Policy Fellows: 2008-2009 Group Work

Working in small groups on an important public affairs project is an integral component of the Policy Fellows program, creating an opportunity for the Fellows to have a policy impact, integrate their experiences and skills, and work together closely. Congratulations to all groups on their excellent work this year.

Project Topic: Preparing for a Possible Early Voting Provision in Minnesota

Group members, L-R:

• Brian Lucas, Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota
• Lars Leafblad, KeyStone Search
• Kevin Worden, Rochester Area Habitat for Humanity
• Jake Hamlin, Cargill

"In response to the increasing level of interest among policy makers in allowing early voting in Minnesota, our group researched best practices in states similar to Minnesota in implementing this type of provision.  In order to both maximize citizen participation in the electoral process, as well as to reduce the number of unnecessary absentee ballots, Minnesota may soon join the thirty other states in the nation that currently allow for some type of early voting. 

We started our research process by interviewing local election officials regarding current absentee and in-person voting procedures, and talking with Minnesota lawmakers who had introduced early voting legislation in the 2009 legislative session. Following that, we reviewed all states that currently allow early voting, and narrowed our list down to four states that bore some electoral or demographic similarity to Minnesota. We interviewed election officials in Kansas, North Dakota, Iowa, and North Carolina to obtain their advice and suggestions and to ascertain early voting trends and patterns that their states experienced.  We shared our results with both state and local election officials, as well as the Program for Excellence in Election Administration at the Humphrey Institute, for their use if early voting provisions are signed into law in Minnesota."

For more information, contact Kevin Worden at 507-252-0849 x2 or exec@rahh.org.

Project Topic: Early Childhood Education and Community Schools

Front row, L-R:

• Mona Peterson Rosow, Ovations, UnitedHealth Group
• Wayne Kazmierczak, Moorhead Area Public Schools
• Drew Kleven, Target Corporation

Back row, L-R:

• Todd Kruse, Thought Leadership Management, LLC
• Shaun LaDue, City of Owatonna
• Lisa Fobbe, Minnesota State Senate
• Jennifer Grudnowski, Regency Beauty Institute
• Yussuf Hamud, Social Security Administration
• Missing from photo: Shilpa Alva, Ecolab, Inc.

"Our group focused on helping organizations interested in early childhood education and community schools learn about funding opportunities for these initiatives. We spoke with a number of community groups working to improve access to early childhood initiatives, including Growth & Justice, to learn what information needed more exploration in the area of early childhood education. We learned that one of the toughest challenges facing organizations interested in this topic is how to retain funding for their ideas.

Through our discussions with Growth & Justice we learned that the Brooklyn Center School District was interested in learning more about funding opportunities for their community school initiative. After several discussions with the Superintendent of the Brooklyn Center schools, we decided to focus on creating a forum in which various interested parties, such as school districts, funders and policy makers, could talk about their past experiences in funding community schools and exchange ideas for future funding. We will present this information through a panel of distinguished speakers at the Minnesota School Board Association's Conference in January 2010."

For more information, contact Jennifer Grudnowski at 763-450-4332 or jennifergrudnowski@yahoo.com.

Project Topic: Fostering more efficient, cost effective healthcare in Hennepin County

Group members, L-R:

• Mobin Malik, University of Minnesota Medical School
• Steve Francisco, Minnesota Council of Nonprofits
• Emina Peljto, Bosnian Women's Network
• John Rock, Dorsey & Whitney LLP
• Zach Burnett, Pfizer Inc.
• Missing from photo: Dan Strittmater, Presbyterian Homes and Services, Inc.
  

"The cost and delivery of healthcare in the United States has been a lighting rod of debate for decades. Our group decided to continue the debate and evaluate what tactical measures are being taken to increase the quality of care and reduce cost while opening access to wide range of patients in Minnesota. We discovered that in 2008 the Minnesota Legislature enacted legislation for the creation of Patient Centered Medical Homes. A medical home is a medical approach that delivers and reimburses for comprehensive primary care. Our group partnered with Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) to evaluate their strategy to implement the medical home concept.

During our evaluation, we studied HCMC's current primary care and emergency room patient population through data extrapolation and a targeted survey. With this information we plan to make recommendations to HCMC on how to effectively structure their Patient Centered Medical Home to best serve their patient population and encourage the proper use of emergency room services."

For more information, contact Zach Burnett at 612-387-3177 or zach.burnett@gmail.com.

Project Topic: Testing for HIV as part of routine medical care

Group members, L-R:

• Karla Bigham, Minnesota House of Representatives
• Sakawdin Mohamed, Minnesota Department of Health
• Patrick Troska, The Jay and Rose Phillips Family Foundation
• Kali Cruz, Office of U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar
• Fedwa Wazwaz, University of Minnesota

"Our group focused on a 2006 Centers for Disease Control recommendation that every person between the ages of 13-64 should be tested for HIV as part of their routine medical care. Working with the Minnesota AIDS Project and its public policy department, we completed research on the efficacy of such a testing strategy for Minnesota, including looking at HIV epi-data and some rudimentary cost estimates for HIV care. We spoke with a variety of stakeholders including legislators from other states that had legislated such a policy, local public health officials and citizens through a public blog. 

We concluded that routine testing for HIV is a sound public health strategy, but that it should be coupled with a public education strategy so that the general public was made more aware of HIV risk factors so as to reduce stigma and transmission of the disease. We also recommended that the state of Minnesota do a full blown cost benefit analysis to determine if this testing strategy would make financial sense in identifying more people and getting them into treatment earlier as well as making more people aware of HIV, thereby decreasing its transmission."

For more information, contact Patrick Troska at
612-623-1655 or PTroska@phillipsfnd.org.

Additional group information is forthcoming. For more information, contact Kate Cimino at cspg@umn.edu.