Prevention: The Heart of Public Health
Time: Noon to 1:15 pm
Venue: WOW Hall
291 W 8th
Eugene, Oregon
97401
- Join the Livestream
- YouTube
- Podcast
We will meet at the WOW Hall, 291 W 8th. Learn more: https://wowhall.org/about-us/. Walk, ride a bike or take the bus. You may park on the street or in the parking lot of FOOD for Lane County's Dining Room, across 8th from the WOW Hall. A freewill donation acknowledging the Dining Room's generosity may be made at the meeting.
Lunch will be available for $15.
Topic:
“Trust is like the air we breathe – when it’s present, nobody really notices; when it’s absent, everybody notices” ~ Warren Buffett
It has been five years since the COVID global pandemic brought the world to its knees. The pandemic of 2020 laid bare social inequities in the U.S. and precipitated a collapse of public trust in the U.S. government and in science. The U.S. General Social Survey reported that trust in the government has declined from 77% in 1964 to 20% in 2022.
Prior to the COVID pandemic, the public health department was part of our scenery, always present, humming along. It was like the air we breathe – all Americans knowingly or unknowingly interacted with the public health department. We took for granted our vaccine registration cards, the restaurant inspections, the warnings and advisories for potential waves of illness, etc.
However, as our new U.S. Health and Human Services Department Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., proceeds to lay off 10,000 employees from HHS, including from CDC, the FDA, National Institutes of Health, and Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, and the as Make America Healthy Again movement gains traction, it seems an important time to consider the role Lane County Public Health Department plays in our community and how the critical but often invisible work of prevention impacts all of us and our potential to thrive.
Prevention: The Heart of Public Health will include four local speakers. Together they will illustrate the powerful potential to create healthy and thriving communities and how prevention is working here, in Lane County, to promote health and wellness, every day.
Speakers
Title: Senior Public Health Officer
Organization: Lane County
Website: https://www.lanecounty.org/government/county_departments/health_and_human_services/public_health/administration/meet_our_health_officer
Biography:
Biographies are provided by the panelists, then proofread and edited for length.
Dr. Patrick Luedtke is a preventive medicine/primary care physician serving as Lane County’s Senior Public Health Officer and Chief Medical Officer for the DHHS. Dr. Luedtke received his MD from Wisconsin/Marquette University Medical College. He completed his preventive medicine residency and Master’s of Public Health at the University of Utah and Internal Medicine at Naval Hospital Oakland (CA). Dr. Leudtke served as State Public Health Laboratory Director, Deputy State Epidemiologist, State Epidemiologist (acting), and Adult Medicine Director (Medicaid clinics) at the Utah State Health Department.Dr. Luedtke also served as Course Director for the MPH & PhD environmental health/toxicology coursework at the University of Utah. Dr. Luedtke has also served 12 years as an active duty medical officer in the US Navy practicing medicine/public health on America’s coasts, Europe, Africa, Asia, Central/South America. While in the Navy he completed a Tropical Medicine Infections Disease Fellowship, training in the Amazon Basin and Caribbean.
Title: Associate Research Professor
Organization: University of Oregon Prevention Science Institute
Website: https://psi.uoregon.edu/anne-marie-mauricio-phd
Biography:
Biographies are provided by the panelists, then proofread and edited for length.
Anne Marie Mauricio, PhD is an Associate Research Professor at the University of Oregon Prevention Science Institute. She has 20 years of experience collaborating with communities to develop, implement, and evaluate culturally responsive, family-centered, evidence-based interventions. More recent work focused on developing, implementing, and evaluating a brief motivational interviewing intervention to increase uptake of COVID-19 testing and vaccination among people who inject drugs and a culturally responsive outreach program to improve access to COVID-19 testing among Latine communities in Oregon. Anne Marie has been primary investigator or co-investigator on several federally funded grants focused on the implementation and evaluation of evidence-based interventions, with an emphasis on sustainable intervention delivery in community practice settings. She is also a licensed psychologist with extensive experience working with families in community settings, and she is a faculty member in the University of Oregon Counseling Psychology Department, where she trains and supervises students to be psychologists.
Title: Chief Medical Officer
Organization: PeaceHealth Oregon
Website: https://www.peacehealth.org/news/2024-04-09/peacehealth-names-dr-kim-ruscher-chief-medical-officer-its-oregon-network
Biography:
Biographies are provided by the panelists, then proofread and edited for length.
Dr. Kim Ruscher joined PeaceHealth in 2013 as a pediatric surgeon and is an accomplished leader. Renowned for collaboration and problem-solving skills, she is dedicated to supporting the PeaceHealth mission, always keeping the focus on providing high-quality and compassionate care. Dr. Ruscher’s leadership experience includes pediatric specialties chief, vice chief of the medical staff, and surgical chief medical officer. In 2024, she became Chief Medical Officer for PeaceHealth Oregon. With a strong commitment to making a positive impact, Dr. Ruscher fosters wellness and safety in the community. Her connection to Lane County is underscored by her efforts in injury prevention with Safe Kids West Oregon, serving as a past president of Parenting Now, and working with her husband on several initiatives for FOOD For Lane County. In her free time, she enjoys gardening, cooking and quality time with her husband and children.
Title: Division Manager
Organization: Lane County Public Health
Website: https://www.lanecounty.org/government/county_departments/health_and_human_services/public_health
Biography:
Biographies are provided by the panelists, then proofread and edited for length.
Jocelyn Warren, PhD, has been the Division Manager for Lane County Public Health since 2015. She joined Lane County while the state public health system was being redesigned to support overall health system transformation. Jocelyn earned an MPH and PhD in Public Health from the Oregon State University College of Health and worked as a post-doctoral fellow and assistant research professor in health policy and health promotion before joining Lane County. Jocelyn lives south of Springfield with her husband of 29 years and she is the mother of two adult children (one of whom is just beginning her public health career in New York City).
