Celebrating Our Partnerships
Partnerships help us reach more communities and train the public health leaders of tomorrow
The Mobile Health Units are supported by Blue Cross Blue Shield and Chicanos Por La Causa, among many other partners of the College
In a brief two decades, the University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health has forged a multitude of strong, beneficial partnerships that have served a vital role as the “community backbone” of the College. Our partnerships build connections, create opportunities, and have enabled us to become a national leader in public health education, research, and programs.
Since it was established with funding from Mel and Enid Zuckerman, the founders of Canyon Ranch Wellness Resort, the College has developed partnerships and collaborations with international and federal health organizations and institutes. The College has worked with the Arizona Governor’s Office and Legislature, the Arizona Department of Health Services, county health departments across Arizona, philanthropic foundations, major corporations, and a host of passionate private-sector supporters. In the spirit of collaboration and better public health, the College has nurtured major relationships within academia, government, the health-care industry, and community non-profit groups to better serve its students and faculty and all residents of the great state of Arizona.
“Strong partnerships are absolutely essential for our College of Public Health to succeed, because we serve such a strong role in so many Arizona communities and beyond,” said Dean Iman Hakim, MD, PhD, MPH. “We are much more effective thanks to our many partnerships and collaborations. As the COVID-19 pandemic has clearly demonstrated, public health is a top priority we all must support. Fortunately, Arizonans have risen to the challenge with their support for the Zuckerman College of Public Health, and we deeply appreciate that support.”
Although it is impossible to highlight all of the numerous organizations and individuals with whom the College has developed productive partnerships, the following examples stand out.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona
Beginning in 2010, the Zuckerman College of Public Health has enjoyed a significant partnership with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona, a company that has been a strong supporter of the UArizona for many decades. Indeed, 2,000 of its employees are former Wildcats!
“We were one of the original supporters of the UArizona College of Medicine – Phoenix’s Pathway Scholars Program, which began in 2015; this led to our partnership with the Zuckerman College of Public Health’s Native American Scholarship program,” said Christine Bracamonte Wiggs, PhD, MPH, MS, director of community and health advancement for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona and an alumna of the UArizona Zuckerman College of Public Health.
“We are so pleased that each year since, two Zuckerman College of Public Health students have received financial assistance to help them pursue careers in public health. One of the ways to improve the health of Arizonans is to make scholarship support available to qualified Native American students at the College, as well as future medical students through the Pathway Scholars Program. The majority of the physicians and public health practitioners supported by these scholarships serve rural communities and increase access to care for Arizonans,” Dr. Wiggs said.
The partnership with Blue Cross Blue Shield began with Sue Glawe when she served as Vice President of Community Relations before she retired in 2019. “Sue Glawe’s leadership at Blue Cross Blue Shield was exceptional, she did so much for healthcare in Arizona, it was a privilege to work with her,” said Dean Hakim, “and now we are so pleased to be working with Christine, one of our graduates, we are very proud.”
Surgeon General Dr. Jerome J. Adams with the MHU team, 2019
Blue Cross Blue Shield also supports the College’s Primary Prevention Mobile Health Unit, which provides immunizations, health screening services, and connection to care for communities in Maricopa and Pima Counties. The mobile unit is part of the Blue Cross and Crisis Response Network’s Mobile Medication Assisted Treatment Clinic.
Blue Cross Blue Shield also helps fund scholarships for the Healthy 2B Me Summer Camp for Kids, which will celebrate its ninth anniversary in 2021.
“The idea behind Healthy 2B Me is to instill healthy behaviors in young children,” said Cynthia Thomson, PhD, RD, director of the Canyon Ranch Center for Prevention and Health Promotion (CRCPHP) and a professor in the UArizona Zuckerman College of Public Health, among other UA roles. “Our summer camp allows kids to spend a week indulging in all these wonderful healthful behaviors we hope will last them a lifetime.”
In summer 2020, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, CRCPHP staff and students came up with the idea for “Camp in a Box,” which delivered four week-long sessions that reached 26 Tucson families and 55 children, providing a schedule of virtual health-promotion activities built around healthful habits and family interaction.
Chicanos Por La Causa
Founded in 1969, Chicanos Por La Causa helps individuals and families achieve self-sufficiency by providing accessible health care, affordable housing, quality education, meaningful employment and political representation.
Over the years, Chicanos Por La Causa has grown to defend the rights of people of all backgrounds, regardless of ethnicity, race, age, gender, orientation or immigration status, while maintaining a special competence in meeting the needs of the Latino and Spanish-speaking population. The organization provides direct services impacting almost 380,000 lives annually in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas.
With the Zuckerman College of Public Health’s strong focus on diverse populations and underserved communities, the close partnership with CPLC has proven especially valuable and effective.
“By partnering with the Zuckerman College of Public Health, CPLC has been able to directly support students pursuing educational and career paths in public health and help create and empower future leaders and innovators committed to improving Arizona communities,” said Lydia A. Aranda, MA, president of Chicanos Por La Causa, Southern Arizona. “Our priorities include leveraging a wide array of community allies, subject-matter experts and also funders focused on health and wellness disparities, safety and security and research and strategic visioning for the future,” Aranda said.
David Adame, CEO of Chicano Por La Causa
The partnership with the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health (MEZCOPH) grew out of the relationship between David Adame, President and CEO of CPLC, and Dr. Cecilia Rosales, associate dean of the MEZCOPH Phoenix Campus. Dr. Rosales serves on the board of CPLC, and together with Adame, they saw the opportunity to build health equity in Latino communities. Adame’s work with CPLC has improved the quality of life for so many in Arizona and around the country, and in 2017 MEZCOPH awarded him an honorary PhD in public health in recognition of his achievements and service to Latino communities.
“David has done so much for public health in underserved communities here in Arizona. We are proud and grateful to work with him and Chicanos Por La Causa in our common cause, to improve health and wellness for Arizona communities through focused programs, services, and education” said Dean Hakim.
In addition to many other collaborations, CPLC is a partner in the UArizona/Banner Health “All of Us” research program and several of its members serve, or have served, on the project’s Community Engagement Board. In 1991, CPLC established a scholarship program to help students in Arizona overcome barriers, such as finances, so they could attend college. In 2013, Chicanos Por La Causa awarded two-year scholarships to two UArizona Zuckerman College of Public Health students.
Since then, “CPLC has endeavored to address the barriers to entry for higher education, especially within the college and career fields, that underscore and influence quality of life – namely, wellness and well-being in self and society,” Aranda said, adding she has high expectations for her organization’s future relationship with the College.
“As Arizona, Mexico – and the entire world – continue to grapple with the complex health issues brought on by COVID-19, CPLC will continue to work with the University and its College of Public Health to strengthen the pathway to post-pandemic recovery,” Aranda said. “Looking forward to 2021, CPLC remains enthusiastic to expand its work with the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, its students, faculty and staff.”
Dean Iman Hakim speaks at the launch of the Academic Health Department Collabortation with Pima County, 2019
Academic Health Department
In June 2019, the Zuckerman College of Public Health established the Academic Health Department, in partnership with the Pima County Health Department, Cochise Health and Social Services and the Graham County Health Department.
Under the leadership of Dr. Cecilia Rosales, and with coordinating support from Emily Waldron, MPH, the Community Engagement and Outreach Coordinator, the Academic Health Department (AHD) provides a framework for mutually beneficial partnerships designed to enhance public health instruction, practice, research and workforce development in Pima County and other counties throughout Arizona. The departments are structured differently in each county or tribal reservation and are designed to benefit the health needs of specific communities.
The AHD provides formal structure for the close and longstanding partnership between the College and the Pima County Health Department, a relationship that has been especially beneficial during the COVID-19 pandemic as experts from the College and the county have been able to share data and expertise that shapes strategy in the fight to slow and stop the spread of the virus.
During the summer of 2019, representatives from the UArizona Zuckerman College of Public Health and the Pima County Health Department developed a work plan for the Academic Health Department, which today has expanded to additional Arizona counties. Some of the program’s activities so far, include:
- Cochise Health and Social Services – A College of Public Health MPH candidate is conducting a yearlong “contact tracing internship” with Cochise Health and Social Services to identify Cochise County residents who have been exposed and/or infected with COVID-19. The student is establishing a protocol to invite individuals with confirmed cases and contacts to participate in a study conducted by the UArizona Health Sciences to explore COVID-19 occurrences in Arizona.
- Pinal County Public Health District and the Zuckerman College of Public Health established an Academic Health Department in October 2020. Already student interns are providing graphic design and research support for the School Case and Outbreak Toolkit.
- Yuma County Public Health District – Pinal County Public Health District and the UArizona College of Public Health are establishing an Academic Health Department.
The Collaboratory
Since 2014, the Colleges of Public Health, Agriculture and Life Sciences, and Medicine formed a Research Collaboratory at the Abrams Public Health Building in Tucson, AZ, the home of the Pima County Health Deparment. The Collaboratory, directed by the MEZCOPH CRCPHP, CALS-Nutrition Sciences, and the COM Diabetes/Family Community Wellness Program, operates in partnership with Pima County and other community organizations, creating unique and exciting opportunities to support clinical, behavioral, and translational research. Core projects within the Collaboratory include diet/physical measurement, diet/physical activity education & intervention, body composition & metabolic assessment, community outreach & engagement, recruitment, and data management & evaluation.
One major program the Collaboratory has been working on is Nosotros Comprometidos a Su Salud – Committed to Your Health a program within the Mel & Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health developed to foster community-engaged research collaborations, service, and education to advance health equity.
Partnerships Improve Lives
In so many ways, our partnerships make us all more productive and effective in our common effort to build health equity in Arizona and beyond. The Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health is deeply grateful for all our partners and their ongoing support of our public health mission. “The continued battle against COVID-19 makes it so apparent we must all work together to help our nation and world recover,” Dr. Hakim said. “Thankfully, our College of Public Health has some wonderful partners to call upon as our students, staff and faculty push to build a healthier more equitable post-pandemic world.”
MEZCOPH Partnership web page: https://publichealth.arizona.edu/outreach/collaborations/community-partners/tucson-pima
Thank you to our presenting sponsor Arizona Complete Health!
