Concurrent Breakout Sessions V

HIA 101: Working Session

Overview:

Experienced HIA practitioners will be available to answer any questions you may have about what you learned over the course of the two-day meeting or about HIAs that you are considering.

Presentations:

Katey Mote, Baltimore City Health Department

Fabiola Santiago, Human Impact Partners

Ame-Lia Tamburrini, Habitat Health Impact Consulting

Institutionalizing HIA through the Local Health Department Network

Overview:

Given their legal responsibility and authority, local health departments are uniquely positioned to promote and protect the public’s health and serve as local health experts. This session will cover: best practices for new practitioners undertaking rapid HIAs; how to create community-specific HIA materials; ways to develop and strengthen relationships between local public health professionals and colleagues in other sectors; and the role that state HIA programs can play in supporting local health departments conducting HIAs in their jurisdictions.

Moderator:

Erin Marziale, National Network of Public Health Institutes

Presentations:

Andrea Hamberg, Oregon Health Authority

Erin Marziale, National Network of Public Health Institutes

Susan Sutherland, Delaware General Health District

Sandra Whitehead, National Association of County and City Health Officials

Integrating Health Considerations into State Level Policy Making

Overview:

An increasing number of states are considering health during policy making, and many more efforts remain. The purpose of this session is to summarize state legislative activity to advance HIAs. This presentation will provide attendees with an understanding of the ways state legislators can include health during the policy-making process, through legislation to require HIAs and health review processes that align with Health in All Policies.

Moderator:

Keshia Pollack, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Presentations:

Doug Farquhar, National Conference of State Legislatures

Erin Marziale, National Network of Public Health Institutes

Keshia Pollack, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Sierra Rotakhina, Washington State Board of Health

HIA and Community Engagement from the Community Member Perspective

Overview:

HIA practitioners often discuss the merits and importance of effective stakeholder engagement in HIAs; however, it is less common that we have the opportunity to hear from communities involved in the process about the impacts their experiences with an HIA had on building relationships, organization, and power within a community. This session will highlight two stories, narrated by local community groups that illustrate how the HIA process served to bring their communities together and build lasting capacity to engage in decision-making processes. The first example is from New Mexico, where an HIA was conducted on a proposed carbon dioxide pipeline that would route through the state. The second example is a Baltimore HIA conducted by the National Center for Healthy Housing, which explored the health impacts of the Baltimore-Washington Rail Intermodal Facility. Panelists will highlight their experiences of being involved in the HIA process, what HIA tools and methods were most effective for fostering community engagement, and the aspects of the process that led to a sense of empowerment, specifically among groups that had previously felt marginalized from decision making.

Presentations:

Mark Clark, New Mexico Department of Health

Logan Harris, Human Impact Partners

Patricia Lincoln, DFL Associates, Inc.

HIA and Community Engagement

Overview:

A two-year national evaluation of community participation in HIAs is being conducted by Human Impact Partners and the Center for Community Health and Evaluation, with funding from the W.K Kellogg and Kresge foundations. The evaluation is assessing community participation in HIAs, barriers to good community participation, ways to address these barriers, the extent to which HIAs build civic agency with community members, and what impact meaningful community participation has on HIA success. This panel presentation will share preliminary findings from the evaluation, as well as feature two presenters who have strategically enhanced their community participation efforts for their HIA work.

Presentations:

Holly Avey, Human Impact Partners

Barry Keppard, Metropolitan Area Planning Council

Andy Wessel, Douglas County Health Department (Nebraska)

Addressing Equity Analysis and Community Engagement at the Federal Level: Environmental Justice Strategies, Lessons from the Field, and Opportunities for Advancement

Overview:

This session will address challenges faced by practitioners aiming to incorporate environmental justice and community engagement into the HIA process through an interactive discussion of methods employed in federal-level HIAs, best practices and lessons learned from an HIA practitioner experienced in incorporating equity at the federal level, and opportunities and strategies for selecting appropriate representative communities to meet the goals of environmental justice and equity through the use of evidence-based, data-driven tools.

Presentations:

Florence Fulk, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Jonathan Heller, Human Impact Partners

Sally Pope, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Stakeholder Engagement at Multiple Levels of Decision Making

Overview:

Strategies for engagement can vary according to the policy chosen, political atmosphere, timeline, and available resources. This presentation will feature how these various strategies were used for engaging stakeholders at multiple levels of decision making, with case studies from Kansas HIAs conducted on changes to corporate agriculture and liquor licensing laws at the state level, and an example from an HIA conducted by Intrinsik on oil drilling and development at the local level in California.

Presentations:

Chris Ollson, Intrinsik Environmental Sciences Inc.

Sheena Smith, Kansas Health Institute

Kathleen Souweine, Intrinsik Environmental Sciences Inc.

Methods of Assessment

Overview:

Assessment methodology continues to evolve as the use and necessity for HIA continues to grow across a large variety of sectors. Participants in this session will hear from three presenters representing different assessment methodologies that can be used to show health impacts and improve the presentation of evidence in HIAs. Case studies include a cross-sectional design and qualitative analysis to investigate opinions and attitudes of decision makers and stakeholders for the Duwamish Superfund site cleanup in King County, Washington; a discussion about quantitative modeling as it relates to greater engagement of stakeholders; and a presentation about the Health Economic Assessment Tool for cycling and walking.

Presentations:

Jonathan Childers, University of Washington

Katherine Hebert, Creating Community Change

Nicole Iroz-Elardo, Urban Design 4 Health, Inc.

Candace Rutt, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention