Publications by authors named "Laura Powis"
Purpose: This paper proposes a framework for characterizing policy engagement that expands options available to MCH and other public health professionals. Its aim is to inform workforce capacity building and empower practitioners to better leverage policy for advancing population health and equity.
Description: Policies of all types strongly influence population health and equity.
Background: Evidence is central to all maternal and child health (MCH) decision-making processes, continuously interacting with and influencing our work. There is a growing emphasis in MCH on using evidence-based approaches when addressing public health challenges, but the field lacks a unified understanding of what constitutes evidence. MCH must operate from an expansive understanding of evidence that centers community voice and acknowledges the role of evidence prioritization in achieving equitable population-level outcomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- The National Maternal and Child Health Workforce Development Center offers a Cohort program for Title V programs, focusing on leadership development to tackle health system challenges over 6-8 months.
- Qualitative evaluations show that 94% of participating teams made progress on their identified challenges within six months, highlighting improvements in skills such as strategic thinking and communication.
- The program fostered stronger partnerships, increased project sustainability, and ultimately contributed to better population health outcomes, emphasizing the importance of investing in workforce skill development to address complex public health issues.
Objectives: Since 2013 the MCH Bureau has supported the National MCH Workforce Development Center to strengthen the Title V MCH workforce. This article describes the Center's Cohort Program and lessons learned about work-based learning, instruction, and coaching.
Description: The Cohort Program is a leadership development program that enrolls state-level teams for skill development and work-based learning to address a self-identified challenge in their state.
Background & Aims: Biofortification of staple crops with higher levels of micronutrients via traditional breeding methods is a sustainable strategy and can possibly complement fortification and other interventions to target micronutrient deficiencies in low resource settings, particularly among vulnerable populations such as children. We aimed to determine if iron- and zinc-biofortified pearl millet (FeZnPM, Dhanashakti, ICTP-8203Fe)-based complementary feeding improves nutritional status, including iron biomarkers and growth, in children living in urban slums of Mumbai.
Methods: We conducted a randomized controlled trial of FeZnPM among 223 children aged 12-18 months who were not severely anemic at baseline (hemoglobin ≥9.