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This type of agreement, described as an by the Public Health Foundation, occurs in most states. This will be the fourth such partnership in Wisconsin. Often described as the “public health equivalent of the teaching hospital affiliation found between hospitals and medical schools,” partnerships like these enhance public health education and training, research and service for mutual institutional benefit.

Dr. Jim Boulter, professor of chemistry and chair of the public health and environmental studies department, explains that this formal agreement, in the works for several years, will provide the framework to expand on an already vital relationship between the university and local public health professionals.

“From routine interactions like bringing ECCCHD staff to campus as guest speakers to collaborative community-based research or outreach, this MOU will reduce administrative roadblocks and facilitate shared access to resources,” Boulter says. “This final step of signing the agreement really just formalizes and memorializes the importance of our long-standing partnership.”

Building stronger community ties across campus

Boulter emphasizes that this is not an agreement with just the public health and environmental studies department and programs, but it is campuswide, acknowledging that the ACCCHD has been working with and consulting with departments, programs and offices across campus for more than a decade.

“Stakeholders across campus have consistently worked with the ECCCHD,” Boulter says. “From nursing, health and human sciences, public health and environmental science to humanities departments, Student Health Service, community-engaged learning programs, advising and the Center for Awareness of Sexual Assault — this agreement will benefit everyone.”

From the perspective of the ECCCHD, assistant director Marisa Stanley is excited about the potential this strengthened partnership can bring.

“We are very excited to formalize our ongoing partnership with UW-Eau Claire. We look forward to future opportunities to build up our community through shared research and joint public health projects,” Stanley says. “This agreement solidifies our commitment to working with our ����Vlog colleagues in more intentional ways.”

Long history of shared goals and objectives at work

In a documented collaboration database that goes back more than 10 years, the list of shared projects and ECCCHD collaborations cover a whole host of topics. A few examples demonstrating the breadth of collaborating disciplines include:

• Complex collaborative efforts in the COVID-19 response, including over 18,000 first- and second-dose vaccinations at Federal Emergency Management Agency-supported clinics and others, as well as several community antigen testing sites on campus and at Memorial High School.
• Collaboration between UW-Eau Claire's Student Health Service and ECCCHD regarding vaccine allocations. UW-Eau Claire received many of its vaccines through the allocations made to ECCCHD.
• Extensive collaboration with ECCCHD on contact tracing, including staff time to contact individuals and research cases of COVID-19.
• Community outreach events supporting the Center for Awareness of Sexual Assault.
• Women in STEM events through the Advising, Retention and Career Center.
• Air quality, water quality and climate change testing projects with geology, geography and environmental public health programs.
• Countless College of Nursing trainings, clinical experiences, vaccination clinics, field placements, research projects and more.
• Suicide prevention and mental health awareness efforts in collaboration with Counseling Services and psychology research.
• Student Health Service awareness and prevention campaigns in areas such as alcohol risk reduction, health education, sexual health and more.

For Dr. Laura Suppes, associate professor of public health and environmental studies, interactions with the ECCCHD have come mostly in the form of class visits to various divisions and labs at the health department.

“In my course planning, I rely heavily on the folks in the regulations and licensing division as well as environmental sciences,” says Suppes, whose syllabi include ECCCHD visits with her courses in vector-borne disease control, water/wastewater and food safety.

“There is a high percentage of ����Vlog graduates of our environmental public health major in the department, so that’s a bonus for our students to see,” Suppes adds. “Many students do some sort of informational interviewing or job shadowing with those folks.”

Dr. Marilyn Gardner, professor and director of the master’s in public health program, highlights the boost that UW-Eau Claire’s academic programs gain from this partnership, at many levels.

“All of our programs are stronger when we can work directly with practitioners doing the work we are training our students to do,” Gardner says. “And through this ECCCHD partnership, we will also have better access to other community partners of the health department — they will serve as a link for us in important ways.”

Gardner also points out that the graduate certificate in public health offered by UW-Eau Claire is intended primarily to support the area public health workforce.

“In order to become a director in public health, a person must have a minimum of 15 credit hours of graduate level coursework in public health, and our certificate allows them to fulfill that requirement,” Gardner says.

While the benefits of formalizing this long-standing collaborative relationship are many, Dr. Briana Rockler, assistant professor of public health and environmental studies, sums up the big picture neatly.

“One of the things that makes our university unique is the high level of integration with our local community,” Rockler says.

“Public health community engagement is core to what public health is, what it does and how we function. A more formal partnership like this one is essential to having the highest functioning department and program possible.”

Partnership plan to kick off at December summit

Since solidifying the MOU late last summer, next steps have been set to gather key stakeholders and representatives in December to explore the specific types of collaborative opportunities this agreement will enable.

Dr. Doug Dunham, interim director of strategic partnerships at UW-Eau Claire, invites all interested faculty and staff to attend the summit from 2-4 p.m. Friday, Dec. 12, in the Council Oak Room of Davies Center.

“UW-Eau Claire has long maintained a strong and multifaceted partnership with the Eau Claire City-County Health Department. The newly signed MOU affirms this collaboration and provides a strategic foundation for expanding our joint efforts — both in existing initiatives and in exploring new opportunities,” Dunham says. “Join us for the summit to learn what might be possible.”