Overview

September 16

State health departments are swamped with their responses to COVID-19 and the recent monkeypox outbreak, making it difficult to map out data modernization strategies. But two public health agencies, the Iowa Department of Public Health and Maryland Department of Health, have successfully adopted a "working backwards" approach to strategic development. With the assistance of Amazon Web Services (AWS), these agencies have crafted roadmaps to their future ideal states, complete with goals and metrics to chart the course.

Join Government Technology on September 16 at 10 a.m. Pacific/1 p.m. Eastern to learn about how public health agencies can both imagine and achieve a strategic vision for data modernization. During this webinar, you will learn how:

· Iowa is moving toward a low-code configurable disease surveillance solution.
· Maryland is breaking down data silos to improve community health.
· AWS can enable you to manage the heavy lift of strategic development, ideation, and execution.

Speakers

Katherine Feldman

Chief Public Health Scientist and Advisor, Maryland Department of Health

Dr. Katherine Feldman is a public health practitioner and veterinarian with over 23 years of experience working in public health. She is the Chief Public Health Scientist in the Office of the Deputy Secretary for Public Health Services at the Maryland Department of Health (MDH), where she leads a number of initiatives and activities; these include strengthening public health infrastructure and supporting the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Most recently, she led the contact tracing program for Maryland as Director of the MDH Contact Tracing Unit. Her previous experience includes serving as the State Public Health Veterinarian and Chief of the Center for Zoonotic and Vectorborne Diseases at MDH for over ten years and leading complex projects for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a Principal Epidemiologist with the MITRE Corporation. She completed applied epidemiology and preventive medicine fellowships with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the California Department of Public Health. Dr. Feldman was awarded her veterinary degree from Cornell University and a Master of Public Health degree with an emphasis in epidemiology from the University of California, Berkeley. She is a Diplomate in the American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine and earned her certification in the Epidemiology Specialty of that College.

Sarah Reisetter

Deputy Director, Iowa Department of Public Health

Sarah Reisetter began a new role as the deputy director and chief of compliance for the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services in July 2022. Prior to this Sarah served as the Iowa Department of Public Health’s deputy director for six years. From 2015-2016, she was bureau chief for the Bureau of Professional Licensure. Sarah served as the director of elections for the State of Iowa from 2008-2014, where her responsibilities included oversight of all federal, state and local elections and voter registration processes. She served as deputy auditor for a local county government prior to working for the state. Sarah earned a law degree and bachelor’s degree from the University of Iowa, becoming a member of the Iowa bar in 2006. As deputy director and chief of compliance, Sarah is responsible for oversight of the department's administrative rules, contracting, procurement, data sharing and privacy, medical cannibidiol program, and professional licensing and regulation. She is also leading the legislative directive to align the Departments of Human Services and Public Health into one department. Sarah currently serves as the interim division director for the Division of Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention and the Division of Behavioral Health.

Jim Daniel

Leader, State and Local Public Health, Amazon Web Services

Jim Daniel is the Public Health leader for Amazon Web Services’ state and local government team. As the Public Health Leader, Jim helps state and local health departments as well as government owned providers and Health Information Exchanges modernize their Health IT infrastructure to help these customers improve health outcomes. Prior to joining AWS, Jim served for almost a decade with the United States Department of Health and Human Services where he promoted public health innovation including development of the Immunization Gateway and consumer access to immunization information systems. He also lead the efforts for state and local health departments to receive data from electronic health records as part of the HITECH program and the massive transition of healthcare providers from paper records to electronic records. Before joining the federal government, Jim was the Chief Information Officer for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Jim also holds an adjunct position in Drug Regulatory Affairs with the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Services.

Bill Rials — Moderator

Senior Fellow, Center for Digital Government

William (Bill) Rials, Ph.D., is a professor and associate director (department chair) of the Tulane University School of Professional Advancement IT and Cybersecurity Program, where he focuses on continually delivering and updating the program curriculum based on innovative and emerging technologies. Before transitioning to academia and higher education, he had a diverse gov tech career delivering value to state agencies, local governments, and law enforcement agencies throughout the state of Mississippi. He has served in CIO, CTO, and CISO roles for local governments and also in various leadership positions within the state of Mississippi’s IT organization as a deputy to the state CIO. Dr. Rials holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Belhaven University, a master’s degree in computer information systems and cybersecurity from Missouri State University, as well as a Ph.D. in higher education administration and public administration from Jackson State University. His dissertation research involved the critical factors that affect the adoption of cloud services within the public sector. He is a noted expert in the IT and cybersecurity space and is frequently quoted by national media outlets. He is also a frequent contributor to national IT government organizations such as NASTD and NASCIO.

Webinar

Working Backwards: Data Modernization for Public Health