Two Iowans Earn National Honors for Advancing Public Health
Two Iowans recently were awarded national public health awards by the National Conference of Immunization Coalitions and Partnerships. Zuli Garcia, founder of Knock & Drop Iowa, has been named recipient of the 2025 Equity in Immunization Award and Blank Children’s Hospital general pediatrician Dr. Nathan Boonstra was awarded the 2025 Immunization Leadership Award.
Taking it to the Streets
It's a bitter cold Sunday morning in January and a group of volunteers has gathered at the Union Gospel Mission in downtown Sioux Falls. Bundled up against the frigid temperatures, they're filling collapsible wagons with medical supplies like vaccines and blood pressure cuffs, along with snacks, bottled water, and cold weather gear…
Long-Awaited Vision Of Collaboration Is Realized
Years of dreaming, planning and anticipation culminated into jubilant celebration for the School of Health Sciences officials, students, alumni and friends on Sept. 8, when hundreds gathered at the southwest corner of the University of South Dakota campus to officially welcome students to South Dakota’s newest home for health careers education, a state-of-the-art Center for Health Education building.
Improving Population Health through the Intersection of Public Health, healthcare, and Everything in Between
Collaboration of public health, healthcare, and diverse sectors are necessary ingredients to improving population health. Unfortunately, despite increasing healthcare costs projected to reach $5.5 billion by 2030, “health outcomes in the United States continue to fall behind other developed countries”.1 Over the past twenty years the global burden of mortality and morbidity has shifted from communicable diseases to noncommunicable diseases and associated risk factors. Specifically, rural America, which comprises a majority of the Midwest, is disproportionately affected by health outcomes due to social, economic, and environmental factors.