Connect, Communicate, Collaborate- Fall, 2022

​The fall semester is upon us, and expectations are high for the new academic year. The Biden School welcomes a new Dean, Amy Schwartz and CCRS welcomes a new facult member, Mary Mitsdarffer along with six new students who will be working with us. We are launching new projects and completing old ones, and are looking to keep growing. With this issue of Connect, Communicate, and Collaborate, Janice Barlow takes the lead in putting this newsletter together, and we appreciate her work as we acknowledge Mary Joan McDuffie's work, up to her retirement in May, as its founding editor. We are pleased to share here some of the achievements from the summer as well as the work that lies before us this fall.

​We are proud to announce that Dr. Mary Mitsdarffer has joined the Center for Community Research & Service as an Assistant Professor. Mary, who earned her Ph.D. at Rutgers University, is an interdisciplinary scholar who uses a mix of applied quantitiative, qualitative, and archival methods in her work. Her research interests include the intersection of policy, children's social determinants of health, and life course development. She will be working primarily with the Medicaid Research Program. Please join us in welcoming Mary to CCRS and to the Biden School!

"I am excited to have joined CCRS this fall. As an Assistant Professor at the Biden School and CCRS, I support our ongoing Medicaid partnership and projects. In addition to these pursuits, I am excited to see how my past work and expertise, which focuses on minoritized health disparities, education, and immigration policy, will help launch new research agendas in Delaware. It is my hope that through community collaboration and knowledge I can help to further uncover existing health disparities in Delaware, their driving factors, and intervention strategies to overcome them. I feel very fortunate to join such an amazing team and look forward to helping continue to grow CCRS through engaged research."

- Mary Mitsdarffer

​CCRS is pleased to welcome new and returning research assistants this fall!

New students joining our Center are Michael Donahue, Tiffany Gallop, Lavay Glynn, Madeline Morris, Natashia Senade, and Maddy Starling.

Welcome back to our returning students, including Gabriele, Akinporoye, Jada-Simone Davis, Tatiana Galdamez, Liz Lathem, Emily Loughlin, Alex Modeas, Miranda Perez-Rivera, Alexa Timmreck, and Mollie Toscano.

​KIDS COUNT in Delaware has several new publications, including:

• What Would it Take (WWIT) [for Delaware to be #1 in the country on measures of child well-being], a companion piece to the Annie E. Casey's National KIDS COUNT Data Book, released on August 8, 2022
• 2022 KIDS COUNT in Delaware Legislative Wrap-Up, highlighting legislation passed in the previous session which affect children and their families, released in September
• Literacy Across the Lifespan, a collaborative project with IPA/CCRS (adult literacy brief) and KIDS COUNT in Delaware (early literacy brief), released in September

Additionally, the 2021-22 "Data to Action" webinar series has wrapped up with a final virtual session and issue briefs released related to Economic Security, Educational Involvement & Achievement, Family & Community, and Wrap-Up and Review. The Data to Action archive (including link to recording, written briefs, power point slides, and additional resources on each topic) can be found on UDSpace.

​KIDS COUNT in Delware uploads the most current and reliable data available to the online KIDS COUNT Data Center. We invite you to discover ways to customize your own data visualizations and join us in using the data to make informed decisions by investing in Delaware's biggest asset, our kids.

​CCRS' Medicaid research program is a member of the Medicaid Outcomes Distributed Research Network (MODRN), through which 2 papers were published this summer that include analysis of Delaware's state Medicaid claims:

• Postpartum Follow-up Care for Pregnant Persons With Opiod Use Disorder (in the journal Obstretrics & Gynecology); and
• Hepatisis C Virus Infection and Design, Implementation, and Evolution of the Medicaid Outcomes Distributed Research Network (MODRN) (in the journal Medical Care)

MODRN is a part of Academy Health.

The Medicaid Research Program is collaborating with two clinician researchers from Christiana Care health system on two upcoming projects, one (with Nicole Duffy) looking at associations between individual patient characteristics and service use patters for Medicaid reimbursed behavioral health care, and the other (with David Chen) looking at impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on seeking medical care for injuries from interpersonal violence. These projects are sponsored through Delaware IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE). July saw the wrap up of two previous INBRE projects: Incidence of Sickle Cell Among Delaware Medicaid clients and Examining Functional Literacy, Health Literacy, and Medication Adherence among African Americans with Hypertension.

CCRS researchers Steve Metraux and Katie Gifford collaborated on and completed a project, funded by Arnold Ventures, with Brandon Saloner of Johns Hopkins University on "The Use of Buprenorphine During Incarceration and Post-Release Outcomes," that matched Delaware Medicaid and corrections data to assess the degree to which providing medications for opioid use disorder while incarcerated continued upon release to the community, and reduced levels of overdose and emergency department use.

​Signe Bell, CCRS' Director of Nonprofit & Community Programs, will be preseing at upcoming conferences:

Connect, Care and ENGAGE: Incorporating your board's authentic gifts into the path forward. Virtual presentation at the 2022 Maryland Nonprofits and MAEFY Annual Conference in October 2022.

Incorporating Your Team's Authentic Gifts into Your Flightplan. Virtual presentation at the 2022 Pennsylvania Association of Nonprofit Organizations Collaborative Conference- Building the Plane While Flying It! In October 2022.

​CCRS Director Steve Metreau with Biden School students Olivia Mwangi and James McGuire recently published an article Prior Evictions Among People Experiencing Homelessness in Delaware in the Delaware Journal of Public Health. The study was the focus of a story on Delaware Public Media.

Steve Metraux, Roger Hesketh, Mimi Rayl, and Alex Mondeas, along with Sean O'Neill from the Biden School's Institute for Public Administration, completed a report examining substandard housing and the need for repairs in low-income, owner-occupied housing in Delaware. The project is funded by the three Delaware Habitat for Humanity organizations. Look this fall for the report to be released and a webinar on the topic.

Steve Metraux is working with graduate students Lavay Glynn and Michael Donohue on a project that is working with the Springboard Collaborative ont heir work with ah omelss encampment in sourthern Delaware and efforts to move them to a pallet shelter community they are building.

Steve Metraux is working with graduate students Madeline Morris and Tiffany Gallup that will conduct interviews with heads of homeless families in which they recount their experiences with eviction and the role these experiences played in their becoming homeless.

PhD student Alexa Timmreck will successfully defend her dissertation proposal "The Asylum Lives On: Mapping the Complex System of Post-Institutional Life" in early October.

Masters student Alex Modeas will be working on an internship with the Delaware Public Housing Authority that is being launched this fall semester.