Greetings,

The Minnesota Legislature provided $24.8 million in biennium funding to emergency response sustainability. This funding includes $8.4 million annually to support local and tribal health through preparedness and response grants. The remaining funds are designated to support emergency response sustainability. Funded activities will include sustaining a critical supplies warehouse, embedding preparedness in all Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) divisions and training response teams to increase response capacity, collecting data to guide and evaluate responses, maintaining public hotline operations, and providing funding to Local Public Health Association for training and conferences.

Minnesota also received $2.44 million over the next 2 years as a Medical Reserve Corps State, Territory and Tribal Nations, Representative Organizations for Next Generation (MRC STTRONG) federal award. This funding will go for Legislative Approval in November. MDH will utilize this funding to expand the disaster response and recovery capacity of Minnesota’s MRC units and the volunteer management system called MN Responds. Additionally, MDH will update existing and develop new training materials to support the operational needs of the MRC units. Through this funding, local MRC units will be able to support recruitment, training, and exercises.

Emergency Preparedness and Response (EPR) will engage in strategic planning over the next few months to develop a vision, goals, and objectives for the next 3-5 years. As part of our planning, we will align with the One Minnesota Plan, the MDH strategic plan and Public Health and Health Care Capabilities. We will also review COVID-19 after action recommendations.

The MDH COVID-19 response has transitioned from an agency bureau into EPR and other parts of the health department. Teams are planning for COVID-19 activities this fall including working with local and tribal public health partners on vaccine outreach and COVID-19 Community Coordinators (CCC’s) for community-based vaccine clinics.  Providing tests to CCC’s, local and tribal public health as well as through the online ordering program for high-risk ZIP code areas statewide and assuring the public inquiry line has updated information regarding vaccine, testing and exposure guidance to share with callers. 

Thank you all for your continued dedication to the citizens of Minnesota as we continue to respond to and recover from this historic pandemic.

Regards,

Cheryl

My name is Janice Maine. I was hired at MDH over 18 years ago, when EPR was known as the Office of Emergency Preparedness, as the All-Hazards Planner and wrote the MDH All-Hazards Base Plan. I transitioned to the Lead Exercise Designer in 2015 and currently design and develop exercises and trainings for the MDH Response Teams that allows them to practice their response roles. I’ve also been the MN.TRAIN State Administrator since 2009.

I grew up all over the United States, from Alaska to Georgia, because my father was in the Air Force, but I now reside in downtown Saint Paul. I have six brothers and two sisters. I enjoy classical and jazz music, reading mystery novels, and have an excellent palate for wine.

Fun fact, some pets resemble their owners, but mine resemble celebrities. I have a cat that has the same nose as Bruce Willis, and a second cat that has the curled lip as Elvis!

My name is Jillian Oppegard, I work to coordinate and plan training and exercises to support the readiness levels of MDH response staff for responses to public health emergencies. I worked to develop a corrective action (CA) tracking tool for tracking CA statuses across the agency for continuous improvement and increasing our agency response capabilities. I also led the planning of the Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) Workshop this past spring.

I was born and raised in Minnesota. I attended the University of St. Thomas and received a bachelor's degree in biology, and later I continued my studies at the University of Minnesota and received my master's degree in public health. While at St. Thomas, I was on the dance team and won two collegiate national championships. Currently, I live in Eagan with my husband, 2-year-old daughter, and our dog Oslo. I enjoy traveling, catching and eating walleye, as well as golfing! I also hope to get an e-bike soon! An interesting fact about me is that I studied Chinese from middle school to college.

My name is Hannah Tice and I am a Center for Disease Control (CDC) Preparedness Field Assignee. My role supports Minnesota with any of their preparedness needs. This involves communication with local partners, supporting the EET team by helping plan exercises, developing a common activities framework for EPR, helping analyze stories from local public health and tribal health and much more. My position allows me to dabble in many projects, which means no day is the same and keeps things exciting!

I was born and raised in New York, on Long Island, which is 40 minutes east of New York City. I attended college in Upstate New York, about 4 hours south of the Canadian border. After college, I took a job with the CDC and became a Midwest transplant, starting in Iowa and now in Minnesota. I currently live in downtown Minneapolis with my boyfriend and our two cats. My educational background is in behavioral neuroscience, and I am currently working on obtaining my master of public health in applied epidemiology from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In my free time, I love watching reality TV, (Bravo is my favorite) and enjoy staying active.

An interesting fact about me is that I fed kangaroos while in Australia!

My name is Cassandra Broadwater, and I am a Health Educator with the EET team. I work alongside the planners of the EET team and EPR on a variety of projects to develop and disseminate educational content for internal and external partners as well as facilitate orientation for new EPR employees.

I live south of Rochester with my husband, three kids, and many furry friends. I received my bachelor of science degree from the University of Minnesota in health, and a master’s degree from St. Mary’s University in education. I worked at Mayo Clinic for several years in the operating room, in accreditation, and as an instructor at the Mayo School of Health Science. In my free time, I love to be outside, hiking, fishing, golfing, or spending time at different parks with my kids and pup. 

My name is Courtney Erickson and I am a contracted Program Analyst with the CDC Foundation, having joined the EPR Hotwash team in January 2022. During that time, I assisted with planning and taking notes during hotwashes, writing after action reports (AARs) and various projects. I have now transitioned to the Exercise and Education Team and helped tto develop the Corrective Action Prioritization Survey and After-Action Report Tracking tool and dashboard.

I grew up in the small town of Starbuck, MN along the shores of Lake Minnewaska, where I continue to spend majority of my weekends throughout the summer months. I graduated with my bachelor of arts in communication studies from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN and my master of public health in global health from St. Catherine’s University in St. Paul. I love to travel with my friends and family in my free time and spend time with my French Bulldog, Zeke.

A fun fact about me is that I recently accepted a new role at the Food and Drug Administration as a Public Health Analyst following the completion of my contract with MDH! I’ll be headed out to Washington, DC to start my new role after Labor Day weekend.

On August 3-4, 17 Behavioral Health (BH) Medical Reserve Corp (MRC) volunteers joined the Regional Behavioral Health Coordinator (RBHC) team for orientation and training at Camp Ripley in Little Falls, Minnesota. The orientation provided not only an opportunity for learning the details of deployment and response, but also to begin new connections and refresh existing ones. The orientation training is one requirement of all BH MRC volunteers to meet in order to be deployed when called to disaster response.

The MN BH MRC is the only one of its kind in the country. Other states have expressed interest in knowing how the RBHCs have created this specific mode of disaster response, and we are happy to share our knowledge! Volunteers who attended this orientation training have completed the application process as well as the required trainings of Psychological First Aid (PFA), two online FEMA courses, and the orientation.

The attendees were a mix of long-standing and new volunteers that represented about a quarter of our total volunteers. The first day of orientation held a lot of information, ended with the training, “Roots of Growth Through Recovery,” by Luke Campbell. The next half-day of orientation was spent in training exercises and sharing of deployment experiences by the RBHC’s.

MN BH MRC continues to recruit for new volunteers, and want to invite you to consider joining us! An information session will be held on Sept. 9 from 9:00-10:00 A.M. A virtual orientation training is planned for November 3, 2023. For more information and details on applying to become a MN BH MRC volunteer, contact Janet Yeats through email, Janet.R.Yeats.Contractor@state.mn.us.