Putting Public Health Evidence into Practice: Tools for Implementing and Adapting Evidence-Based Programs

Ninfa Pe?a-Purcell, PhD, MCHES, is professor and research scientist for Texas A&M Center for Population Health and Aging. She serves as an adjunct professor with the Texas A&M Health Science Center School of Rural Public Health. Dr. Pe?a-Purcell is author of numerous health programs including ?S?, Yo Puedo Controlar M? Diabetes! (S?, Yo Puedo) and Wisdom, Power, Control, which are culturally tailored diabetes education programs targeting Hispanic/Latinos and African Americans, respectively. These programs are nationally recognized diabetes education programs. For over twenty years, Dr. Pe?a-Purcell has been contributing to public health research and practice through her work in chronic disease prevention and management, worksite health promotion, opioid misuse prevention and cultural competency. Her passion is to improve health outcomes among underserved populations. With a focus on personal empowerment, Dr. Pe?a-Purcell commits her time to partnering with community organizations to speak on various health and wellness topics.

Dr. Escoffery is a Professor in the department of Behavioral, Health, and Social Sciences at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory. She has studied cancer prevention and control and the uptake of evidence-based interventions for over 15 years. She is the PI of the Emory Cancer Prevention and Control Research Network which is exploring multilevel interventions to increase HPV vaccination among rural residents in GA. She is active in SOPHE at the state and national level.

Jennifer Leeman, DrPH, MDiv is an Associate Professor in the School of Nursing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Leeman has extensive engaging with community and clinical partners to implement evidence-based interventions in a range of practice settings. Since 2012, she has served as principal investigator of UNC?s member center within the Cancer Prevention and Control Research Network, an NIH/CDC-funded network of 8 centers to advance dissemination and implementation (D&I) science in the area of cancer prevention and control. She also serves as a principal investigator on a CDC-funded study testing the broad scale implementation of a healthy lifestyle intervention. In addition, Dr. Leeman is or has been the lead implementation scientist on more than a dozen studies in departments of public health, Federally Qualified Health Centers, primary care clinics, skilled nursing facilities, nurse home visitor programs, and rural emergency departments.

Mary Wangen, MPH, is a Research Associate for the Comprehensive Cancer Control Collaborative of North Carolina (4CNC) and serves as the project manager of the UNC Evaluation and Technical Assistance Team with North Carolina?s Colorectal Cancer Screening Program (CRCCP). She earned her MPH in Health Behavior from the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health. Her research interests include disseminating and implementing evidence-based interventions into practice to promote healthy behaviors and prevent chronic disease. She has experience in qualitative research, program evaluation, project management, and research administration, and is bilingual in English and Spanish.