IPH announces FY27 President’s Fund grant recipients
Creighton’s Institute for Population Health (IPH) has awarded funding to five faculty-led proposals from the special President’s Fund in Population Health. Now in its third year, this IPH program supports faculty from across Creighton and their innovative projects at the intersection of healthcare and community to measurably improve population health and health equity.
This year’s grant projects focus on advancing health equity through community-engaged, person-centered innovation in care delivery, workforce well-being and health professions education. These grants collectively aim to transform health services and support by integrating community voice, supporting the well-being of both patients and providers and developing scalable, equity-driven tools and care models.
The awardees involve faculty, staff, students and community partners in both Omaha and Phoenix. The awardees will join a learning cohort, led by the IPH, which will serve as a forum for peer-to-peer learning and collaboration, sharing strategies for improving the health of these communities and providing implementation and evaluation planning support for each awardee. Through this, IPH is committed to partnering with awardees in their efforts to improve the health of all.
Scott Shipman, MD, MPH, executive director of the IPH expressed his gratitude to all faculty who submitted proposals.
“The ideas submitted reflected the breadth and depth of Creighton’s expertise, talent and desire to improve health and health equity where we serve,” Shipman says. “I am grateful to support the efforts of colleagues from across the University who share a passion for health justice and improving population health through teaching, scholarship and service.”
The recipients of the President’s Fund in Population Health for FY27 are:
1. Measuring and Mitigating the Emotional Toll of Child Advocacy Work: Strengthening Worker Well-being to Advance Health Equity at Project Harmony
Kimberly Rocheville, PhD, assistant professor of marketing and management, Heider College of Business
Child advocacy center (CAC) staff deliver forensic interviews, medical exams and family advocacy services to children and families experiencing abuse and neglect – work that carries a profound emotional toll, contributing to burnout, secondary trauma and compromised care quality. When workforce well-being suffers, the children and families CACs serve are directly impacted, deepening existing health and social inequities. This project, conducted in partnership with Omaha's Project Harmony, will develop and validate a rigorous measurement tool to assess emotional toll among direct-service staff, then translate that tool into a practical monitoring and response framework for organizational leaders.
2. Project MOTHER: Maternal Outcomes through Team-based Health, Engagement, and Recovery
Andrea Thinnes, OTD, associate professor of occupational therapy, School of Pharmacy and Health Professions
Project MOTHER (Maternal Outcomes through Team-based Health, Engagement and Recovery) addresses a critical gap in postpartum care by focusing on the “fourth trimester,” when many mothers — especially those from underserved communities — face unmet mental health and social support needs. Through a year-long, community-engaged needs assessment, the project brings together an interprofessional team to identify barriers and co-design a culturally responsive, feasible model of enhanced group-based perinatal care. Building on the proven CenteringPregnancy® model, the initiative aims to expand support beyond delivery, with a stronger emphasis on maternal mental health, functional well-being and sustained engagement in care. The project will produce a pilot-ready implementation blueprint, positioning it for future funding and scalable impact on maternal health outcomes and equity.
3. Centering Lived Experiences to Advance Healthcare Equity: An Inclusive Simulation Initiative for Health Professions Students
Marion Russell, OTD, associate professor of occupational therapy, School of Pharmacy and Health Professions
Individuals from historically underserved populations often face challenges in healthcare due to gaps in provider training, bias and limited understanding of their experiences and needs. This project seeks to better understand healthcare encounters by engaging individuals with lived experience through interviews and community partnerships to identify both barriers and positive interactions within healthcare settings.
A community advisory board will guide all phases of the project to ensure that the work remains grounded in community priorities and lived realities. Findings will be used to develop a framework for integrating lived experiences into simulation-based health professions education and to inform the future development of simulation scenarios derived from participant narratives. By combining community knowledge with educational innovation, this project aims to strengthen provider preparation and contribute to more respectful, responsive and inclusive healthcare environments.
4. Understanding the Seating, Mobility, and Assistive Device Needs of Adults with Disabilities in the Phoenix Metro Area
Kathleen Sutton, DPT, PhD, MPH, assistant professor of physical therapy, School of Pharmacy and Health Professions – Phoenix
This Phase 1 needs assessment is exploring the experiences of individuals in the Phoenix metro area who live with physical disabilities and use custom seating and mobility devices such as wheelchairs and/or prostheses with device assessment, allocation, maintenance and replacement. It will also explore the experiences of community organizations and healthcare providers who are involved in working with individuals with physical disabilities in the Phoenix metro area. By better understanding the community’s experiences, needs and priorities, the objective of this project is to develop a prototype for a community-based clinic that combines 3D movement analysis with direct referral to custom seating and mobility service providers that is accessible, highly relevant and efficient.
5. Validating the IP-Navigator Mental Health Screening Tool: Integrating Community Voice and Interprofessional Practice, Facilitating Timely Access and Quality Outcomes
Sara Banzhaf, DNP, associate professor of nursing, College of Nursing
This project aims to improve population health and advance health equity by expanding access to timely, culturally responsive psychiatric–mental health services. It will test and refine the Interprofessional Practice–Navigator (IP-Navigator), a screening and care coordination tool that helps healthcare teams identify needs at intake and connect patients to appropriate services more quickly, while being integrated into real-world clinic workflows in partnership with communities. The project will evaluate the tool’s reliability across diverse populations and its impact on referrals and access to care, with the goal of delivering a validated, scalable solution that strengthens care coordination, reduces disparities and improves outcomes for populations disproportionately affected by health inequities.
