Public Health in the Rockies 2026

Public health professionals increasingly work in complex, interdependent systems where decisions made by one program, discipline, agency, or community partner affect outcomes across the broader public health infrastructure. Persistent challenges such as emergency preparedness, behavioral health access, communicable disease response, workforce shortages, health equity, and community trust require more than technical expertise. They require systems thinking, interprofessional collaboration, adaptive problem-solving, role clarity, shared leadership, and coordinated action. This skill-building session will use Friday Night at the ER©, an interactive team-based simulation game, to help participants practice these competencies in a dynamic, engaging, and low-risk learning environment. This skills-based simulation game is also part of the interprofessional Teamwork and Collaboration micro-credential, and University of Colorado Anschutz public health students are eligible to earn this badge.

Participants will work in small interprofessional teams to manage patient flow, resource constraints, and competing priorities across a simulated hospital system. While set in a healthcare environment, the learning principles directly translate to public health practice. Participants will experience how siloed decision-making, limited communication, and narrow role focus can undermine system-level performance, while shared situational awareness, flexible leadership, resource sharing, and coordinated planning can improve outcomes system-wide.

The session bridges public health workforce development and interprofessional education by emphasizing core competencies: teamwork, communication, values and ethics, roles and responsibilities, collaborative decision-making, and systems-based practice. In public health settings, these competencies are enacted not only among health professionals but also across governmental public health, community-based organizations, schools, healthcare systems, social services, emergency management, and policy partners. This applied learning experience allows participants to examine their own team behaviors, practice collaboration under pressure, and reflect on how professional roles and organizational structures influence collective action.

The session includes a brief orientation to systems-thinking and interprofessional collaboration, facilitated gameplay, structured reflection, and application to real-world public health contexts. The debrief will explore how teams communicated across roles, managed shared resources, responded to competing priorities, and shifted from individual task completion to collective system performance. Participants will then translate lessons from the game to public health scenarios such as outbreak response, cross-agency coordination, community partnership development, workforce deployment, health equity initiatives, and crisis communication.

This session supports best practices in professional development by using experiential learning, simulation, team-based reflection, and facilitated debriefing to build transferable skills. Pilot evaluation data from an initial implementation supports the relevance and feasibility of this approach. Participants reported strong learner response, including that the experience was valuable, fun and engaging, relevant to their work, and useful for practicing collaboration. Qualitative feedback highlighted increased awareness of the whole system, the need to think beyond assigned roles, the importance of sharing resources, and the value of communicating and planning collectively before acting.

This session is highly relevant to public health professionals and the conference theme, “Stronger Together,” because it moves collaboration from concept to practice. Participants will leave with concrete strategies for strengthening teamwork, systems thinking, and interprofessional collaboration across programs, agencies, disciplines, and community partnerships.

Public health professionals are increasingly moving beyond introductory conversations about artificial intelligence (AI) and seeking practical skills that support responsible integration of AI into everyday work. As generative AI tools become more common across public health practice, research, teaching, communication, and administration, workforce development efforts must also evolve to address emerging competencies related not only to AI use, but also to critical evaluation, verification, and ethical implementation.

This interactive skill-building session will focus on two emerging areas of need identified through previous AI workshops, participant feedback, and ongoing workforce conversations: 1) prompting and meta prompting strategies that improve AI-supported workflows and outputs, and 2) approaches for critically evaluating, validating, and fact checking AI-generated information. Building upon multiple years of AI-focused public health trainings, facilitators will provide an “AI in Public Health: State of the Union” overview to contextualize current patterns, opportunities, concerns, and workforce readiness related to AI adoption in public health settings.

Participants will engage in hands-on activities designed to strengthen practical AI skills through real-world public health scenarios. Activities will include developing and refining prompts for public health communication and programmatic work, exploring structured and reusable prompting frameworks (“meta prompting”), comparing AI-generated outputs across tools, and practicing strategies for verifying information accuracy, identifying hallucinations or misinformation, assessing source quality, and maintaining evidence-informed decision-making practices.

Throughout the session, facilitators will encourage collaborative discussions around ethics, health equity, bias, accessibility, privacy, workforce implications, organizational readiness, and the importance of maintaining human judgment and accountability in AI-supported work. Rather than positioning AI as a replacement for public health expertise, this session emphasizes how thoughtful, collaborative, and critically engaged approaches to AI can strengthen public health capacity and resilience.

The session will prioritize interactive learning through demonstrations, collaborative exercises, audience polling, discussion, and real-world case studies drawn from public health practice and education settings. Participants will leave with practical prompting frameworks, strategies for evaluating AI-generated content, and resources to support continued learning and organizational capacity building.

This session aligns with the conference theme of “Stronger Together” by supporting collective learning, interdisciplinary collaboration, and shared approaches to responsible AI integration across the public health workforce. As public health professionals navigate rapidly evolving technologies, building communities of practice around ethical and evidence-informed AI use will be essential to strengthening public health systems and advancing health equity.

Background:

Colorado EnviroScreen, an interactive environmental justice mapping tool provided by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), was launched in 2022, and saw its first revision (version 2.0) in 2024. Colorado EnviroScreen brings together data about the environment, health, and socioeconomic factors to understand the cumulative impacts of environmental injustice and to identify cumulatively burdened communities as defined in Colorado’s Environmental Justice Act.

Methods and Results:

CDPHE is preparing to release Colorado Enviroscreen 3.0 in June 2027, following a process of consultation with subject matter experts and public feedback. Tool developers from the CDPHE Office of Environmental Justice will provide background on the tool, an overview of proposed tool updates (including changes to indicators, methods, and the platform), as well as major conclusions from public engagement sessions held May 4 - July 6, 2026.

Implications:

Colorado EnviroScreen allows Colorado state agencies, communities, academics, regulated industries, and other stakeholders to identify communities that experience cumulative impacts. Historically, environmental law and policy have focused only on one pollutant or one environmental medium (air, water, soil) at a time. Sometimes, that means missing the bigger picture of communities that are exposed to cumulative impacts from multiple sources and types of pollution. Colorado EnviroScreen is a foundational tool to advance environmental justice initiatives throughout CDPHE as well as for Local Public Health Authorities, community-based organizations, individual residents, and beyond.

The 2021 Marshall Fire destroyed over 1000 homes and damaged hundreds more in Boulder County. Approaching the five year anniversary of the state’s most destructive wildfire, this session will share lessons from our community-engaged research and facilitate an audience discussion about how public health scientists, practitioners, and policy-makers can support community health post-disaster.

The Marshall Fire Resilience Working Group engages scientists, community, and decision-makers to collect and share information about the Marshall Fire impacts and recovery process. The Working Group’s household survey collected information from residents at 6, 12, and 24 months post-fire, covering topics including rebuilding/relocation, insurance, public policy participation, and health symptoms. Working closely with a Community Advisory Board of affected residents, our research team is expanding on survey findings through focus groups to further explore the experiences of groups that may have faced barriers to recovery, including renters, mobile home owners, Spanish-language speakers, and residents with smoke and ash damage. Drawing on these data sources, we will share insights into the disasters’ impacts.

During the first 30 minutes of the session, we will provide background on the Marshall Fire and our community-engaged research results, and share key findings relevant to public health research and practice. During the remaining 30 minutes, we will engage the audience in small group discussions about implications for key sectors anticipating or responding to this type of wildland-urban interface (WUI) fire, including researchers, industrial hygienists, insurers, public health agencies, and decision-makers, among others. Discussion prompts may include:

1. How can researchers build relationships with key partners before a disaster occurs to facilitate authentically community-engaged post-disaster research?

2. What are local agencies currently doing/not doing to address the needs of key groups, such as renters and non-English speakers?

3. How can key sectors, like housing, be integrated into disaster preparedness and response?

The Mountain West Hub (MWH), a partnership between the Colorado School of Public Health and community members in West Denver (WD) and the San Luis Valley (SLV), is conducting an implementation study on DIY indoor air cleaners. Both communities have expressed concerns about poor air quality, and DIY air cleaners offer an economical and effective solution for improving indoor air quality. The study has three objectives: (1) evaluating adoption, use, and maintenance of air cleaners; (2) assessing indoor particulate matter (PM) exposure associated with ambient PM; and (3) evaluating the impact of DIY air cleaner usage on physical and mental health outcomes. A feasibility study was carried out in early 2026 to identify potential challenges and gather feedback from participants and community navigators prior to launching the full study.

Fourteen households participated in the feasibility study: 7 from WD and 7 from the SLV. Participation included receiving a DIY air cleaner, completing three home visits with a community navigator, and completing an online midpoint survey. Data collected during home visits and surveys included self-reported mental and physical health indicators, household characteristics, air cleaner feedback, and biometric outcomes. Focus groups were held with participants and community navigators following study close to gather additional feedback and inform full study planning.

Feasibility study findings highlighted several logistical challenges, including scheduling difficulties and time burden for participants and community navigators, a need for stronger communication channels, and technical issues with data collection tools. These lessons have directly informed full study procedures.

Findings from the feasibility study underscore the value of early community engagement in refining study procedures and strengthening study design. This community-centered approach has the potential to improve health disparities on a local scale and serve as a model for similar efforts to combat environmental health challenges in the Mountain West and beyond.

Background / Purpose: The Colorado Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program conducts in-home environmental investigations for children and pregnant women with confirmed elevated blood lead levels at or above the CDC reference value of 3.5 µg/dL. All confirmed cases are contacted by a lead risk assessor and offered a free investigation. These investigations assess categories of potential lead exposure: paint, dust, food, water, soil, and consumer products. After the investigation, a report is generated that summarizes findings and provides recommendations to address any lead exposures.

Methods: Investigations conducted between July 2024 and December 2025 were included in this analysis. Data collected included demographic information, housing characteristics, and laboratory results for tested environmental samples and consumer products. Analyses examined the frequency and type of lead exposure sources identified, the presence of multiple exposure categories within a home, demographic patterns, and follow-up blood lead testing after the investigation.

Results: A total of 80 investigations were completed for 91 people. At least one lead exposure source was identified in 92.5% of homes. Consumer products were the most common source, with 62.5% of homes containing at least one product with elevated lead levels. Dust was the second most common source, with elevated dust levels found in 47.5% of investigations. In addition, 62.5% of homes had two or more lead exposure sources across multiple categories. After receiving recommendations, 56.6% of families obtained follow-up blood lead testing. Among those retested, 86.2% had lower blood lead levels, and approximately half fell below the CDC reference value.

Implications: These findings demonstrate the feasibility of the program for identifying sources of lead exposure in Colorado homes. Results can inform targeted prevention strategies, support exposure reduction efforts, and encourage follow-up blood lead testing.

Background
The ongoing substance use crisis continues to disproportionately impact rural communities with limited access to behavioral health services and high stigma surrounding substance use disorder (SUD). Las Animas and Huerfano rural Colorado counties show high rates of youth substance use, mental health concerns, and overdose risk compared to state averages. This project highlights the participatory co-design, implementation, and pilot evaluation of Change the Narrative, a community-informed multicomponent digital public health educational anti-stigma campaign developed to reduce substance use and mental health stigma and increase access to care.

Methods
Using participatory design and Boot Camp Translation-like methodology, a coalition of public health organizations, healthcare providers, and community members collaborated to develop culturally responsive evidence-based educational materials for stigma reduction. Mixed-methods evaluation, stakeholder feedback, and social media analytics help assess feasibility, acceptability, engagement, access, and preliminary impact.

Results
Over 15 community and health service organizations participated in campaign development and dissemination. More than 60 community members, including youth, adults, providers, and coalition members, participated in iterative testing and evaluation activities. Over 50 co-designed and iteratively enhanced materials focused on the impact of substance use, prevention and access, dismantling stereotypes and stigma, seeing the whole person, recovery, and hope. Components included: a) printed outreach materials distributed across hospitals, restaurants, park, schools, other community venues); b) prevention action-focused educational website; c) youth-centered social media (Instagram, Tiktok). Preliminary findings demonstrated acceptability of messaging and shifts in community perceptions.

Implications

This project supports the feasibility of community-engaged digital campaigns to reduce stigma and strengthen substance use prevention and mental health resources in rural communities. Youth-informed messaging, social media engagement, and culturally responsive resources may improve outreach, build community capacity, and advance health equity. Results highlight the importance of partnerships between local public health workforces and communities to develop evidence-based, community-driven prevention interventions.

BACKGROUND: Psychological birth trauma (BT) is a prevalent yet underrecognized complication of childbirth that can lead to short- and long-term impacts on maternal and family wellbeing. This study aimed to quantify the population-level burden of BT in Colorado and identify specific supportive interventions necessary for maternal recovery.

METHODS: This mixed-methods public health study utilized two sources of data. Quantitative estimates of BT prevalence and care utilization rates were calculated using novel maternal health surveillance data from new mothers in Colorado (2023-2024). This was complemented by a qualitative study involving in-depth semi-structured interviews with women who experienced traumatic births to explore their experiences and the supports that facilitated their recovery during and beyond the postpartum period.

RESULTS: Preliminary surveillance estimates from 2023 indicate a BT prevalence rate of 9% among new mothers in Colorado (over 4800 mothers/year), with only 46% of those affected receiving helpful, timely care. Qualitative findings identified five critical areas where women and families lack adequate support: 1) Understanding the cognitive and behavioral impacts of BT; 2) Learning adaptive coping strategies for difficult emotions (anxiety, rage) and reactions (isolation, hypervigilance, overcontrol); 3) Addressing immediate and long-term physical health conditions resulting from pregnancy and childbirth; 4) Navigating mental health and medical care to determine the viability of subsequent, healthy pregnancies; 5) Accessing paid parental leave that reflects the actual time needed for postpartum recovery and caring for babies discharged from the NICU.

IMPLICATIONS: The high prevalence of BT coupled with low rates of care indicate a critical gap in the perinatal care continuum. Public health and clinical strategies must shift toward systemic, trauma-informed models. This includes educating providers, women, partners, and families; improving postpartum mental health screenings; integrating behavioral health within obstetric care; and enacting supportive labor policies like comprehensive paid parental leave to facilitate long-term maternal recovery.

Background:

Menstrual health can significantly impact physical, mental, and social well-being. Period poverty is defined as "The lack of access to safe and hygienic menstrual products, inaccessibility to basic sanitation services, facilities, and menstrual hygiene education" (Jaafar et al., 2023). It is estimated that 25% of menstruators in the United States will experience period poverty at some point during their life (Casola et al., 2022). This review examines how period poverty resources bridge gaps by addressing access to menstrual education, sanitation materials, and services.

Methods:

A literature review began with a PubMed search for “menstrual health”, identifying the Hennegan et al. (2021) framework. Hennegan’s framework defined multiple components of menstrual health; this review focused on the two components of the framework closely linked to period poverty: information and materials, facilities, and services. A subsequent search in PubMed and Google Scholar was completed, adding the keywords "health literacy”, “accessibility”, and “period poverty". Nine scholarly sources were mapped to explore if period poverty resources can bridge gaps in these two components of menstrual health.

Results:

This literature review found that period poverty resources could bridge gaps by improving access to menstrual education, products, facilities, and services necessary for optimal menstrual health. Yet, combating period poverty is complex, in part due to long-standing stigmatization and shaming that have made discussing the menstrual cycle difficult. Given the complexities, further research is needed to address additional gaps related to menstrual health.

Implications:

Action can take place at the individual level through conversations and involvement in local efforts. Through coordination efforts, academic institutions, medical facilities, governments, policymakers, and non-profit organizations such as Period Kits Colorado (PKC) can improve menstrual health equity by increasing menstrual education and expanding access to products and services, directly benefiting menstruators in Colorado.

Background: Approximately 400,000 Coloradans rely on private wells for drinking water, leaving a significant portion of the state’s population outside the purview of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. While the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) offers subsidized private well testing for contaminants like per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), heavy metals in groundwater remain a critical, yet under-monitored, public health concern. CDPHE is launching a pilot program to test heavy metals in certain private wells, and this study aimed to map high-priority well locations to support testing resource prioritization.




Methods: We developed an evidence-based strategy to predict heavy metal occurrence in private wells. We integrated historical mining data, local geology, and environmental datasets, focusing on six key analytes: Arsenic, Cadmium, Manganese, Lead, Uranium, and Zinc. Using Empirical Bayesian Kriging (EBK) Regression Prediction, we merged sparse historical data with environmental predictors to create state-wide risk maps that bridge information gaps in unsampled regions.




Results: The analysis created a series of comprehensive risk maps for each metal, alongside a generalized index map. These tools do not predict specific outcomes for individual wells, but rather identify areas of elevated concern where environmental and historical factors suggest a higher probability of naturally occurring or introduced heavy metals. By comparing these areas with permitted well locations, we can better visualize which regions may benefit most from increased community outreach and subsidized testing resources.




Implications: Colorado’s diverse mineral geology and mining legacy present ongoing concerns for groundwater contamination. By integrating these factors into spatial risk maps, CDPHE can effectively prioritize sampling and resource allocation. As funding becomes available, this data-driven framework will enable targeted outreach, testing, and health education, empowering private well users to make informed decisions about their water quality.

As AI-assisted research tools continue rapidly expanding, public health researchers are increasingly faced with questions surrounding which tools are useful, how they can be integrated into evidence synthesis workflows, and what methodological and ethical considerations should guide their use. These challenges are especially relevant in interdisciplinary public health research, where fragmented terminology, inconsistent indexing, and evidence dispersed across multiple disciplines can make comprehensive literature searching particularly difficult.

This session presents a practical hybrid evidence synthesis workflow that combines traditional review methods with selectively integrated AI-assisted tools to strengthen search development, terminology refinement, citation mapping, and supplemental evidence discovery while maintaining transparency, reproducibility, and methodological rigor.

Using a scoping review on tobacco cessation interventions as a case study, the session will walk participants through each stage of the workflow. The presentation will include:

* How traditional database search strategies are initially developed and refined.
* How AI-assisted tools such as Elicit and Research Rabbit can be used to identify related terminology, map citation networks, and uncover supplemental literature that may have been missed through traditional keyword searching alone.
* Examples of how search terms and concepts may evolve throughout the review process in response to interdisciplinary terminology differences.
* Demonstrations of practical workflow integration across stages including evidence discovery, screening support, citation organization, and documentation practices.
* Discussion surrounding methodological tradeoffs, reproducibility concerns, ethical considerations, and limitations associated with integrating AI-assisted tools into evidence synthesis.

Participants will engage with example workflows and practical demonstrations and apply them to their own research question to demonstrate how hybrid approaches can support evidence synthesis across a variety of public health topic areas. The session will emphasize that AI-assisted tools are intended to complement, not replace, researchers' expertise, predefined inclusion criteria, manual screening processes, and transparent reporting practices.

Attendees will also discuss practical considerations for selecting appropriate AI-assisted tools depending on project goals, research questions, and stages of evidence synthesis. By focusing on adaptable workflows and critical evaluation rather than automation alone, the session aims to provide participants with transferable skills they can apply to their own interdisciplinary public health research environments.

This session is particularly relevant for public health researchers, graduate students, practitioners, and interdisciplinary teams conducting evidence synthesis in emerging or under-indexed topic areas where traditional search strategies alone may not fully capture the available literature.

The Toxicology and Risk Assessment Program (TARA) at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) continues to grow the PFAS Testing and Assistance Program (PFAS TAP) following its successful statewide expansion in 2025. PFAS TAP provides Colorado residents using private wells with free PFAS testing and supplies eligible participants with free filters that meet NSF standards for contaminant reduction. In addition, the program conducts targeted outreach in priority areas to focus resources where they are most needed. We’re partnering with Boulder County and the San Luis Valley Public Health Partnership this year.

This presentation compares outreach strategies and lessons learned from engaging with regions across Colorado. We will also share high-level results of our program efforts and the impact of providing free water filters to eligible households.

Key takeaways from this session include:

* How evaluation findings were applied to improve communication and build trust with underrepresented populations.

* Insights into regional differences in outreach effectiveness and how to better serve diverse communities across the state.

* The impact of PFAS TAP across Colorado to date and plans for moving forward.

We will highlight how PFAS TAP has evolved into a sustainable, statewide framework, and we offer a scalable model for other agencies or organizations seeking to improve outreach and engage private well users.

Background

Influenza virus activity is associated with climate; however, less is known about how climate affects influenza subtype activity. Using population-level influenza-associated hospitalization surveillance data, we assessed the relationship between predominant influenza subtype and average temperature in Colorado.

Methods

We analyzed laboratory-confirmed influenza-associated hospitalizations reported between October 1, 2009 - March 28, 2026*, excluding the 2020-2021 respiratory virus season due to minimal flu activity. We calculated Colorado weekly average temperatures and 30-year climate normals using National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data. Temperature anomaly was defined as the difference between average temperature and climate normals. Predominant seasonal subtype was defined as having more than a 10-percentage point difference in the proportion of subtyped influenza specimens. Spearman rank tests estimated the correlation between temperatures (weekly and anomaly) and influenza hospitalization rates and counts (overall and subtyped).

*Through May 2026 at presentation

Results

Between 2009 and 2026, nine influenza seasons were H3N2-predominant and six were H1N1-predominant. Of the H3N2-predominant seasons, five (55.55%) occurred during hotter-than-average seasons; three H1N1-predominant seasons (50.00%) occurred within colder-than-average seasons. Average weekly temperature showed a significant negative correlation with both H1N1 rates (⍴ = -0.342, p

In June 2022, House Bill 22-1244: The Public Protections From Toxic Air Contaminants Act was signed into state law. This talk will focus on how fundamental concepts in toxicology and human health risk assessment were integrated into several aspects of the implementation of this law. This talk will include an overview of the air toxics law and will provide in-depth discussion on the elements most directly tied to human health. We will review how health risk estimates informed the selection of the priority toxic air contaminants: formaldehyde, benzene, hexavalent chromium, ethylene oxide, and hydrogen sulfide. We will discuss the approach and health basis of ambient air benchmarks and emission reporting thresholds. Finally we will review how health risk estimates were used in the most recent emission control regulations adopted for formaldehyde. Taken together, this talk will provide participants with an update on Colorado’s progress related to the regulation of air toxics. This talk will provide a case study in how fundamental concepts in toxicology and human health risk assessment can inform regulations. Finally, participants will learn about ways to stay informed and involved in future activities related to air toxics.

Approximately 10% of Colorado households rely on private well water. Without connection to municipal water treatment, these users are solely responsible for ensuring the safety of their drinking water. Important to note, lack of existing frameworks and coordinated support systems for private well users in Colorado has created a gap in both service provision and understanding behaviors related around well water testing. As this population is widely distributed throughout the state, and sources their water from individual wells, little is known about water quality, testing frequency and treatment of these vital water supplies. Additionally, less is known about the motivations and barriers to adequate testing and treatment.

This project began with a focus on Boulder County, intending to characterize these elements of water supply for well users in that area. Our initial survey revealed opportunities for community engagement which drove the design of a series of in-person workshops held in the county to increase knowledge and access to resources for residents reliant on well water. Feedback from interviews and workshops allowed us to expand our materials to include concerns around wildfire risk, drought, drying of aquifers, and other sources of potential contamination such as septic systems and flood events.

The project has expanded in geographic scope, allowing us to further assess well stewardship in a broader region. Additional data has been collected from these areas, allowing us to share a fuller picture. We partnered with Local Public Health Agencies in Boulder County, Weld County and Larimer County and expanded outreach to renters and low-income residents through collaboration with CSU Extension, Nederland Food Pantry, and other community partners. We are engaged in feasibility work to create an online statewide toolkit for well users.