Good morning everyone.

I'm sorry if my throat sounds a little scratchy.

I think I'm in the process of losing my voice.

But I am pleased to open up our September 18th, 2025 meeting of the Joint Board of Health and Hospitals.

And as we start our meeting at 803, I'm going to begin with taking a roll call.

So we know which board members are present.

If you could uh say here or present when you hear your name called.

Dr.

Ludie here.

Brittany Jones.

Dr.

Daly.

I know Chris is here.

Yes.

Sorry, I am looking at a list and not necessarily at my screen.

I didn't unmute them, sorry.

Present.

Dr.

McNicholas.

Here.

Dr.

Shockham.

Here.

Elizabeth Wright.

Here.

Dr.

Tepi.

Here.

Dr.

Shields.

Here.

Nabu, as I had mentioned earlier, is planning to join us later.

Deedra Griffith.

Are you here?

Here.

So the only person I called I didn't hear present was Brittany.

But I do believe she's planning to come to the meeting.

So she may just be running late.

Okay.

Well, thank you for helping us get through that piece of the meeting.

We do have a pretty uh jam-packed meeting.

Um we had some some items from our last meeting that we definitely wanted um to ensure that we covered in this month's meeting.

Um so um I'll go ahead and ask um for us to approve um the August 21st, 2025 Zoom video as our meeting minutes.

Um then we will uh hold off um on any intros of new members until uh NABU um is hopefully uh able to make it later.

We'll have our um department um updates, uh committee updates, um, and then I do have some um exciting updates um about our uh engagement strategy with uh Mayor Spencer.

All righty.

Um so first things first, approval of the August minutes.

Do I have a motion to approve?

So moved.

Is there a second?

All in favor of approving the Zoom video as our August 21st minutes, please say aye.

Are there any nays?

Are there any abstentions?

Hearing none, the motion passes.

Thank you.

All right, I'm going to turn it turn it over to department leadership.

Um really excited to hear about progress and updates um on the chip um and uh also on the quarterly um update.

Uh and um I didn't get any follow-up questions um about the last meeting.

Um, so we may just move past that.

Um but I will turn it over to Vic uh Victoria and whomever else on your team you would like to speak uh on chip.

Good morning, everyone.

Um we're excited today to have uh Kat Pittman on the phone um with us.

Uh she will be presenting the CHIP project that she and Rhonda Bartow are really actively involved in.

So over to you, Kat.

Hey, hi everybody.

I'm Kat.

Uh new here at the Department of Health.

I am the CHIP coordinator.

So I get the privilege of working with each of the chip action teams and really helping to hopefully move their work forward.

So we'll get started here.

I will share my screen.

Okay, can everybody see that okay?

Yes.

Okay, perfect.

All right.

So just a review.

Um, and these are our chip priority areas, um, intersection of health and economic mobility, chronic disease, maternal and child health, violence prevention, and behavioral health.

And then we have our cross-cutting themes here that kind of encompass or um umbrella over all of those areas, and I'll let you kind of read those.

And I'm sure this is just a review, so I'll go quickly through through that.

Um, and so our first slide here is the intersection of health and economic mobility.

Our co-leads for this action team are Julie Gary and Christopher Nolan.

Um, here are the most recent chip activities.

Um, a big focus, obviously, is housing.

And the last housing meeting that Rhonda and I attended, here are some things that were brought forward.

Um, state representative representative Kimberly Ann Collins.

She is really pushing um for uh many of the vacant apartment buildings um that for people that were displaced by the tornado to kind of be renovated to be used for suitable housing.

Um she's also into um pushing more advocacy for housing by convening some town halls.

And um one of the big things is that she is requesting that we bring some stories um from the field or individuals who have that lived experience to testify at the Capitol on that legislative proposal.

Um Alicia Sonier, not sure how to pronounce that.

I'm sorry.

Um she intends on putting a bill forward to use Rams funding for housing.

That was mentioned also during that um meeting as well.

And then I just recently spoke with Dr.

Gary from the um IHEM Action Team.

She's one of the leads, and she mentioned the Alder Woman Daniel Velasquez shared some things on St.

Louis Public Radio that there is um intentions to put more structure in place to uh fee and fine absentee property owners.

Um and this could also um ensure better quality of life for those St.

Louis residents with those stricters stricter laws in place.

Does anybody have any questions about what's going on with Ihem?

I'll keep going.

All right, so we got chronic disease here.

This is uh Rachel Bartnick and Lauren Landfried are the co-leads on this team.

Uh one of the big things is they've got the hospitals now using the um SDOH nutrition screening tool.

So um that is actually in place and it is working, and I will be getting a summary statement of that coming from Rachel next week.

Um so I'll have that as well to share.

Uh food is medicine is an initiative that has taken off.

Um if you don't know what that is, that is recognizing how important nutrition is in preventing chronic disease.

The DHA DHSS presented on this project um a few months ago, and it has taken off.

So all is going well with that initiative.

Um, the team has now determined uh that they have five strategic priority areas that they they would like to focus on.

And those are policy advocacy, community outreach, expanding access to food services, education and health literacy, and partnerships and collaboration.

Um most of these plans are kind of living documents, and so a lot of them are really fine-tuning their action plans and deciding really what those priority areas are to focus on.

Um that's good.

Moving forward with their uh strategic plan for chronic disease.

And then we've got Operation Food Search is another program that's going on.

Um we're really they're really trying to partner with um community organizations, getting to get food um available more accessible and available for community.

And uh since with double up food bucks not being something that um is being funded, they are just searching for you know other directions and other organizations to partner with.

And Operation Food Search is one of those organizations.

Any questions so far?

I'll keep moving on.

Okay, going to um MCH Maternal and Child Health.

Going to MCH Maternal and Child Health.

Co-leads are Dr.

Elizabeth Daniels and Rose Anderson Rice.

Some of the activities that are going on.

They just had their first community listening session yesterday.

They had, oh goodness, probably about, I want to say seven moms that showed up.

It was really packed.

It was over at the Carate House.

And it was a great turnout, really small little community listening session.

So very comfortable, everybody felt comfortable to share.

And some of the things that came out of that session, I wasn't able to stay for the whole session, but I the first um hour I was available.

I was able to stay.

They were discussing how the prenatal visits are just really too fast.

They a lot of the moms feel like their voice is not being heard.

They're kind of rushed through the appointment.

And also transportation is a big deal as well, getting them to their appointments.

So those were two things that came out of it.

I know Ebony who is on that subcommittee will have a lot more to talk about with that prenatal care.

So they're the subgroups that they established here.

Um the Doula and CHW patient navigator, policy advocacy, and health education literacy.

So those are their main subgroups that they are focusing on.

In other news, they are able, they're distributing large amounts of diapers through their diaper bank and outreach efforts post-Tornado.

Uh they're working on emergency response efforts, putting together some postpartum emergency kits to aid in any other natural disaster situations.

Moving on here.

Sorry, violence prevention here.

Um the co-leads Serena and Jessica are on this team.

They had a huge jam-packed summer with youth events.

They had 27 youth events and about 1700 total youth.

Uh, it was very successful.

They have a lot of good things to say about it, um, and a lot of great data uh that will be coming from that.

Uh, they are getting ready to launch their new opportunities for wellness, their Black Healers collective.

Um that is something that they have been working on, and it will be ready to launch here soon.

Um their handle with care trauma informed system is now fully launched in schools.

Um, and that one is I was just learning about it from Jessica recently is when a child is exposed to violence or trauma, a law enforcement officer or first responder will send handle with care notice that says one or more children were on the scene of potentially traumatic incident within the past 24 hours and could exhibit academic emotional and/or behavioral problems as a result.

So that lets them know that they need to be handled with care.

And it's completely confidential and it's sent um before the start of the school day.

So that's uh fully launched.

Behavioral health here, we have our co-leads Bill and Katie.

Uh the they just recently went um, they're working on um getting the right people in the room for their different areas that they are focusing on.

They've come up with three different priority areas: Medicaid policy, community education, and systems level navigation.

Um, so they're also working on fine-tuning their plan as well.

Um, but they are starting to meet more regularly.

Um, a lot of us are invited to their meetings, so we're able to stay up to date on that.

They're working really hard on the Medicaid policy um right now.

And then moving on here.

We have our CHIP mini grant update here.

Um we have received the accreditation funds, LPHA accreditation accreditation funds, and we'll be using uh 74,000 towards mini grants to support our teams.

So we've got application um and budget uh logic model ready to go for that.

Um just waiting to get that approved.

And we've partnered with the mental health board for this.

They'll be the fiduciary agent, and we're hoping that all of our teams will come up with those areas that they really want to focus on that they can use these funds for.

And one of the main goals is just kind of giving them more of an incentive to kind of report out and get that data.

Um, we're also asking for you know some presentations um that we'll be able to use some stories, lived experiences as well that will go along with the requirements for this grant.

Moving on here.

And last one here, I did put a slide in here.

Um a lot of the chip teams are working really hard.

Um, they're all doing other things besides just working on their um chip specific areas.

And they have a couple asks just to help kind of move their work forward.

So I kind of broke it up for each team here.

We've got MCH.

Uh they are navigating technical assistance for doula's enrolling in health plans.

Um, that's one of their um issues that they are working on and they're asking for you know any assistance um in that area.

Behavioral health, mainly on all the Medicaid changes.

Uh, some of the questions are how do we help people get enrolled and re-enrolled without the funding to do it?

Um, obviously that retention is very important.

And um, how can we, you know, get the community health workers, FQHCs, and those community groups providing behavioral health services, um, helping them understand how to file every six months to you know keep those benefits going.

And so obviously everybody needs to work together.

So really um figuring out how to get it to be a coordinated effort among every all the organizations.

Uh one of the main things also just regarding the work of their uh the action um or the the action team is helping to build that buy-in.

So really framing the big picture um so that more people will kind of be motivated to push the work forward um and get it done, and also so that it's understood by everybody that's working on it.

Um chronic disease, they really just need help with administrative chip work, organizing meeting notes, gathering data.

Um, that's just kind of one of their big asks to help to move that work forward.

And then I am here, they are continuing to they had that momentum, you know, on the new year with regular meetings, um, working towards their objectives, but due to elections and the tornado, uh, it's taking different shapes.

So really just they need help getting the right people in the right room.

Um, and then violence prevention commission right here, they don't really have a big ass.

They're doing pretty pretty well uh with getting their work to move forward.

So that is all I have.

Does anybody have any questions?

Yes, thank you, Kat for presenting.

This is very informative.

Um we get a chance.

Can you please send us uh these PowerPoint slides?

Yes, I sure can.

Thank you.

And an eight um just a request.

Could we possibly get the slides before the meeting so we can prepare?

Um Victoria.

Um, do you want to address how your your team either can share slides prior or a summary, possibly of some of the points that you all will cover?

Um sure.

We can probably if to the extent that they're ready, we can send a draft set of slides ahead of the ahead of the um meeting.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah, great to hear all the great work.

Um is it possible to get a membership list for those um I know I have represent BJC representation on a couple?

Yes, uh, I'm not sure about uh like maternal health and so sure.

Okay, thank you.

So yes, I can get that for you.

Yep.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Deedra, you just asked the question that I was going to ask.

Um, I do know several folks that are a part of um some of the action teams, but don't know everyone.

So if um if like one of the uh asks is to get the right people in the room, my question was really well, who exactly are you seeking to put in the room?

Um, or you know, where are their um stakeholder gaps, maybe?

Um, so if that's uh if there's you know a little more um detail about that, that that would be um helpful.

I think this this group, this this board um is connected uh in many, many ways.

And I know there are people on the board who are part of some of these action teams.

Um but just you know, whatever we can we can bring to this work, we would love to.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

I'll make note of that.

uh if if there's you know a little more um detail about that that that would be um helpful i think this this group this this board um is connected uh in many many ways and i know there are people on the board who are part of some of these action teams um but just you know whatever we can we can bring to this work we would love to okay great thank you i'll make note of that does anyone else have some questions i don't have a question i just have a comment i appreciate this presentation cat and um i have been co-leading a local collaborative called empowered thriving communities in which craig is also a part of and has uplifted the work of the of that you all are doing at the city and we are particularly excited because our collaborative while it has various members within different sectors the largest sector we have is food uh folks who are in the food system sector local farmers and growers and so they've been interested in being more involved in local activities um related to chronic disease and food and also wanting to be more involved in food is medicine so I have reached out to Rachel she has sent me the uh calendar invites for the upcoming meetings and so we're really excited to be able to uplift um some of our experiences and expertise and figure out different ways to kind of plug in some of our localized uh farmers and growers so thank you Craig too for the plug in and and getting this started for us too awesome thank you for sharing that's exciting Colleen just just made a comment in the chat that she um along with I think all of us think that the um handle with with care program is um important and needed um I do have a question about whether that program is in all public schools including charters and um is it being offered to private schools that's a great question I can find that out for you I'm not a hundred percent sure but I will definitely find that out okay yep.

Hi it's in ball hi um Kat, this is great.

Can you I wanted to help you fill uh the needs that you listed I really appreciate that you outlined the needs um for some of the action groups not just the people but what you need to get done so um I get to set chair the subcommittee on academic health partnerships and I would love to figure out how how to help you.

So let's follow up.

Wonderful I'll follow up thank you and all yeah absolutely my final question um is uh so for helping uh folks you know enroll or complete their re-enrollment every six months um is the primary challenge the lack of navigators um is it that more navigators need to be trained um or is it is that this is purely um a funding question or uh challenge I'm gonna let Craig are you on he is okay I think Craig can probably answer that better than I can yeah well I wish I had all the answers Kit you're doing fantastic thanks for the presentation I I think it's a combination of those things and um we can ask further I think Keto asked further in terms because I think we're in the exploration of that certainly the navigators some of the navigators have existed are no longer being funded apparently um a lot of it could be the education piece so I think they're struggling with that to try to determine that so they can best provide that one of the things that came out of the last meeting is that the um chip group is probably not the one to actually do that work but to bring it to attention so that it can be handled almost like the expansion was handled in the past when Cover Missouri was doing that.

I know that doesn't fully answer the question they're working on it.

Okay.

Well this was great I'm I'm I'm so pleased to uh meet you cat I feel like we may have met at some point in the past um but uh this is um really helpful um and what's the best way for the board to stay abreast of all the things that are happening uh with the chip in case people want to engage with an action team or want to connect folks um are are you the point person that people should be going through uh yes Rhonda do you want to uh just confirm that yes um Kat will be the point person and um the other thing that we are working on is the think health STL website and trying to get it um updated and on that website we currently have listed some of our performance metrics and the action plans are there and we're moving towards um developing stories that we can um put about the action team activities and um

And um, the other thing that we are working on is the Think Health STL website and trying to get it um updated and on that website.

We currently have listed some of our performance metrics and the action plans are there, and we're moving towards um developing stories that we can um put about the action team activities, and um we also are going to be expanding and um including a report, a health equity report and um we've got some performance metrics and data specifically um uh related to health equity that will be coming on that website too.

Wonderful.

Um, I think that'll be really helpful.

Um Kat, do you mind dropping your um email in the chat?

Um I will share that out with the board when I send uh follow-up notes.

Um, and then folks will be able to reach out.

Can I ask a quick question?

It's Melissa.

Um Kat, do you know kind of the the roles or um the roles of all the board members?

Right?

Or kind of where we work or where some of our um networks lie, right?

Because it's one thing for me to like reach out to various people at the health department.

Um, but it would be great, like if you knew I worked at a community health center, right?

So, like if you want us involved, I'm happy to get to all of the CMOs, right?

Yeah.

Britney's at the IHN, Colleen's and OB, like I, you know, GYN like I am.

So our different um we got Imble and um academic.

So do you have all that information?

Is that you know how to get to us?

I don't, but I would love, yeah, I would love all that information.

So yeah, that would be great if somebody could send that to me.

April, do we have a list of something like that?

We do.

Um, I will make sure that the information I have is up to date and accurate, though, for people before I share it.

So I will add that to the list of um action items that I'll be sending out to the to the team.

Thank you.

Right, use us for our networks, right?

That's what we're we all want to be engaged.

So um, yeah.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Well, this was wonderful.

Thank thank you.

Um looking forward to to engaging and being active more in terms of connection or whatever needs um we can fill.

Um, but also hearing about uh progress as it's uh taking place.

So all right.

Um Victoria, do you think uh you're ready to move on to the next item?

Yes.

All right, we're gonna be focused on the quarterly report.

I'll be doing that presentation.

So let me share my screen.

Okay, can you can you please tell me if you can see my screen?

We can.

Yep.

Yes.

You can.

Okay.

Thank you.

Okay, so as you know, we usually provide a monthly reports um to the board.

Um, but we've switched to providing um, I mean, sorry, we usually provide monthly, you know, written reports um and we send those out.

We switched to now doing this quarterly.

The main reason is for is because each data points can be taken into context over time, allowing leadership to see what's working and what needs improvement.

So from now on, we'll be sending these quarterly reports out instead of monthly.

Um you should have all received this already.

This was sent out via MailChimp survey.

And so I'm just going to run through some of the high high points of the report.

Um our communical communicable disease HIV prevention has exceeded its monthly goals for residents tested for HIV and other STDs at the health stuff.

They've improved throughout the quarter with on-site testing via health vehicles and outreach events.

Our tuberculosis monitoring section continues to improve patient wait times and we're within five minutes of each talk of the target each month.

Family community school health in the second quarter, the health education team has already exceeded its goal of hosting 18 men's health presentations annually.

So far, our community health workers have participated in more than 100 events, outreach events, and they're on track to exceed last year's participation.

Currently, we are not meeting our target for the number of women of childbearing age being tracked and guided through the Show Me Healthy Women Program and the Wise Women Program.

We also have been inconsistent in partnering with community organizations to host women's outreach events.

However, we are exceeding our target monthly target for home referral sent to the building division for lead remediation.

Through our partnership with Affinia Healthcare, we have set a goal of providing two 200,000, sorry, 20,000 vaccination of school-age children per year.

We've exceeded that number in 2022 and 2025, but we're um we didn't reach it in 2023.

Halfway 20 halfway through 2025, we are still short of hitting that target.

So with a little bit over 500 vaccinations as of June.

And we've reached our monthly target.

Um during, I presented last month during their tornado um response, which continues.

We had an uptick of individuals needing linkage to care.

For environmental health, our goal is to reduce food-related illnesses through through established um through restaurant established restaurant inspections, but we're we have met been met with challenges with completing these inspections on time.

Parts of the reasons for this is we have a supervisor position that's been um vacated.

Um we additionally, the software, the tracking software uh causes some restaurants, particularly seasonal establishes.

Establishments require more inspections up to three per year to be flagged as late because just because the second or third inspection has not happened yet.

So some of these numbers we need to delve deeper into to see if they're actually late or if they're seasonal.

Um, we are currently working on a QI project to address these challenges and look forward to shaping our progress.

Animal care and control.

Do you want the right page here?

Umficers were met with additional duties and several more wandering and wandering animals than normal after their tornado impact.

The team was still able to exceed their monthly target of closing 90% of requests within 14 days.

For outreach, Shantae's team from April to June, our outreach and social media efforts were driven by both planned initiatives and urgent community needs.

In April, we celebrated public health week with a strong social media push highlighted, highlighting the uh chip themes each day, and we launched a public health advocacy campaign to wrap up the week.

In May and June, our focus obviously served the D Tornado and community resilience and through response outreach and intentional partnerships.

Outreach doing the heat advisory through canvassing efforts and resource distribution, and also we share it on social media FEMA updates, cooling center informations, heat and mosquito safety.

week with a strong social media push highlighted highlighting the the uh chip themes each day and we launched a public health advocacy campaign to wrap up the week in May and June our focus obviously served the detonado and community resilience and through response outreach and intentional partnerships outreach doing the heat advisory through canvassing efforts and resource distribution and also we share it on social media FEMA updates cooling center information heat and mosquito safety so that is really my presentation I'm open to take questions I have a question um you had mentioned um that uh it can be challenging to um host um the women's health events because there's you know uh additional scrutiny um and work that needs to go into screening partners or um yeah uh what um could this board do to either help you find the kind of partners that you're seeking for these events um or yeah I guess I'm I'm looking to hear more about what you need so we can maybe understand how how we can help and I do see that Dr.

Tepi has her hand up too.

Yeah I um so I know there's some issues with um some specifications that are required for SOME healthy women and wise women specifically um I can follow up with the team to find out specifically what the issues were for the vetting processes and this the challenges at the venues and get back to this board.

Thanks.

Melissa I see your hand up sure thanks April um this is just from a clinician perspective not my original comment the wise woman program is wonderful but there is quite a bit of paperwork involved in the navigation to services um and on the clinical side one of the interesting criteria for a screening mammogram is that you must have a clinical breast exam within four months which is not part of professional guidelines.

And I think generally speaking folks that use this program clinicians anyway and pro and uh organizations are aware of that but that is another barrier that we all need to navigate um I do believe some folks in the state are aware I'm not sure there's an appetite to um rock the funding boat per se to change that recommendation anyway um my other comment was just gonna be about childhood vaccines um we do I know in primary care right um private practices community health centers hospital systems we work really hard um affinia was part of like the NBC did a piece right in St.

Louis was highlighted as um childhood vaccination rates drop here in the city below threshold um they were talking about measles specifically but everything so that again reach out to us all that we can do to partner with the schools um there's a lot of vaccine hesitancy out there more than there has been before um at Affinia we saw for the first time our our numbers for the childhood physical exams and wellness visits went up before school started um and vaccine rates actually went down a little bit which means it's you know more hesitancy more education um and some parents are declining and while we um want to be respectful of those choices right we also want to make sure that there's enough time um and energy for shared for education and shared decision making and perhaps there's something with public health to just continue I know we do this but continue you know public and community education around vaccine safety and efficacy um really showing the medical evidence um because this is really confusing right now and um there are many different um recommendations coming out of you know professional agencies um with evidence um and our government yes we um yeah we did we've done a push um right before the school year we were actively involved with the urban league um after school event and I think shantee is also working on an outreach strategy um like a mobile outreach strategy um to increase vaccination with the schools um I do know and we're entering respiratory season um now and so um I believe it's the first week of October we are going to be pushing out Dr.

I did learn though in Missouri.

And whether or not I needed the COVID test.

I mean, not test vaccine.

And she said in Missouri, you can't get a COVID vaccine unless you're clinically indicated.

So you have an underlying condition or so I wasn't eligible for the vaccine in Missouri.

So that's a challenge, I think.

If we, you know, if people want the vaccine and because they're healthy individuals, they can't get it, even though they are at risk of getting COVID.

No, access is going to be confused, super confusing this year.

Um I'm not sure it's for all the community health centers, but we haven't been able to order our COVID vaccines yet.

Um when we get them, right?

We'll have to follow certain rules for like community events and things like that, right?

Sticking more with like CDC guidelines.

When it comes to a clinician visit, though, an office, right?

That's shared decision making.

So, you know, evidence-based, right?

So if I have a healthy adult that really wants it and shared decision making, right, with risk benefits efficacy, I I can give that.

Um, but right, a far a pharmacist may not be able to give it, right?

Like your easier maybe access points for much of the community.

Um, it will be very disjointed.

Um, Dr.

Tuppy, thank you so much for for sharing um your thoughts and what you are seeing as uh as a path.

Um at least when you have um patients in your office in your clinic.

Um, I'm wondering, are there some um communication tools that we as just you know uh residents and uh community members um should use or should have access to when we you know encounter uh friends, family, neighbors who might have questions or who indicate that they don't feel comfortable with uh vaccines, like what what is or is there a tool that can help kind of the average person um communicate to neighbors because I know that there is um an element of disdust that some people have towards the evidence and the medicine and the science of it all, but um just because I I this this feels like the COVID vaccine era somewhat all over again.

Um and there were some I I don't know what they were, but I know I I had access to some tools and some language that I found helpful when I was just encountering people who had questions or thoughts easy, I think is hard.

Um it might be great for the department if there is time to put together something I would say more from professional societies at the moment.

Um I have not looked at the CDC website today.

That would usually be our go-to, but it has been changing and things have been coming down.

Um so I'm not sure it's hard to recommend that all the time um with various changes.

Sorry for my dog.

Um but putting together information from professional societies is likely the most evidence-based strategy at this point.

Thank you.

Um information that Victoria has shared.

I just wanted to add a little bit to the um confusion that so you know, if we're thinking anecdotally, we have some pharmacies that actually don't care and they don't ask if you have um a reason to get it, the COVID vaccine.

So I would consider uh keep pushing on all of the fronts is is kind of what I'm thinking.

That's right.

That's gonna be my current strategy and um not ideal, but it's what we got.

Morgan has asked in the chat if pregnancy is a condition that qualifies someone for um, and I'm assuming you say the vaccine, Morgan, you mean the COVID um vaccine.

So I'm not sure how they word it.

Um ACOG, which is our professional society for obviously obstetrics and gynecology recommends the COVID vaccine in pregnancy.

The CDC or the federal government is currently not recommending the COVID vaccine for pregnant women or many children.

So likely that is not a condition that qualifies.

Um but again, our professional society continues to recommend it based on the evidence that it is safe in pregnancy and that it also prevents maternal and infant morbidity and mortality.

I I will also add to Animal's point.

Oftentimes the pharmacy screening question is do you have a condition that puts you at higher risk?

And so if you are pregnant, the answer to that is yes.

Um, despite what Melissa just shared about the CDC and ACIP recommendation is changing.

Um and every OBGYN in the entire world believes that pregnancy puts you at higher risk.

And so um encouraging folks to be creative.

Got it.

Thanks so much.

That was a good question.

So thank you for asking.

Okay.

If there are no other questions, um I'm going to move us along.

Okay.

Um, as I stated at the top of the meeting, I did not um get any questions that uh would be follow-up from our last meeting.

So um why don't we move directly into board committee updates?

Um and I will just start off by saying that governance is uh still working to um make some edits to the um uh bylaws um so that we are in um compliance with uh ordinate ordinance 71994.

I think I think I said that right.

Um we do still plan to come to the October meeting um with some um at least um initial uh thoughts on what the board as a whole um should approve um as changes.

You would be getting those prior to the meeting, so you will have time to look at those.

Um the other um update, which will be posed actually to the board after this meeting, um, is that I've been in touch with the city counselor's office regarding uh the sunshine training that we um need to do some point this this fall.

Um and so as soon as they tell me the um length of the training, um, I will then reach out uh to this group um with some possible dates and times um to see when we can um meet and complete our training.

And I'll also find out um if there will be some um either virtual uh or asynchronous uh training options um because I know it will be difficult to get us all in the same space at the same time.

Um but hopefully we can do that before um October 31st, which is the um deadline, I believe, that has been set by the um uh the ordinance um that we need to follow now.

So um keep your eyes peeled um for uh some uh details about that.

Um we also um need to undergo some Robert uh Roberts rules training.

Um still getting details about who might be offering that.

Um city counselor's office didn't indicate they were the folks who would be doing that.

So um I will have to figure that out.

Or perhaps Craig or Victoria, um if you know the right people to call about that, that would be great.

But we can talk about that offline.

Okay.

Uh next we'll move on to community engagement.

And um Chris, I believe you are doing uh the update um in Kristen's place.

Dr.

Daly.

Are you there?

Yes, I'm here.

I'm sorry about that.

I had an audio uh mess up.

But yeah, so this is the uh community uh engagement update.

So we met earlier this month.

Um and anybody feel free to to chime in or whenever.

Um, but basically some quick um quick uh items that we discussed um and action items to follow up on is that we want to clarify this the city partnerships for vaccine campaign, um, investigate some of the department's current and potential capacity to conduct continued wellness checks, uh provide direct care during outreach and support individuals reluctant to leave unsafe housing.

Um, and then also request a few details on the department's upcoming educational programs and events, um, composition and training of the department's outreach team, and then also resources uh currently being uh disseminated to the community.

So that's pretty much um all I have for the the community engagement uh update.

But anybody else willing to chime in on specifics, um feel free.

Well, that was great.

Thank you.

Um and then we have academic partnerships.

Um do you have an update?

Uh Dr.

Falcom.

Yeah, sure.

Um we met yesterday or the other day, uh, we had a lot of discussion on internships and solidifying some of those um best practices.

So we're working on collecting everybody's current processes and then see what how we can support the department of health to kind of demand a better thing for some of them.

Um and I think there seems to be a lot of partnership in that um in that goal.

Lyndon Wood University is gonna join our academic partnerships.

Thanks to Chris, uh, we had a good opportunity to bring them along, and they are um already partners, the Department of Health and having interns.

So we wanted to see how we can solidify some of that.

Uh then lastly, we are Morgan came up with this delightful idea.

I keep reading about this potential, but bring bringing together um academic partners and uh health departments uh in addition to other health departments beyond St.

Louis City Department of Health and having a day of um learning, meet and greet and growing research uh and practice opportunities.

So that partnership can and will be wonderful.

We're looking for funding opportunities, and I'm on board with Morgan and this engagement award through PACORI.

We'll see.

I'm gonna follow up on emails and see who's gonna lead it, but let's let's do this or at least try.

Yes, I think there's we have ideas.

There would be a lot of details to hammer out, and um we are going to submit a letter of interest to PACORI, which is due soon, I think next week.

Okay.

Um and let and just we'll we'll see.

And that's for about 125,000, which is specifically for something like this, where you're like bringing people together, organizing a conference.

Um we're it early stages of of conceptualizing this.

That sounds amazing.

Wow.

Um I might have thoughts um on other organizations that maybe could help fund or could help to organize.

Um but it might be helpful for me.

I'm sorry I was I was not able to to attend.

Um, it might be helpful for me though to know who who's already kind of on board.

So I I will reach out um to you and bull uh after this meeting about that.

And Pimble, it's TRI have a question about the internship best practices.

You mentioned, I wondered if you could share a little more about that, or maybe just offline.

Um also, I mean, we have in my department two to three internships annually.

So if this body is a good place to disseminate those and um I don't know if we have a mechanism for just sharing internship opportunities.

Uh, we can always use help getting great interns uh for those.

A I'm always here to give you good interns but in this hat I will say we can collectively I mean it's not something we had done before but there's no reason we don't um and I think that this Dr.

Monty had outlined like hey can we get an internship set up where it's a longer period of time that so because the learning curve is so high and and it's so steep and it's challenging for staff and faculty member mentors and a preceptor to all be a part of it and not be a part of it at the same time.

So we changed we're suggesting making strong recommendations that we have um a longer term so ideally a year long internship having a faculty mentor plus a preceptor um from the university side and then from the staffing side to have or from the department of health to say these are the projects you're going to work on these are the projects we need somebody to work on and then match them that way so it's not like hey we have an intern but do send them away well I know thank you.

Sounds good.

Thanks any other feedback or questions.

Just a request by going forward because each committee possibly send out like their notes before the meeting so we can prepare that is an excellent um segue to what I was going to share next Chris.

So as we have talked about um on the board for I don't know several months um we needed to create some kind of you know infrastructure so that we could share um and have like a single uh place of truth um for all the documents that we we wanted to have access to whether it's making sure everyone can go into a file and find bylaws um you know a uh department structure you know reference documents um and so um the department has graciously uh started a Google folder for us um that we now can use to make sure that we can hold the knowledge and the work that we are doing in a singular place um I will send out a link to each of you using the email that I use when I send out the agenda every month um because it will be a very limited group of us that have access to this folder.

But you will find um like a folder for our reference documents.

So for those who are new and who have not yet gone through a formal kind of onboarding some of those documents will be um living there and we have not yet had a place where those things live.

So I am excited that we can um formalize that um and so to your point um Chris what I'm going to ask before meetings in the future starting with October um and whoever wants to help create you know create a template for it that's fine um but either like a Google form where committee uh chairs put in their notes or their updates for the following meeting um so that it can populate into a tool that everyone then will have access to read before the meeting um so folks can come to the meeting and you know ask um either more relevant or pointed or pertinent questions um we'll also be uh keeping um meeting agendas um in this folder uh the quarterly reports um any uh presentations um that we are uh offered during meetings so um i'm looking forward to having a spot for us to to actually visit um and uh i also welcome any feedback once you all have a chance to look at this folder because it's you know it's it has very general um information in it so if there's something that you all feel very strongly we either need to add um or need to um organize differently please let uh me or Kristen know and yes definitely want to shout out um again that the uh department um is helping us with this so this is something that is hosted on the DOH Google Drive um and so thank you for sharing your um Google drive space with us um so that we can stay organized and um efficient as a body

Please let uh me or Kristen know.

And yes, definitely want to shout out um again that the uh department um is helping us with this.

So this is something that is hosted on the DOH Google Drive.

Um, and so thank you for sharing your um Google Drive space with us um so that we can stay organized and um efficient as a body.

So does anyone have any questions about that?

You'll be getting a link uh this afternoon.

Thank you, April, for organizing it.

Well, just to be clear, I did not organize, I just asked for all the things.

Department of Health, Shantae and um Sante Sansay always comes to.

Anika uh who actually just you know created our folders for us.

So before we move on, um, at the top of the meeting, our newest board member um had not yet um joined us because I believe Nabu, were you on a plane?

Yeah, uh hi, I'm in the Dallas Airport right now.

Okay.

Um well, thank you so much for making time to join in the midst of your travels.

Um, but um want to certainly um give you um a couple of minutes that you can tell um the rest of the board and the uh staff about you.

Um and we are excited that you are um a member of the board.

I will I will let you tell tell the team about that.

Thanks, April.

Uh hi, folks.

Uh my name is Nabu Colin Sherry.

I um uh I'm super excited and honored to be a part of this group.

Um I happen to know about half of you, which is which is a real treat.

Um, Commissioner Worry, Craig, good to good to see you all.

Thank you for all the amazing work that you do.

Um uh background, I've worked in public health for the last 10 years or so.

Um, and my professional roles have been um I started on my career at the CDC uh and then uh went into uh consulting with the department of defense.

Um immediately prior to this, my current role.

I was at the county health department.

Actually, I was their division director for communical disease response.

Um did a lot of work on the second half of the public response as well as led the MPOX response for the region.

I did a lot of work with sexual health and TB as well.

Um now I am a uh I work for a company called Flourish and Thrive Labs, and we work with state and local health departments across the country uh primarily on data modernization projects.

Um right now that's just means a lot of AI work.

Um and trying to think through how public health departments can use AI safely.

Um so really, really excited to serve on this board um and be of use uh to the health department.

Thanks, April.

Thank you.

Um I think we can all say we are very, very happy to have you serving on this board.

Um and uh one one of the things that um both you and Deedra will be asked to do in the next few days.

Um is to um indicate your interest in terms of committee or committees that you want to serve on.

Um, but I will email um both of you separately about that.

Okay.

All right.

Um, I'm gonna go ahead and move on um to uh the next item.

So over the past several months, um, as you all know, um Kristen and and I have been working to um get a meeting uh with Mayor Spencer um so that we can hear um directly from from the mayor and possibly from others on the mayor's team about um areas of focus um that she wants to prioritize in the D Part well in in DOH and public health philosophy um more generally.

Um, and so she will be joining us at the October meeting.

Um my question for this body is really centered around if there are specific questions or topics um that you all would like for her to address.

We'll probably have 30 to 40 minutes of her time.

Um I'm going to be sending that as a separate email.

So you're there's gonna be a whole lot of stuff you're gonna be getting from me at the end of this meeting later today.

Um one of those uh questions or those action items will be for you all to enter into a Google Doc um that we will share um questions or topics.

Um but if folks have you know initial thoughts, you can certainly share those now.

Otherwise, you can take some time to think about what you would like her to address or cover.

Um, and we plan to send that over to her office in a couple of weeks.

Okay.

I do have a quick question.

Um, I know um it was a notion made earlier about a list of what we do sent to the department of health, but could we send it to um the office too?

So she has that.

Yeah, yes.

That's that's a great, great point.

Yeah.

Any any other thoughts?

Yeah, do have another question too.

Um, is there a limit?

Um, are we putting a limit on questions for each board member?

What I'm going to do is I'm going to ask everyone to put their thoughts on paper or virtually.

Um, and then we're going to look and see how many questions we think are probably feasible or um, you know, reasonable.

Um it's it's not a lot of time.

Um, but if we have a lot of questions, um we'll probably circle back to this group to ask folks to rank um how you would like her to you know address any any uh key topics.

Um so that will be in your hands um as your no our our hands as a um collective group.

Okay.

And uh we plan on putting like dates for this, like um deadlines to certain quite okay.

Yeah.

Okay, good.

So I don't I don't have the exact date in my mind, but you'll get an email asking you to complete um your list of questions and a document over the next week and a half or two weeks.

So we want to make sure that she has you know at least a couple of weeks um to prep.

Sounds good.

Thank you.

Okay.

All right.

All right.

Let's move on to board advocacy and engagement.

Brittany, you want to uh give that update in Kristen's place?

Sure.

Um let's see.

On September 4th, um the I was able to make a public comment to the Board of Budget and Public Employees Committee, essentially just reading our letter that we've drafted and sent over.

There were around, I want to say maybe about 15 speakers who spoke to their individual and what they've noticed um within community around how the tornado has impacted them.

A lot of them, a lot of the stories were very moving and there was a lot of passion in the room.

Unfortunately, I had to be there uh virtually, which wasn't the funnest, but um I was there.

And the city right now, what it seems to be the city is focused on um debris removal and home repair.

And so their intent between now and 2027 will be um housing stable stabilization, debris removal, um, resident support, public infrastructure restore restoration, and communal infrastructure.

I did not hear um nor note communication or comments that were made directly to support the department of health.

Um so it would be helpful for us to continue to advocate at public hearings on our behalf and the behalf of uh health department and potentially this can also be a um conversation with the mayor.

So that's pretty much what I what I've gathered from that public hearing.

Well, thank you for um attending and making sure that our collective voice as a as a board was heard.

Um I do want to note that any um letters that we send as a board body will also be saved in our shared Google folder.

So if anyone ever wants to go back and read what we have shared, you can certainly find it there.

Anyone else have questions or comments for Brittany or insights.

I don't know, several months about the fact that it would be really helpful if committees knew more about the work that our other committee peers were doing, and that we wanted to try to schedule a joint meeting.

Is that for all of the um uh information that we ask you know, DOH to um offer to us and the dialogue that we have with them about their team's work, um it wouldn't be possible probably to also do that for a kind of joint uh committee meeting and that that should be held separately.

So we want to make space for it.

Um and also to allow time for board members to you know engage in some um uh dialogue collectively around direction that each of these committees should should be moving towards um or what we should be moving towards as a full board.

So um we're going to try to find time for that this fall.

Um if the doodle is unsuccessful, we'll try another round.

Um, and we are open to both virtual and in person.

Um I don't know that we um have a hybrid option, but if we find a location that allows for that to be a fruitful option because hybrid is tricky, um, then we can think about that too.

Um, but you can look out for that.

So to summarize, you all are going to get a massive email from me with a lot of links and asks.

Um you'll be getting um information about uh the chip that we heard today, um, including um how to reach out to Kat.

Um Kat, I will send you a list of all of our board members and our affiliations.

Um you'll be getting a doodle for the sun sunshine training and some hopefully updates about Robert's rules of order training.

Um and then you'll be getting uh this doodle about this joint committee meeting so we can clarify our role and purpose in the work that we are doing.

We are an advisory board, not a governing board.

So our role and our duty um is to advise and support the work that Commissioner on Worry and her team are doing.

Um and we want to be really mindful of that, that we do not, you know, start to over overstep our um our uh duties here.

So we want to be in partnership.

Um so prior to any joint meetings taking place, um, Victoria, I will reach out to you as we think about um you know agenda planning.

Um and you would be welcome to come to that meeting too.

Okay.

That's all I have, I believe.

Um I'm looking through the chat really quick to make sure I haven't missed something.

Okay.

Are there any other announcements?

Yes.

April for the announcement.

Uh this is separate.

Um, I'm meant to share this at our last meeting, but um, want to share some updates on with what I'm doing currently.

So I'm at Linda Wood now.

I teach anatomy and physiology.

So I have freshman through senior students, undergraduate students.

I'm also in my MBA at UCM.

And I just started my business here soon.

It's called Wenness and Relief.

We do educational and healthcare services coming soon here in the fall.

So definitely want to share that announcement with the group.

And I did graduate from the community fellows research training program at Washu.

So some alumni in the room, Craig and Brittany.

So just wanted to share that with everyone with a quick update.

So thank you.

Congrats for all the things.

Offline, but about how you are experiencing Lyndon Wood and what you see as potential part uh partnership.

I was super excited that you were able to connect uh Lyndon Wood to the work that the board is doing in terms of partnership.

Um, but also just want to hear more about what you're doing.

So that is really, really great news.

Does anyone else have any positive news to share?

I feel like we need a timeline cleanse.

Um if there's if there's positive news, please share it.

Well, I hope there are positive things happening for people.

Um we're at the end of our meeting.

Um, I want to thank all of you for um, as always, being so engaged and active.

Um thank you so much, um Kat for coming to the meeting and sharing more about updates on the chip.

Um there's just a lot of very exciting work taking place.

Um, and clearly a lot of people who are partnering um to make that work.

So we have our next meeting on October 16th.

The mayor will be attending.

Um so I look forward to seeing the topics and the questions um that members of the board um might have for the mayor.

Um, but you all will um be able to do that um and get access to our new board folder um when I send a follow up out to this group.

That being said, it is 9 20 and I'm going to adjourn our meeting.