I hope that everyone’s summer has kicked off well and that you’ve all stayed safe amid the active weather we’ve had in May!

The IRHA Board has been very active in 2024, and I wanted to provide our larger membership with an update on our efforts. This begins a monthly update that I will provide through our website, social media channels, and Friday updates.

In February with support from a grant from the Delta Dental Foundation of Iowa, we held convened a strategic planning session.

With the strategic planning session, we have re-launched three of our IRHA committees:

• Development
• Conference and Education
• Policy and Advocacy

The Development and Conference and Education Committees are meeting at least monthly. The Development Committee is focused on establishing partnerships, identifying funding sources, and communication. The Conference and Education Committee is developing a quarterly webinar series and is identifying a date and location for our IRHA conference to be held this fall (sometime in late October through mid November). Stay tuned for more information soon! The Policy and Advocacy Committee will re-launch later in 2024, and we’d like to engage the broader IRHA membership more fully in that committee. More to come!

Also, members of the IRHA board and Drake management team are representing rural Iowa interests as members of several state and national committees:

• National Rural Health Association’s State Association Council
• Healthy Iowans Steering Committee
• Multisector Plan on Aging Project Steering Committee
• Hospital Associated Infections/Antimicrobial Resistance Advisory Committee

We will provide a monthly update to the IRHA membership again in late June, so stay tuned! In the meantime, please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions or concerns. I can be reached directly at whitney-zahnd@uiowa.edu or through the IRHA’s email address (iaruralhealth@gmail.com).

In Rural Health,

Whitney Zahnd

IRHA President

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