Faculty

faculty photo
Betty Bekemeier
Adjunct Assistant Professor
I have a passion for public health as it is practiced in the community setting. Improving the health of whole communities can only happen through working effectively together across systems, agencies, and disciplines and believing that everyone participates in the work of public health.
PhD  
University of Washington, 2007
Nursing
MPH  
Johns Hopkins University, 1994
Program Evaluation
MSN  
Johns Hopkins University, 1994
Public Health Nursing Leadership and Management
BSN  
Pacific Lutheran University, 1984
Nursing

Department of Health Services Program Affiliations:
  -  Community-Oriented Public Health Practice
  -  Maternal and Child Health Track, (MPH program)

Betty Bekemeier is a public health systems researcher - examining effective strategies for local and state public health systems to most effectively improve population health and eliminate disparities. She served as Deputy Director of the Turning Point National Program Office where her specialty was in public health practice system development. Before coming to the UW, her career focused on public health practice at the local level, including: public health nursing, clinical and field management, epidemiology, community assessment, maternal child health, and administration

Contact Information
Department of Psychosocial and Community Health
1959 NE Pacific St., T-509E
Box:  357263
Seattle, WA 98195
(voice)  206-616-8411
bettybek@u.washington.edu
Teaching Interests
community assessment/development, qualitative research, public health infrastructure, PH Nursing, management in PH practice and maternal child health.

HSERV 591(Community Oriented Public Health Practice)
Community Development for Health and Assessment

HSERV 591(Community Oriented Public Health Practice)
Health Behavior/Health Promotion

  • HSERV 480
    Issues in Public Health
  • HSERV 541   (Extended MPH Program)
    Topics in Maternal and Child Health I
Research Interests
Effective public health practice system development, public health financing, management of public health practice, public health nursing leadership, public health workforce development issues.
Projects
Turning Point--Collaborating for a New Century in Public Health
Turning Point is a national program funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in which 21 states across the country were funded to develop innovative and effective change in public health infrastructure in their states through collaborations with unique partnerships. These partnerships built public health capacity throughout the public health system at both the state and local level.
www.turningpointprogram.org/
External Funding (sampling of current and past involvement)
Northwest Public Health Leadership Institute
Association of Schools of Public Health
PI:   Thompson           Dates:    10/2005 - 09/2008
The Northwest Public health leadership Institute is committed to developing and supporting community leaders who seek to fulfill society's interest in assuring conditions in which people can live healthy in healthy communities.

Public Health Funding and Population Health
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
PI:   Grembowski           Dates:    01/2007 - 12/2007
The primary objective is to establish whether incremental changes in the expenditures of local health departments are associated with changes in the health disparities of the populations in which they serve.

Public Health Nursing Continuing Education Grant
Health Resources Services Administration
PI:   Thompson           Dates:    09/2006 - 08/2007
The NWCPHPP will provide a series of trainings in performance management and leadership to the public health nursing workforce in the state of Washington and the NW region.

Turning Point: Collaborating for a New Century in Public Health.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
PI:   Berkowitz           Dates:    07/1996 - 11/2006
The primary goal of this project is to transform and strengthen the public health system in the United States so that it is more effective, more community based and more collaborative in protecting and improving that public's health.


Selected Publications

Bekemeier, B. & Butterfield, P. (2005). Unreconciled inconsistencies: A critical review of the concept of social justice in 3 national nursing documents. Advances in Nursing Science, 28(2), 152-162.

Padgett, S., Bekemeier, B., & Berkowitz, B. (2005). Building Sustainable Public Health Systems Change at the State Level. The Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, 11(2), 109-115.

Padgett, S., Bekemeier, B., & Berkowitz, B. (May/June, 2004). Collaborative Partnerships at the State Level: Promoting systems changes in public health infrastructure. The Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, 10(3), 251-257.

Wilson, J. & Bekemeier, B. (2003). Collaborative Leadership in Public Health. The Encyclopedia of Leadership, Berkshire Publishing Group. Great Barrington, MA.

Bekemeier, B. & Dahl, J. (September, 2003). Turning Point "sets the stage" for Emergency Preparedness Planning. The Journal of Public Health Management and Practice.

Bekemeier, B. (2001). A public health workforce that works. Northwest Public Health, 18, 6-9.

Bekemeier, B. (1995). Public health nurses and the prevention and intervention of family violence. Public Health Nursing, 12(4), 222-228.

Dearwater, S., Coben, J., Campbell, J., Nah, G., Glass, N., McLoughlin, E., & Bekemeier, B. (1998) Prevalence of intimate partner abuse in women treated at community hospital emergency departments. JAMA, 280(5), 433-438.

Links
Turning Point National Program
Washington State Public Health Association
Region IV Vice President
http://www.wspha.org/
American Public Health Association
Public Health Nursing Section of APHA
more info . . .