochester is because they know of Mayo Clinic. So we actually live in Rochester. Dodge County is about 20 minutes is my drive, my commute. So it’s just west of Olmsted County, which is where Rochester is.

Lauren Lavin:

Okay. That makes sense. So what first drew you to the field of public health and how did your time at the University of Iowa shape that path?

Madison Snitker Harrelson:

Yeah. So when I went to the University of Iowa, I was pretty much dead set, I’m going to be a physician’s assistant. I thought I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I feel like a lot of people when they get to college, they figure out maybe it’s not quite what you thought it was going to be. I did some shadow experiences. I did my whole freshman year being a biology major, and then sophomore year came and I took a class called Fundamentals of Public Health as just an elective with some friends, and I absolutely loved it. It spoke more to me the population side of health rather than the more one-on-one side of health when you go see a physician, either a nurse. I liked that big picture side of health a lot more and I felt like it resonated a lot more with the things I like to do related to educating folks. So once I found out about some of those career paths within public health, it was a hook line and sinker and switched my major I think on the third day of sophomore year and never looked back. And I love it.

Lauren Lavin:

I love that. Do you have a favorite class that you took at Iowa in public health?

Madison Snitker Harrelson:

Yes. I did really like the emergency preparedness class. You might have to remind me exactly what it was called. I can’t think back to what it was. I know Sam Jarvis taught it for a little while. It’s an undergraduate course for the Bachelor of Arts students. I loved it. I had no idea that was even a side of public health. We know it’s a very broad field, but that didn’t even come across my radar until I took that. I think I was a junior when we took that. And of course I was part of that first graduating class of undergrads at the College of Public Health so they were rolling some of those things out as we got there. And I think that was one that they weren’t expecting to blow up as big as it did where even the Bachelor of Science students were really wanting to take that. I think it got a lot of people interested in emergency preparedness and response. So that was definitely my favorite.

Lauren Lavin:

Which segues. So you are an emergency preparedness coordinator and a health educator. Can you explain more about both those responsibilities or roles and how they complement or intersect with each other?

Madison Snitker Harrelson:

Yes. Of course. So my county is a small county. We have about 30,000 people in our county. We do have a lot of folks who live here and work in a different county so we’re unique being that we’re buffered by two different bigger communities like Owatonna and Rochester, but we don’t have a hospital within our county. So what we see is a lot more smaller grants that we’re coming and getting in. So we like to talk in terms of FTE, like full-time employee is what that stands for. And my time is broken up by those grants and what I’m able to put towards each FTE. So I have the PHEP grant, which is public health emergency preparedness, which comes from the CDC. SODA funds directly through the state legislature. A new grant, it came out of the legislature in I think 2022 was when it was first introduced, and it’s called Response Sustainability Grant, RSG.

And then I also work with some of our local public health grant, which is something I think most public health departments receive some sort of way. So I split my time being an emergency preparedness coordinator working under those PFEP and RSG grants, and then doing that local public health work as well. For example, we have the fair going on this week, our county fair so I spent some time out there doing general health education with folks. We have displays up about vaping and WIC and emergency preparedness and general health topics like sun safety and heat exhaustion. So we have a spinning wheel game where we’re asking folks some health trivia. So that’s my health educator side of things. And then my emergency preparedness coordinator work goes in with that where I’m able to do some of that community engagement and education about preparedness topics like building a go kit and knowing what weather sirens mean with some of my skills as a health educator. But then I’m able to do some big picture planning work with our emergency manager at the county level on preparing our department for things like infectious disease outbreaks, tornado cleanup, if we were to need a mass prophylaxis distribution, things like that.

It’s very interesting. I feel like my skills really play off of each other in each role because I’m able to apply planning to health education work and then communications from my health education side to emergency preparedness.

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah. It seems like it adds a lot of diversity to your job, but then also that intersection. That might not be typical if that was two different people in those roles.

Madison Snitker Harrelson:

Yeah. Yeah. And it’s something that’s unique that you might not exactly find that job everywhere because like I mentioned, it’s tied back to those grants and what each department is able to do with those grants. So it works out really well for me.

Lauren Lavin:

And I do love a good fair. So that sounds like a pretty place to spend your week.

Madison Snitker Harrelson:

Oh yes. It’s nice. But lots of community engagement time and talking to folks.

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah. So what does a typical day or week look like in your role at Dodge County Public Health? Is there one a typical?

Madison Snitker Harrelson:

I was just about to say it really depends on the month or the season really. Summer, obviously in Minnesota, that’s where everyone’s doing events and gathering. So the fair, like I mentioned, we have an events like that going on. We have different town events that we go to that we’re doing some of those tabling events or interacting with folks or maybe even surveying them about health topics for our community health assessment. So summer’s super busy with community engagement work and getting out into the community and talking to folks. We regularly interact with our emergency manager and I work with my director and my business office manager a lot on seeing where we’re at on those grants. Are we fulfilling those duties that we’re doing? Are we staying on budget? That’s a lot of those little things that add up in a day is just grant management as well. Talking with our state department and the person who is assigned to our region to make sure, Hey, do you need help with this grant duty or can I connect you with this organization and this community partner to expand on some of your work?

So it’s very much collaborative, very collaborative work. We’re constantly working with community partners. Right before this, I got off a phone call with the Red Cross. It’s very much dependent on what’s going on and where we’re at in the year, but it goes from filling out grant reports to talking with a community member at events. So you never really know, but it is very dependent on time of year and season.

Lauren Lavin:

Do you find yourself sitting at a desk a lot or are you more out and about?

Madison Snitker Harrelson:

Yeah. It is a lot of desk work, but I feel like I have a lot of that because I’m in that preparedness planning role, whereas the health educator next to me, she works more with our statewide health improvement initiative. So she’s out all the time at community meetings. It just depends on what grant you’re working in and what you’re doing. And again, winter, we’re at our desk all the time. We might be out at some community meetings, but it really depends. The big events happen all summers or late spring, early fall. So it’s very dependent, but I like that.

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah. I agree. I think it’s nice when there’s some diversity in that.

Madison Snitker Harrelson:

Mm-hmm.

Lauren Lavin:

So what’s one project or initiative that you’re really proud of and why did it stand out to you?

Madison Snitker Harrelson:

Yes. So with the new grant that we got in Minnesota, the response sustainability grant, we were able to do some unique things that we weren’t able to do before because of funding capacity. So I was able to mix health education with preparedness again, which obviously is my jam, but we started a national preparedness Month campaign, which if you’re not familiar with that month, it happens every September. It’s a big push by ready.gov, National Weather Service, FEMA, some of those big federal folks to get people to really think about preparedness. We started working with grocery stores, general stores, convenience stores in our community to start tagging some items on shelves that would be options for things to go in your emergency kit. So we really worked with like Hy-Vee, some of our local retailers in town and across the community to bring awareness to those items and those things that should be in your kit with some green tags. They were like neon green tags, so they were eye-catching and it would say things like, “Is this in your emergency kit?”, or, “This is an emergency kit item.”

There was tables set up around the stores that had example emergency kits on them along with a list. A checklist-type thing where folks could grab and shop for some of those items. And then some emergency contact magnets that folks could pick up for free and take home that we were able to distribute to them so that they could put on their fridge on any magnetic surface and had information for who would be your emergency contact, what would their phone number be, what’s the number for the local police line, what’s the number for 988 and some crisis intervention, things like that. Because were finding from our nine one one phone calls that some people aren’t really always sure what resources are out there. So that was a way to get directly into people’s homes and bring awareness to some of those resources that are out there and who to call in what instance.

So that was really successful and our businesses, it was a really low effort option for them and low cost for them. They were like, “Why wouldn’t we want to do this? It brings awareness to some of those items that people should have, and it’s no work on our part.” So it was really nice. We worked with the libraries as well to bring some community engagement there. We had one library that put together a really nice display and had a bunch of books about disasters that they put up along with the information we had given them about the top hazards in Dodge County, what should be in your emergency kit, what an emergency plan looks like, and they were finding a lot of folks stopping and engaging and checking out some of those books. So that was our first year doing it this past September, and we’re really excited to expand on it this September.

Lauren Lavin:

Well, it sounds like you gave people an opportunity to think about the things you might not normally, but when push comes to shove, it’s really important to have that knowledge in the back of your mind or know the resources and how to find the information you need, which I guess is probably your whole gig as emergency prepared.

Madison Snitker Harrelson:

Yeah. And I would say that is definitely one of the biggest challenges that comes with this job is that people aren’t always ready to take initiative now to prepare for something in the future. I just think back when I was in school and we had the derecho that came through Iowa City. I’d never heard of that before. Was I prepared for something like that? No. I didn’t have anything around for a loss of power for three days, and that was crazy. It wasn’t something I thought about. And something like that really hasn’t hit up here.

Now we know what a derecho is because it’s been happening more often, but convincing people to spend money and time and effort on something now to prepare for something that might not even happen while they’re alive, that’s where it gets difficult.

Lauren Lavin:

The harder sell.

Madison Snitker Harrelson:

We know those things are going to happen. Yeah. We know those things are going to happen based off of data and predictability and things like that. It’s just convincing our community members now is the time to look at some of those things and getting some of those things ready.

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah. So what type of emergencies do you suggest that people in your county prepare for? What ones are you talking about with them?

Madison Snitker Harrelson:

Yeah. So we actually just finished a big community survey. I compare it to the CHA CHIP on the community health assessment. It is called a jurisdictional risk assessment where we surveyed our emergency responders, some community members on what the biggest hazards to human health would be in Dodge County. And some of those things that came up were tornado windstorms, were a number one. So things like straight line windstorms, like derechos and tornadoes. Infectious disease outbreaks, flooding. We do have a river that runs right through the heart of one of our communities. And extreme heat and extreme cold. So those are the things that we’ve been now talking to our communities about. Like hey, these are your emergency responders who are our law enforcement officers, our fire fighters, our EMS are seeing these as the biggest impacts to your health. These are the things you want to think about starting to prepare for. So whether that looks at financing a generator or having some ready-made meals, canned food on hand for a long-term power outage, things like that are what we’re seeing for Dodge County.

Lauren Lavin:

And then how do you build trust for that? Because like you said, you’re asking them to do something that seems like it’s far out in the future or might not happen to them. So that trust and engagement is probably a key part to getting them to buy into what you’re selling, I say in air quotes. How do you build trust, especially when you’re preparing for emergencies or delivering health education in the other part of your job?

Madison Snitker Harrelson:

It’s definitely having to come from someone who is already a face they know in the community. So whether that’s a person in a uniform like a law enforcement officer or a chaplain or a faith-based organizer, community member that is prominent in other community groups. We have a large Spanish-speaking population here so we have some bilingual folks who are able to communicate some of those things from us to that community and get that really big push and what we’re trying to communicate to them and prompt them to do. They’re able to be that trusted face in those communities and for those people to understand some of those big ticket big issues that we’re seeing and wanting to communicate to them. So it has to come from a trusted champion of those communities, whether it’s a specific town or a specific group of people or age demographic. If it’s a senior center we’re trying to reach out to, it needs to come from someone who’s already within those communities. So that’s what we really try and do, especially for emergency preparedness.

Lauren Lavin:

And what skills do you think that you’ve acquired from your MPH program to help with this work?

Madison Snitker Harrelson:

Yeah. So like I said in the beginning, I graduated with the community and behavioral health track. So a lot of my MPH courses were delving in and around community research and quantitative and qualitative research skills. I knew I wanted to work in local government and be a health educator and in some capacity. I didn’t know what exactly specific areas I was going to be working in. But I was like, “Am I really going to use all of these skills, all of these hard research and data gathering skills?” Yes. 100%. Those are some of those things, like I mentioned, are jurisdictional risk assessment. That was a huge research gathering tool that spans a five-year planning period for us. So having good research skills was huge for me, and being able to bring some of those new and updated skills that I was learning from my MPH to my department was huge. And so I think any of those community-based research, quantitative research, any of those things, qualitative research, I use those a lot in my program.

Also, program implementation. That campaign that we were working on, some of those skills I learned in program implementation was huge for that. And getting people on board with that stages of change. Some of those theories, those were huge. And knowing some of that psychology around behavioral change was really big for me. I use all of those things weekly, daily in my work.

Lauren Lavin:

So lots of different skills.

Madison Snitker Harrelson:

Mm-hmm.

Lauren Lavin:

I think that’s important for students to hear that, especially that research component because it can be easy if you feel like you’re not going to end up in an academic position to be like, “I don’t need those skills.” But it sounds like those are pretty fundamental to a lot of the work that you’re doing.

Madison Snitker Harrelson:

Definitely. I knew I wasn’t going to end up in academia, and I was like, this feels just very much if you were going to be a research assistant or have some sort of teaching role, that it would be more important for folks in academia. But it’s just as important for folks who work in the public sector and the local sector for sure.

Lauren Lavin:

And an important way to engage with the community because how you find out about them and make decisions that are informed based on what you learn.

Madison Snitker Harrelson:

Yes. Exactly.

Lauren Lavin:

So you touched on this earlier, but public health threats are definitely evolving, both natural disasters and then maybe some more health related things. So what are you paying attention to or what’s your county looking at? Climate? Infectious disease? Anything else?

Madison Snitker Harrelson:

Yeah. It is really interesting because looking at our results from our most recent risk assessment to the one we did five years ago, some of those hazards have changed, and my emergency manager and I have been discussing that. That it’s definitely due to some of those changing climate aspects. We’re also seeing a lot of social changes going on. So we’re planning for some of those things like infectious disease outbreaks because of that data that we’re seeing and we’re seeing lower vaccination rates, which is concerning. So we are planning for more infectious disease outbreaks, and we’ve learned a lot of great lessons from COVID-19 that we directly have been assessing and implementing changes in our department’s plans to respond quicker, better, more efficiently. Anything that can better our response to another infectious disease outbreak. Is that going to be on the same level of COVID-19? I would sure hope not, but any of those lessons learned are going to help us with anything, whether it’s a couple measles cases or pertussis in a school. Anything like that is going to help us. And we’ve already been seeing better responses to some of those outbreaks as a direct result of those lessons learned. So that’s a lot of my job too, is looking at where we can improve based on responses and changing hazards so it’s definitely a concern. Yep.

Lauren Lavin:

Have you had a measles case yet?

Madison Snitker Harrelson:

Not here.

Lauren Lavin:

Okay.

Madison Snitker Harrelson:

We’ve had some in counties neighboring to us, like I said, we’re neighboring some larger communities and they’ve had outbreaks. We closely monitor those in our contact with those health departments just in case they would work in Dodge County or live in Dodge County, work in Olmsted County, things like that. So we work very closely with those neighboring health departments and our state department to share resources and information.

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah. Another thing that I was thinking about. So you mentioned that your roles are grants supported. What type of grants are there? Are they federal? State? And is that something that you worry about as funding shifts in the current climate?

Madison Snitker Harrelson:

Yeah. So that’s a good question. PFEP is federal. It’s P-H-E-P, public health emergency preparedness. That’s federal. Comes from the CDC. RSG is state funded. It’s funded down a biennium. So every two years they revisit it, which they just revisited this past year. And then we do have another funding stream that I work directly under that is state funded, and it’s called Foundational Public Health Responsibilities. So a mix. But some of the funding that I work, not necessarily funds my role, but I collaborate with. One of them would be the Hospital Preparedness program, which unfortunately that has been cut, which really impacts our ability to respond as a region to a bigger event. So if it’s a bus crash on a highway or there’s a big event going on in Rochester for a sports event, something like that, it really impacts our ability as a region to be able to coordinate resources, send folks to one hospital north and then another ambulance south. Some of those concerns. So we’re actively preparing for some of those impacts and looking at how can we shift some of our duties and capacity to take on some of that work that’s been cut. So it is hard, and that’s been a huge conversation for us in local public health right now, is how do we take on some of that work that’s now not funded? Difficult.

Lauren Lavin:

And it’ll probably continue to be a conversation going forward.

Madison Snitker Harrelson:

Yeah. Definitely.

Lauren Lavin:

So to wrap this up, what advice would you give to students or young professionals who want to pursue a multifaceted career like you have or just looking to be in a public health role like yours?

Madison Snitker Harrelson:

Yeah. I think one of my biggest learning curves once I started in local public health is grants. That is one thing I wish I would’ve gotten more experience in, whether it was taking a course or working with an advisor or seeking out an internship. I wish I would’ve had more experience in grant management because that is so much of day-to-day work is making sure we are meeting those duties that are outlined in our grants. Because basically what it looks like is every July I’m handed a list for each grant and said, “Here’s what you’re going to focus on for the next 12 months. Here’s money to do it. You need to figure out how you’re going to split that time and what supplies you’re going to need. Transportation. All of those things.” Every single thing we do every single day is managed by grants. So it’s a huge part of my job that isn’t necessarily always prepared for.

So I wish I would’ve had some more experience in that grant management, some budgeting skills in relation to those grants, and then how your day-to-day could be split by different grants. Because it’s basically, like you might have this many hours to work on this grant in a week, this many hours to work in this grant for a week. So a lot more of that grant management opportunities I think would be a really good thing for folks to seek out.

And then also, if you have a passion in something, seek out experiences that will make you that much more well-rounded and diversified. I had a really great opportunity with my advisor, Sato Ashida. She’s great. I don’t know if she’s still there. I hope she is. But she knew I was interested in preparedness and she helped me connect to Johnson County Public Health and make some experiences for me that would make me more well-rounded. There wasn’t very many opportunities for me within the MPH program specific to emergency preparedness, but she helped me find those experiences, and I found some on my own, like becoming a volunteer with the local medical reserve court chapter, which now helps me because I am also the coordinator of our local chapter here. So you just never know what you’re going to get involved in, whether it’s undergrad or grad, that is going to make you that much more well-rounded and diversified of an individual because you never know. And this goes back to grants and spending your time. You never know what grant is going to be …. Here we’re shifting your time down in this and you’re going to add this new grant that we’re applying for. You never know what those experiences that you do in school that are going to help you later on down in your life.

Lauren Lavin:

Absolutely. That is a common theme that I hear when I ask people for advice for students saying yes, and expanding your network. The grant that was unique, and I hope that students listen to that, and even people at the college who are in charge of classes, that’s a good thing for them to keep in their mind because it isn’t something you get a lot of practice in. As a PhD student, I get some, but not even a whole lot, and I hear that that’s a big part of a lot of people’s job is asking for money.

Madison Snitker Harrelson:

Yep. It is. Even in academia, a lot of that work is grant funded, so you do have to do a lot of management there. So it’s definitely an area I would highly encourage folks to touch on.

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah. And then like I said, that saying yes and making and speaking about what it is that you want to do, because you’ll be surprised at how willing people are to connect you or the person that they might know. And so just talking to those networks early and often, I think can be really key to getting students success outside of school.

Madison Snitker Harrelson:

Yep. Talk to people. I can’t stress that enough. Talk to your advisor, talk to people in your department, even if they’re not your advisor. If they research in some area that you’re interested in, talk to them, see if there’s some opportunity that they know of that you can help with or get involved in. I can’t recommend that enough. Is just talking to people, like seeking people out. Don’t just stay in your lane. Don’t just stick to one area because public health is so broad, it’s so multidisciplinary that you will create so many more opportunities for yourself if you just branch out.

Lauren Lavin:

Yep. Well, that was a perfect way to end the podcast. Thank you so much, Madison for being on the podcast today. We really appreciated it. I took a lot away from it, so I hope our listeners did too. That’s it for episode this week. Big thank you to Madison Snitker Harrelson for joining us and sharing such valuable insight into life as a local public health practitioner. From her reflections to the importance of early career networking to the central role of grant management, community trust, and adaptive preparedness strategies, Madison offered concrete advice for anyone hoping to work on the front lines of population health. This episode was hosted and written by Lauren Lavin and edited and produced by Lauren Lavin. You can learn more about the University of Iowa College of Public Health on Facebook. Our podcast is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and SoundCloud. If you enjoyed this episode and would like to help support the podcast, please share it with your colleagues, friends, or anyone interested in public health. Have a suggestion for our team? You can reach us at cph-gradambassador@uiowa.edu. This episode was brought to you by the University of Iowa College of Public Health. Until next week, stay healthy, stay curious, and take care.