September 9, 2024

Hello everyone,

Happy September! As the temperatures are cooling and school has started up across the state, the Iowa Rural Health Association (IRHA) continues to be hard at work to support rural health throughout Iowa! I wanted to highlight a few things that the Iowa Rural Health Association has been involved since my last message in July:

• IRHA hosted a webinar with Tracy Keninger from EasterSeals of Iowa on providing support for rural Iowans with disabilities. Tracy provided a wealth of resources for people with disabilities as well as their caregivers and health professionals. If you missed the presentation or would like more information, you can access her slides here.
• The IRHA Conference and Education Committee is hard at work planning our upcoming IRHA annual conference to be held on Monday, October 28^th at the Olmsted Center on the campus of Drake University. We receive numerous strong proposals for our afternoon sessions and are in the process of selecting presentations for these sessions as well as solidify our agenda for the event. We look forward to a compelling conference with conversation around the theme of “Rural Resilience: The Whole Picture” and will be opening registration soon! In the meantime, bookmark our conference webpage as it is frequently updated with new information about our upcoming conference.
• HRSA’s Office of Intergovernmental and External Affairs has initiated quarterly meetings amongst state rural health associations within HHS Region 7. We had the chance to connect with other association in Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri, and we look forward to continued networking and collaboration with our neighbors in the near future!
• IRHA has been involved in the Healthy Iowans Partnership Steering Committee meetings which has provided feedback on the state’s health assessment and state health improvement plan. An updated state health improvement plan was released in May. If you have not seen the plan, you can access it here.
• I had the opportunity to speak with Ben Kieffer on Iowa Public Radio’s “River to River” show regarding the Iowa Rural Health Association and disparities in rural mortality among those of working age. This was part of an episode that included a conversation with the president of the American Medical Association and individuals from Van Buren County who are part of the Iowa Rural Vitality Coalition. You can listen to that episode here.

Please do not hesitate to reach out to me with any questions or concerns. I can be reached directly at whitney-zahnd@uiowa.edu or through the IRHA email address (IAruralhealth@gmail.com).

In Rural Health,

Whitney Zahnd

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