Home > Alumni > Jude Van Buren
 |
Name:
Jude Van Buren, RN, MPH, DrPH
Position: Assistant Secretary in the Office of Maternal
and Child Health
Organization: Washington state Department of Health
Year graduated from UW DEH: 1984
Degree: BS
Program: Undergraduate
Jude Van
Buren has worked in the fields of public and environmental health for
more than 25 years as a midwife and public health nurse, environmental
scientist, environmental specialist, epidemiologist, toxicologist, and
professor of environmental health sciences at The Evergreen State College.
She entered the Department of Environmental Health after a tour with the
Peace Corps, where she worked in sanitation and developed an international
health background. At the time, she had an Associate Degree in Nursing.
After completing her Bachelor of Science degree at the UW, she worked
for the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department and later for the states
of Maryland and Washington in environmental health.
She went on to obtain a Master's in Public Health and then a DrPH (Doctor
of Public Health) degree in Environmental Health Sciences from The Johns
Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. Her research has included
work in childhood lead poisoning and later in waterborne disease agents.
She returned to Washington, where she manages the Assessment Section
in the Office of Maternal and Child Health at the Washington state Department
of Health. She directs a statewide surveillance system of prenatal health
(from five months before to a month after birth) and oversees an office
of 13 researchers in maternal and child health.
Her section surveys new mothers in Washington state to analyze pregnancy
risks (the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) survey,
a population-based surveillance system sponsored by the Centers for Disease
Control and the state). Her researchers also gather information on deaths
of children in the state to determine if the death was preventable and
what strategies could be used to prevent similar deaths in the future.
For more information: http://www.doh.wa.gov/cfh/mch/
