Betty Hubbard Award Recipients

2023 Betty Hubbard MCH Leadership Award

Faith Kidder was awarded the Betty Hubbard Maternal and Child Health Leadership Award for her contributions in advancing the delivery of culturally and linguistically responsive preventative health care for children, youth, and families from historically oppressed communities.

Kidder retired from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) in 2023 as the child health consultant for the agency’s Child and Teen Checkups program. Prior to her more than a decade of service at MDH, Kidder held a variety of positions also dedicated to improving maternal and child health, such as a certified emergency medical technician and pediatric nurse practitioner.

During her career, Kidder’s leadership and engagement with partners led to statewide evidence-based standards for pediatric preventive care being created and adopted by Minnesota’s Medicaid program for children and youth. She worked with the Minnesota Autism Interagency Workgroup to raise awareness about need for early identification and support for families. She also addressed the critical and under-resourced issue of early childhood oral health, helped shape developmental screening best practices in well child care and worked with the Minnesota Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee to create recommendations for change and standards for health care for youth involved in the juvenile justice system.

Connie Hagen received the community award for her career-long dedication to being an advocate for breastfeeding in northern Minnesota.

Hagen, a maternal and child health care provider, recently retired from Pennington and Red Lake County Public Health and Home Care after serving new mothers, babies and families for more than 21 years. Hagen began working as a registered nurse in 1976. Since then, she has dedicated her career to assisting people with their breastfeeding and early parenting journey. She used that expertise as an international board-certified lactation consultant to support new mothers and families beginning in pregnancy through the early years of the child's life. Hagen was the facilitator for the Community Breastfeeding Coalition and kept staff and partners in the community up to date on the workplace breastfeeding policies and legislative updates. She initiated the Breastfeeding Friendly Workplace recognition for the Pennington and Red Lake County Public Health Department and worked on creating a room for breastfeeding needs in the building, as well as setting up designated areas for breastfeeding needs at local county fairs.

Angela Watts received the community award for working throughout her career to support maternal and child public health activities and create community-driven solutions that result in improved outcomes for American Indian and communities of color experiencing health inequities.

Watts is currently the director of Health Equity Strategic Initiatives and Impact at Hennepin Healthcare. Originally hired by Hennepin Healthcare as the Director of the Redleaf Center for Family Healing, Watts co-led the physical construction of the new center. As a partner in Ramsey County's Birth Equity Community Council, Watts is helping to address birth outcomes through policy change, and she has been an integral leader in the Hennepin County Birth Justice Collaborative. Her career encompasses Hennepin County Health and Human Services, Minnesota’s Children’s Museum, and work with former Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges. Angela has spent her career working to improve the health outcomes of Black and brown mothers and children in the Twin Cities through strategic and authentic relationships and is always looking for ways to work the community partners and agencies.

2022 Betty Hubbard MCH Leadership Award

Dr. Rhonda Cady was awarded the Betty Hubbard MCH Leadership Award for her exceptional statewide contributions in transforming the care of Minnesota children living with medical complexity and their families.

Dr. Cady is a remarkable Nursing Research Specialist/Clinical Scientist and leader of Gillette Children’s Health Services Research Program who has devoted her incredible skillset to fundamentally change how providers work with patients and families to drive the research agenda and operationalize patient and family centric care. She has been a fierce champion and a strong collaborator and advocate for true parent and family engagement in healthcare and improving care for children and youth with medical complexity for the past 15 years.

One of the greatest impacts that Dr. Cady has made is through her leadership and influence to change the way that organizations develop and operationalize parent engagement. She has forged partnerships with Family Voices and the Minnesota Department of Health to ensure Minnesota is a leader in creating and disseminating what integrated parent and family engagement looks like in healthcare.

Dr. Cady’s ability to draw connections has also enabled Gillette’s Internal Medicine/Pediatrics department to build multidisciplinary teams across Gillette and beyond, collaborating with parent advocacy groups such as Family Voices of Minnesota, DME companies such as Pediatric Home Services, Group Home leaders at ACR Homes, and leaders within the Minnesota Department of Health to further the transition of pediatric patients with medical complexities into adulthood.

Because of Dr. Cady’s guidance and mentorship, Gillette has successfully attained several grants to further the transition of pediatric patients with medical complexity into adulthood. Through the HRSA CoIIN grant, she developed the Gillette parent advisor role, working closely with our complex care community to empower parents to work alongside providers and to be a force for change in all aspects of quality improvement initiatives.

As a result of Dr. Cady’s work, quality improvement and translational research in the complex care and transition clinics at Gillette now require patient/family involvement. Her legacy will live on at Gillette in the collaboration of parent and patient advisors alongside Gillette providers and staff.

She inspires healthcare team members to challenge the status quo and innovate care in a way that has a substantial impact on the patients and families that we serve. Dr. Cady has made a difference in the lives of patients and families across the state of Minnesota for decades and her passion and research has had a national impact through her leadership on national care coordination initiatives. Her expertise and knowledge has led her team to affect change for patients and identify more effective tools to provide high quality care of patients such as the generation of Gillette’s transition order set and the transition readiness questionnaire for spina bifida.

She has inspired countless nursing students and colleagues to pursue quality improvement and research projects that have improved care delivery. These efforts have made an impact well beyond the state of Minnesota as Rhonda collaborates with leading experts in care coordination for children and youth with medical complexity across the nation and frequently disseminates care advancements through research articles and conference presentations.

Lori Swanson received the Betty Hubbard MCH Leadership Award for her exceptional community-level contributions to improve the lives of families, birthing mothers, infants, and children health outcomes by providing a greater holistic care model.

Lori has dedicated her career serving women and children. At FirstPlan, she created and managed a prenatal wellness program. At Essentia Health, she worked in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit as an obstetrics nurse clinician. Since 2011, Lori has been with St Luke’s where she has served as the manager of the inpatient Maternal Child Health Unit for 9 years. In 2020, she was promoted to the Director of Women & Children’s Services where she oversees the inpatient and outpatient areas of pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, as well as the birthing center, which includes the nursery.

Lori has been a strong advocate for equity in maternal and child health through the initiatives and programs at St. Luke’s and make it a welcoming place for all families and honoring their journeys in the health care system whether it’s filled with joy and new beginnings or a painful loss. Through her leadership, St. Luke’s launched several initiatives and programs. She oversaw many advancements at St. Luke’s Birthing Center, including the complete renovation of the Birthing Center in 2017, as well as implementing the “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” tune that sounds throughout the hospital when each and every baby is born. Lori also oversaw projects at St. Luke’s that bring comfort to families a perinatal loss grief support group to support patients who suffered a miscarriage, stillbirth, or newborn death. St. Luke’s now provides care packages to help families cherish the memories of lost babies through items such as hand molds.

Lori worked to help St. Luke’s receive Baby Friendly designation, become a Minnesota Breastfeeding-Friendly Maternity Center 5-star Designee, and to become a Certified Safe Sleep Leader-SILVER, the first hospital in the state to accomplish this. Lori coordinated St. Luke’s participation in the MN Milk Bank initiative to facilitate the availability of donor milk to babies and families.

Lori served families in Minnesota through her leadership and collaboration with health, education and social services systems, service providers, and other professionals to improve the health of the Northland families. She has tirelessly worked with St. Louis County social workers and St. Luke’s staff to create and implement the Healthy Mom Safe Baby Program, a program designed for moms who are using illicit/controlled substances while pregnant to receive care from St. Luke’s Maternal Child Health Care Coordinator so that all measures on the MHA Perinatal NAS roadmap are maintained, and to increase the quality of care for moms and their babies and to keep families together.

Lori also helped lead the way on quality improvement efforts that ensure better outcomes for women and children in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin. She has reduced postpartum hemorrhage rates in the Birthing Center, championed initiatives to increase Hepatitis B vaccine uptake in newborns, significantly improved depression screening for children ages 11-17, and greatly enhanced asthma maintenance and education in the pediatric clinic.

For pediatric patients, Lori has worked to improve asthma care and education and increase the rate of childhood immunizations in our area. One of the ways she did this was to encourage patient participation in Well Child Visits and by creating an Immunization Coordinator role. She also helped lead the creation of a 24/7 pediatric hospitalist program to better serve newborns and children of all ages who are hospitalized.

She has spent countless hours planning and orchestrating major fundraising events for resources to benefit newborns and their families in the community with the greatest need.

2020 Betty Hubbard MCH Leadership Award

Hazel Tanner was awarded the 2021 Betty Hubbard Leadership Award for making exceptional community-level contributions to the health of Minnesota’s mothers, children and families.

Hazel is a retired public health nurse and community volunteer who has decades of service in maternal and child health in the Twin Cities communities. For 16 years, Hazel worked as a School Nurse with Minneapolis Public Schools and many years as a Public Health Nurse with Minneapolis Department of Public Health and community volunteer. She coordinated Minority Childhood Health Improvement program for minority teen mothers, consulted with Way to Grow on home visitors training, and supervised Way to Grow’s public health nurses.

Hazel has a long, significant history of bringing professional expertise, cultural knowledge, and strong commitment to supporting equity in health care for Minnesota’s richly diverse communities and has worked on a myriad of health issues with a keen eye on healthy futures for infants, children, and families. She has pioneered two key Maternal Health programs, MinCHIP and Way to Grow. These programs played a distinct role in shaping the health of her African American community.

Hazel had a strong belief that her efforts in the extensive and ongoing training and supervision of the Home Visitors (like a version of today’s Community Health Workers) and the Public Health Nurses who worked in the programs were the glue to the program’s success. She drafted, designed, and implemented a curriculum to train Home Visitors for the Phillips neighborhood that represented one of the highest rates of infant mortality and maternal morbidity. Hazel’s work was the catalyst in creating an early childhood initiative (Success By 6) launched by the United Way of Minneapolis to raise awareness on the issue of early childhood development beginning with risk factors of prenatal care early child development, parent education, school, and employment readiness.

After retirement from Minneapolis Public Health, she remains very active in the community. Hazel continues to participate in infant mortality conferences, develop school health fairs, and encourage youth to enter health careers. Her advocacy for the community health worker as the critical change agent in building the relationship change for healthy family living is ongoing.
Hazel has proven in the past that culturally focused home visiting improved babies’ ability to thrive during the first year of life. Her recent work (2019-2020) to continue to support that concept is demonstrated by her being a mentor for MDH Community Voices and Solutions (CVAS) Co-Learning cohort’s workgroup to enhance CHW curriculum and practicum for the maternal and child health section. Hazel led the group in reviewing the current Community Health Workers (CHW) curriculum and making recommendations to increase the maternal and child health hours for CHW training, so they are better prepared to meet the needs of the community.

In addition, Hazel sees the need to move public discourse of “What’s wrong with the mother,” and was vital to the creation of CVAS equity-focused African American Infant Mortality Narrative to change the existing public narrative that has been imposed on the community for decades by individuals who do not represent the community.
Her consistent advocacy in challenging the city, county, public schools, and state to have more culturally focused resources and services for better birth outcomes that have been the catalyst to many policies changes that is still being fought today.

Hazel’s passion for a healthy and thriving community, children and families is unwavering. She remains hopeful, and as a board member, she is actively involved with Integrated Care for High-Risk Pregnancy (ICHRP, pronounced i-chirp), an avid always sharing current national articles and data around maternal and child health to her network and is available to provide input and insight to those early in their MCH career. Since 2017, Hazel has assisted the development of ICHRP as a successful pilot program and proven concept. She advocated to get Governor Tim Walz to include funding for ICHRP in the governor’s budget for 2021, funding that will scale-up ICHRP to serve more pre- and post-natal families by giving closer attention to social determinants of health, which disproportionately affect African American families.

Hazel is a long-term executive leader of the Minnesota Black Nurses Association, Inc., an organization whose mission is to reduce health disparities among African Americans. Her experience as a nurse in several sectors makes her a trusted advisor in the community. She is in constant contact with health, education, and social services agencies and professionals through consulting work, volunteering, and work on various committees and task forces. Hazel’s long nursing service in Twin Cities communities has always focused on health disparities. She is very close to health issues impacting infants, children zero to age 12, teens, mothers, and their families. She also actively includes men in her work especially because fathers are often ignored in healthcare processes focused on pregnant and/or parenting women. She is intentionally focused on collaborative work with health, education, social service systems to assist them in improving community health. Hazel has demonstrated a long-term commitment and passion to supporting families and children and is a true legend in the Twin Cities communities.

Mary Johnson was awarded the 2020 Betty Hubbard MCH Leadership Award at the statewide level for her contributions to improve the health of Minnesota women, infants and families.

As the first State WIC Breastfeeding Coordinator in Minnesota, Mary has a 35-year history of working to normalize, promote and protect breastfeeding as the optimum feeding for infants and young children, and as protective of women's health.  She brought to her position an extraordinary vision of identifying barriers to breastfeeding and working tirelessly to find solutions. Mary helped rebrand WIC as a nutrition and breastfeeding program and ensured WIC agencies and tribal communities throughout Minnesota had evidence-based breastfeeding training.

She recognized that broad community support and community representation were essential to getting consistent and effective breastfeeding messaging out to families across Minnesota. Mary initiated and coordinated WIC working with communities of Native Americans, Somalis, African Americans, and Hmong. These collaborations revealed unique needs, which led to the development of culturally specific breastfeeding materials and training. Among many outcomes was the community-led creation of the Indigenous Breastfeeding Coalition.

She is recognized throughout the state as an incredible and tireless advocate for mothers and babies especially those who face more barriers (economic, social, cultural or physical) to achieving breastfeeding success. Breastfeeding rates steadily increased during her tenure. Disparities in breastfeeding between WIC participants and non-participants are lower in Minnesota than in most states and Mary can take much credit for helping achieve the reduction in disparities.

Mary also worked to increase support for working families, incarcerated breastfeeding women, and she advocated for increased diversity in the Minnesota Breastfeeding Coalition. She was recognized throughout the Health Department as a knowledgeable and trusted resource. Mary always worked closely and collaboratively with state and local WIC staff to implement policies and practices; collect, display, and explain data; and disseminate information. Some examples include:

• Working collaboratively with Office of Statewide Health Improvement Initiatives to create the MDH Breastfeeding-Friendly Recognition Program for childcare centers, local health departments, maternity centers and workplaces, to promote, support and recognize local efforts in protecting breastfeeding. 
• Hosting Quarterly Breastfeeding metro-area meetings of local WIC breastfeeding coordinators, local providers, health insurance plan staff, and other advocates to discuss issues, network, and share resources.  
• Partnering with local public health agencies to identify businesses to participate in the Lactation Friendly Workplace Program that created 84 lactation rooms in 72 businesses across the state. Businesses ranged in size from a few employees to large businesses with thousands of employees.

Mary has worked to increase the scope of breastfeeding awareness, education and support by partnering with national experts in the field of breastfeeding to bring high quality training to our state. Throughout her career, Mary traveled to many remote locations across Minnesota over the years to provide basic training on breastfeeding to new WIC staff.  In the last few years before her retirement, Mary would travel to small communities to provide training when requested by local agencies. 

She developed successful, innovative programs in maternal and child health in Minnesota that have widened the scope and networking abilities of local communities to increase knowledge and support of breastfeeding within their communities: Breastfeeding Peer Counselor Program, “Grow and Glow” training, the 5-day Certified Lactation Specialist and Counselor trainings, Breastfed Babies Welcomed Here program for daycare providers, and Loving Support, Makes Breastfeeding Work program for healthcare professionals. Mary organized and facilitated hundreds of meetings across the state to bring like-minded people together to work on improving breastfeeding initiation and duration rates across the state. Mary has always been the “torch-bearer” for breastfeeding and a champion of those underserved populations across the state.

Karen Adamson was awarded the 2020 Betty Hubbard MCH Leadership for exceptional community-level contributions to the health of Minnesota’s mothers and children.

Karen spent her entire 40+ year public health career working to improve the health and lives of mothers and children in various roles at Hennepin County Public Health, from working in a small Hennepin County Public Health pediatric clinic, to performing case management for children with disabilities, to managing the Maternal and Child Health Early Childhood program within Hennepin County Public Health.

Bringing her public health perspective and keen knowledge of programs and funding, Karen represented maternal and child health perspectives in cross-sector research and public policy work that involved the healthcare and human services systems. She was a team member in a national learning collaborative, along with Minnesota Department of Human Service leaders, the Center for Health Care Strategies, Zero to Three, and the National Association of Medicaid Directors, that focused on maximizing Medicaid funding in the critical first 1,000 days of life to leverage healthcare dollars in upstream services.

Karen served on a Hennepin County and University of Minnesota-led research project evaluating cross-sector service utilization among children and families with complex needs involved in Hennepin County’s Child Protection system to determine which systems families utilized for out-of-home placement and to identify where and how high-risk families might be better served. She was also a public health representative and subject matter expert on Hennepin County’s Interagency Early Intervention Policy Council charged with identifying and developing screening standards and follow-up services for children ages 0-5 with developmental disabilities and children at-risk of developmental delays and highly mobile families with young children. The work of the committee was later adopted at the state level. Because of Karen's leadership, Hennepin County Maternal and Child Health/Early Childhood programs were highly regarded and considered innovative in their approaches to serving young children. Examples of her collaboration within and across county government to support maternal and child health include:

• Advocating for and developing a partnership with the Minnesota Visiting Nurses Association to work with parenting teens enrolled in the Hennepin County MFIP program. These parenting teens had the support of a nurse visiting monthly, which reduced barriers so they could stay on track to graduate from high school. They also received evidenced-based curriculum promoting positive parent-child interaction.
• Bringing long-term, intensive home visiting services to our most at-risk families in Hennepin County. The program made a significant impact on decreasing child protection referrals for these families with the anticipation of better long-term outcomes for the children.
• Assigning a Hennepin County social worker and public health nurse to all Early Childhood Special Education programs in Hennepin County schools. Social workers and public health nurses worked closely with early childhood school professionals to address social service and public health needs of children with special needs and their families.
• Developing trauma-informed services with several Hennepin County providers to address the needs of families experiencing this harsh issue.

Karen was a proponent of integrating services. Under her direction, Hennepin County Public Health’s Maternal and Child Health programs worked closely with other areas serving young children to better serve the needs of families with young children. She was active in the local Public Health Association of Minnesota, serving on various work groups, the Metro Alliance for Home Visiting, Hennepin County Interagency Early Intervention Policy Council, served as a member of the Governor’s Interagency Coordinating Council for several years, served two terms on Maternal and Child Health Advisory Task Force. Karen embodies the spirit of hard, strategic work and advocacy for the marginalized that the Betty Hubbard award represents.

2019 Betty Hubbard MCH Leadership Award Recipients

The 2019 Betty Hubbard Leadership in Maternal and Child Health Awards were presented at the December 6, 2019 MCH Advisory Task Force meeting. The leadership awards went to a nonprofit organization and an individual who have made exceptional contributions to the health of Minnesota's mothers and children.

Statewide Award recipient Minnesota Prison Doula Project (pictured is Raelyn Baker, Program Director).

Statewide:

Minnesota Prison Doula Project was selected as the Betty Hubbard Leadership Award for its contributions to maternal and child health with outcomes at the statewide level. Launched in 2011, the Minnesota Prison Doula Project (MnPDP) is the first of its kind in the state to provide pregnancy, birth and parenting support from trained doulas, as well as group-based and individual education and support, to incarcerated parents throughout the State of Minnesota. The organization works with those serving sentences at the Minnesota Correctional Facility (MCF) – Shakopee. As Minnesota's only women's state prison, MCF-Shakopee serves women from across the state. MnPDP also serves parents held in county correctional facilities throughout Minnesota, including Beltrami, Carlton, Crow Wing, Hennepin, Olmsted, Pine, St. Louis, and Ramsey Counties. The Ramsey County Correctional Facility partnered with the MnPDP to create a program that would offer contact visits between mother and child for mothers participating in the program. Despite their many obstetric risk factors (e.g., poverty, substance use, illness) women who have received support through MnPDP have had remarkable birth outcomes. Rates of caesarean delivery, preterm birth, low birth weight and NICU admissions are lower among incarcerated women receiving doula services through MnPDP than state averages. Minnesota Prison Doula Project led a successful statewide effort in 2014 to pass legislation on the care and treatment of pregnant incarcerated women to outlaw the use of restraints during and just after childbirth in Minnesota prisons and jails and to guarantee care and access to doula support. The organization has become regarded as a national model in providing programs and services to incarcerated pregnant women, and in the past three years, numerous other states have sought training and technical assistance from the MnPDP leadership team. Today, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia and Virginia have all modeled their current and developing programs after Minnesota Prison Doula Project’s model.

Pictured: Community Award recipient Bonnie Herrick.

Community:

Bonnie Herrick, RN, MPH, was selected as the Betty Hubbard Leadership Award recipient for her contributions to maternal and child health with outcomes at the community level. Ms. Herrick's career as a Public Health Nurse spans more than 23 years, with much of her career focused on Maternal and Child Health. In her role as MCH Coordinator and Healthy Families American supervisor for Winona County, Bonnie is a strong advocate and collaborator for public health. She was instrumental in implementing the Healthy Families America model of Evidenced-Based Family Home Visiting in Winona County. She has provided testimony and education regarding MCH and family home visiting to the Winona County Community Health Board. She provides one on one education to County Board members and is a strong advocate for public health. Bonnie cares deeply about children and programs that promote healthy parent child relationships and has served on countless community wide committees that support families, including the Winona Breastfeeding Support Coalition, Infant Mental Health Coalition, Birth to Three and Winona Health, to name a few. She has presented to fellow MCH staff at the regional level and provides mentoring and training to newly hired Public Health Nurses at Winona County and to student nurses from Winona State University and Viterbo College. She has the ability to work with others to achieve common goals and has collaborated with numerous organizations representing a variety of programs that focus on improving the lives of children and families such as breastfeeding support, adoption counseling, postpartum mood disorder collaborations, child care, pregnancy, postpartum and family planning services, school districts, and support services for families. Bonnie is also a strong advocate for Teen Parents, families experiencing mental health challenges, and the Parent-Child relationship. Bonnie has successfully collaborated with the local school district to provide the Teen Parent Program (Parents Achieving Success) that has helped many young parents care for their infants while they continue their education and graduate from high school.

2018 Betty Hubbard Leadership Awards Presentation

The 2018 Betty Hubbard Leadership in Maternal and Child Health Awards were presented at the December 7, 2018 MCH Advisory Task Force meeting. The leadership awards went to two individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the health of Minnesota's mothers and children.

Statewide Award recipient Pamela Galle.

Statewide:

Pamela Galle, IBCLC was selected as the Betty Hubbard Leadership Award recipient for her contributions to maternal and child health with outcomes at the statewide level. Ms. Galle is an International Board Certified Lactation consultant and has a long has a long career working in several venues to promote healthier babies, mothers and families through supporting, protecting and promoting breastfeeding at the local, regional and statewide levels. Ms. Galle has convened 13 Breastfeeding Summits, providing opportunities for regional hospitals, clinics, and public health to share best practices, and to further enhance collaboration between organizations. She founded the Northland Breastfeeding Coalition. Under her leadership, the Northeast region of Minnesota has outpaced other Minnesota regions in maternal perinatal hospital practices and served as a statewide model. In 2017, in partnership with MDH Statewide Health Improvement Partnership, the Northland Breastfeeding Coalition has brought together public health, hospitals and community to provide networking, resources and training opportunities, including "Breastfeeding Management in Primary Care - for physicians" and "Breastfeeding Management and Counseling for the Health Care Team: A Deep Dive". Statewide, Ms. Galle has worked with the Minnesota Breastfeeding Coalition (MBC) since its founding in 2009, has served on its Board of Directors and on many subcommittees. She has represented the MBC at the U.S. Breastfeeding Committee and Midwest region breastfeeding committee. Her work with the Minnesota Breastfeeding Coalition in promoting Baby-Friendly Hospital practices through the MBC's four Perinatal Hospital Leadership Summits has helped in Minnesota's statewide increase in BFHI-certified hospitals from two in 2012 to 14 in 2018. For the last several years, Ms. Galle has also worked successfully with the Northeast MN and Fond du Lac WIC peer programs to increase breastfeeding initiation and duration rates in the region. Through her work the Northeast region's Maternity Practice in Infant Nutrition and Care score has risen from 75.9 in 2011, to 92.1 in 2015.

Community Award recipient Marily Deling.

Community:

Marily Deling, RN, PHN, MA was selected as the Betty Hubbard Leadership Award recipient for her contributions to maternal and child health with outcomes at the community level. Ms. Deling has 43 years of experience in Maternal and Child Health nursing, 41 years of public health nursing experience, including 20 years of experience as a Public Health Nurse Co-Manager of 19 public health nurses the Healthy Children and Families Division, with oversight of the Family Home Visiting program, at Olmsted County Public Health Services (OCPHS). She has played a key role in the incorporation of many evidence-based practices and models into the Olmstead County Public Health Maternal and Child Health Program, which allowed the Healthy Children and Families department to receive national accreditation. As a member of the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) Work Group of the Olmsted County BRIDGE Collaborative, Ms. Deling influenced the organizing, planning and selection of content for well-attended, service provider trainings on the topics of historical trauma, ACES and trauma informed care. She implemented ACES screening as part of the OCPHS FHV program in addition to post- partum depression, domestic violence, substance abuse, parent child interactions, and home safety screenings. She is dedicated to improving conditions for parents and families. Ms. Deling helped to start the first Olmsted Area Breastfeeding Coalition in 1998. She was an early pioneer of collaboration and was instrumental in the development of the first Olmsted County Family Services Collaborative called FACES in 1995 and was a member of the Goal Three Committee. This group conducted the first prenatal to age 5 gaps assessment and found a lack of programs and services offered to children 24 -36 months of age. As a result, she expanded the OCPHS FHV program eligibility guidelines to include these children. Early Head Start Services were later started in Olmsted County. Ms. Deling helped to open the first of its kind and nationally accredited Child Advocacy Center in Rochester, MN and served on its Advisory Committee for eight years. The Child Advocacy Center provides coordinated community response to children and families affected by child sexual abuse. Under Ms. Deling leadership, there are measurable improvements among families served in the Health Children and Families Division's Family Home Visiting. For example, from 2012 to 2016, there was a 119% increase in breastfeeding duration greater than or equal to six months in length, a 71% increase in postpartum depression screenings, a stable 85% of clients reporting no subsequent pregnancy at 24 months post-partum, and a 44% reduction in teen births. Most notably, due to her esteemed knowledge and expertise, Ms. Deling was selected to serve on Governor Dayton's Early Learning Council, whose goal is to create a high-quality early childhood system in Minnesota by ensuring that all children are school-ready by 2020.