Heidi Haines is the Deputy Director of the PRC-RH and oversees the day-to-day operations and management of the overall center. Heidi leads the center-level evaluation, coordinates and is an investigator on center-level projects, and assists with communications and dissemination, translation, and training. Heidi's research experience includes rural/micropolitan health, working with community-based organizations, program evaluation, health equity, community engagement, and CBPR.  

Please comment on what one of the PRC-RH values means to you. 

One of the main reasons I wanted to work at the PRC-RH was the focus on community engaged research and CBPR because it involves building trust through in-person relationships for equitable research partnerships. Engagement with those who have the lived experience and amplifying their voices through qualitative work - I believe these are all essential to change in systems in the long run.  

What PRC-RH-related work are you excited to share?

A current project that I am excited about is the Harnessing Knowledge/Elevating Learnings project we are doing which is collecting public health professionals’ stories of their experiences responding to COVID-19 across the state of Iowa. Stories create meaning, and even writing about negative experiences, if they can be used to make changes and help future response to other pandemics, can have a very real positive effect. It was an honor to collect these stories, and I look forward to sharing the results.