The Evidence-to-Impact Podcast

Part 2 is here! In this follow-up episode, we take a deeper look at the Madison Area Recovery Initiative (MARI). Dr. Aleksandra Zgierska (Penn State), Captain Joe Balles (retired, Madison Police Department), and Captain Diana Nachtigal (Madison Police Department) share how evidence-based outreach, peer recovery partnerships, and innovative diversion strategies are reshaping the connections between policing, addiction recovery, and community health. More information on MARI can be found here: https://www.cityofmadison.com/police/community/mari/

You know what time it is - new episode! This one takes a deep dive into how community policing supports recovery and crime reduction, specifically within the Madison, Wisconsin area. The host, Michael Donovan, sits down with Dr. Aleksandra Zgierska from Penn State, Captain Joe Balles, and Captain Diana Nachtigal of the Madison Police Department to explore this topic further. The conversation dives into the development of the Madison Area Recovery Initiative (MARI), an innovative police-led diversion program designed to break the cycle of drug-related offenses without relying on the traditional justice system. The episode offers a new perspective into how evidence-based policing and community engagement can transform public health outcomes, and sustain these efforts long term.

We are back! We have a discussion with Denise Holden, founder and CEO of the Raises Project, a recovery community organization that has since expanded outside of Pennsylvania and Dr. Sarah Kawasaki, the Chief of Addiction Medicine, and Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Internal Medicine at Penn State Health.  This episode discusses the opioid crisis, the negative stigma surrounding this, and the process of recovery.

Supporting Recovery, Strengthening Families, & Fostering Healthier Communities: Effective Approaches to Addressing Substance Use Disorders in Justice-Involved Populations Summary: The substance use epidemic in the United States remains a significant public health concern. The rate of drug overdose deaths has increased substantially over the past decade. This risk is particularly heightened when individuals with a substance use disorder (SUD) encounter a transition in their lives, such as being released from a correctional facility. Within two weeks of release, the risk of overdose is between 8-40 times higher than standard risk. People with SUD are also overrepresented in the criminal justice system and often experience barriers to services. Effectively treating and preventing SUD among this population can help reduce recidivism, SUD and overdose rates, and lead to other positive outcomes for individuals, families, and communities (e.g., crime reduction, mental health, economic mobility). The consequences of inaction are far-reaching, which motivates this panel to discuss policy options with bipartisan appeal. Researchers will discuss innovative strategies to address SUD among justice-involved individuals – during and after release from incarceration. Additionally, the researchers can share insights on innovative approaches, opportunities to involve families in recovery, and ways to remove barriers to services. Panelists: Erin S. Corbett, EdD; CEO, Second Chance Educational Alliance, Inc. (Moderator) Melissa Svigelj, PhD; Assistant Professor, Justice Studies, James Madison University  Noel Vest, PhD; Assistant Professor, Boston University School of Public Health  Christy Visher, PhD; Professor, Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, University of Delaware

We’re back! The Evidence-to-Impact Podcast is back with a new episode where we discuss The Adolescent Health Network (AHN) from Penn State PRO Wellness. This episode features a conversation with Dr. Deepa Sekhar, executive director of Penn State PRO Wellness, Victoria Smith, career coordinator at Hershey High School in the Derry Township School District, and two amazing 12th-grade students and past program participants, Sarah Anderson, and Mena Morsy. The AHN is a program that connects health researchers with teens to get their feedback on research ideas, helps researchers design studies that are more relevant to adolescents, and gives students valuable experiential knowledge of health careers and research in general. This program is a great way to ensure your research is relevant to teens and their health needs. In addition to providing feedback on research ideas, teens can also help with study design, recruitment, and dissemination strategies. 

We're closing out this semester's season with a conversation about prevention and partnerships. We focus on a discussion between a long-standing collaborative relationship between Penn State and the Pennsylvania Commonwealth government, which targets interventions and prevention work targeted towards youth and families. Our episode covers a wide span of topics, including why prevention and implementation work are difficult, but critical; the changes that happen when there's a political transition, and much more. We spoke to Janet Welsh, PhD, Research Professor at the Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Center, and the Principal Investigator of the Evidence-based Prevention Intervention and Support program (EPIS) and SPEP™ (Standardized Program Evaluation Protocol) at Penn State, and Geoff Kolchin, Deputy Director of Unit of Violence Prevention Initiatives in the Office of Justice Programs at the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD), about their decades long collaboration between EPIS and PCCD. Resources and Additional Information Wrong Pocket Problem PAYS Reports The transcript is available here.

For this month’s episode, we did something a little different. We spoke to two researchers with two different approaches to tackling the same problem: knowledge mobilization. In essence, the concept of knowledge mobilization focuses on making knowledge, resources or practices that exist in one space and making them accessible to specific audiences. We talked about the work behind SOSNetLab (Social Opportunity Space Networking Lab) and the Research-to-Policy Collaboration, barriers to this type of research and implementation, and what the future has in store for addressing this problem. We spoke to Taylor Scott, PhD., Co-Director of the Research-to-Policy Collaboration and Assistant Research Professor at the Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Center at Penn State, and Alan J. Daly, PhD., SOSNetLab Chief Executive Dreamer, and Professor, University of California, San Diego as well as SOSNetLab’s full team, which includes: Mimi Lockton, Ed.D., SOSNETLAB Chief Project Catalyzer, and Doctoral Candidate at the University of California San Diego; Anita Caduff, SOSNETLAB Chief Swiss Army Knife, and Ph.D. Candidate at the University of California San Diego, and Martin Rehm, Ph.D., SOSNETLAB Chief Data Wrangler, and Post-Doctoral Scholar at the University of Regensburg in Germany. Resources SOSNetLab’s Website Research-to-Policy Collaboration’s Website Taylor mentions the work of Jennie Noll, Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Penn State, Director of the Center for Safe and Healthy Children, and a previous guest on this podcast; and Francesca Lopez, the Waterbury Chair in Equity Pedagogy and Professor of Education at Penn State. Additionally, Taylor discusses working with the Kauffman Foundation and the William T. Grant Foundation to expand their work on entrepreneurial research. SOSNet’s work is supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The transcript for the episode is available here.

This month's episode tackles a fascinating combination of topics involving the impact of biological and social factors on chronic diseases like obesity and diabetes, and the prevention and treatment efforts for those chronic diseases through state and local government programs. We spoke to Lindsay Fernández-Rhodes, Assistant Professor of Biobehavioral Health and the Director of Epidemiology and Genetics across Populations & Societies Laboratory at Penn State, and Amy Flaherty, Director of the Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity at the Bureau of Health Promotion and Risk Reduction in the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Department of Health, about public health, epidemiology, prevention work, and the influence of genetics and our environment on our health.  Resources and Additional Information Amy mentions the Chronic Disease Burden Report that her Bureau released earlier in 2021. Additionally, Amy discusses the National Diabetes Program, which has been in effect since 2010. For more information about obesity related programs, check out the Pennsylvania Department of Health's website and Center on Disease Control's website. Amy talks about the State Physical Activity and Nutrition (SPAN) grant, which is a five-year state investment that improve nutrition and support safe and accessible physical activity. She discusses the Healthy Pantry Initiative, a partnership with Feeding Pennsylvania, which helps to increase healthier options at food pantries across Pennsylvania, and WalkWorks, an initiative between the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the Pennsylvania Downtown Center that supports the development and adoption of active transportation plans or related policies. Much of Lindsay’s work focuses on Latino communities and community-based cohorts. She mentions the article ‘Demographic and sociocultural risk factors for adulthood weight gain in Hispanic/Latinos: results from the Hispanic Community Health Study / Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL)’ as a particular example of her work in this space. This website provides a longer description of the public health parable and how going ‘upstream’ can address health inequities. The transcript is available here.

This month's episode discusses mental health screenings for adolescents in the K-12 school system. We spoke to Deepa Sekhar, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics at the College of Medicine, and Executive Director, Penn State PRO Wellness; Perri Rosen, PhD, NCSP, Consulting Psychologist, Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, Pennsylvania Dept. of Human Services, and Steve Sharp, School Counselor in the Hempfield School District, and K-12 School Counseling Coordinator for the Hempfield School District about why having mental health screenings (or mood screenings) in K-12 schools makes a difference when helping children who might be struggling and getting them the resources that they need to succeed. Episode Resources and References The SHIELD study is mentioned several times throughout the episode. SHIELD stands for Screening in High Schools to Identify, Evaluate and Lower Depression. The Student Assistance Program (SAP) is a systematic team process used to mobilize school resources to remove barriers to learning. SAP is designed to assist in identifying issues including alcohol, tobacco, other drugs, and mental health issues which pose a barrier to a student’s success. Steve mentions receiving a school safety grant through Pennsylvania Commission and Crime and Delinquency (PCCD). He also mentions getting an ESSER grant through the Department of Education. Deepa discusses the SHIELD study receiving funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration and the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute. Steve mentions using MTSS teams, which stands for multi-tiered systems of supports. Lastly, Steven talks about the CAMS Model (Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality), which is a therapeutic framework for suicide-specific assessment and treatment of a patient’s suicidal risk.

The end of the spring semester marks the release of another episode! This month, we tackled the tough topic of mental health among college students. We talked about how COVID-19 has impacted college students seeking mental health services, the challenges for counselors and administrators working in university mental health centers, policy solutions to the crisis, and other things that have happened as a result of the pandemic like changes in technology. We spoke to Maithreyi Gopalan, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Education and Public Policy and Social Science Research Institute co-funded faculty member at Penn State, and Brett Scofield, Ph.D., Associate Director of Counseling and Psychological Services at Penn State and Executive Director of Center for Collegiate Mental Health (CCMH) about mental health, college students, what universities are doing (and should be doing), and a little bit of everything in between. Episode Resources and References There's been a series of articles in the New York Times about adolescent mental health that are worth perusing: Teens In Distress Are Swamping Pediatricians, ‘It’s Life or Death’: The Mental Health Crisis Among U.S. Teens, Hundreds of Suicidal Teens Sleep in Emergency Rooms. Every Night., and Surgeon General Warns of Youth Mental Health Crisis. Maithreyi mentions a study that she did with her colleagues, Stephanie Lanza, Ph.D. and Ashley-Linden Carmichael, Ph.D., from the Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Center, about overall college experiences, the student community, and their sense of belonging and impact that may have on their well being, health, and academic performance. Brett discusses the Clinical Load Index (CLI), a metric used to measure the average annual caseload of a clinician at a mental health center. Maithreyi mentions the dozens of calls for grant applications opened up by the National Institute of Mental Health about understanding the effect of the pandemic on mental health. Brett discusses two researchers involved with projects at CCMH: Louis Castonguay, Ph.D. and Jeffrey Hayes, Ph.D. The transcript for the episode is available here.

We're back for our third season! Kicking off the 2022 season, we explore the juvenile justice system in Pennsylvania. We spoke to Megan Kurlychek, Professor of Sociology, Criminology and Public Policy and Associate Director of the Criminal Justice Research Center at Penn State, and Rick Steele, Executive Director of the Juvenile Court Judges’ Commission at the Pennsylvania Commonwealth, about their work in the juvenile justice field, the history of the juvenile justice system, prevention programs, the issue of recidivism, and more. Episode Resources and Notes Megan mentions that she began her career working at the National Center for Juvenile Justice, located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Both Rick and Megan discuss the concept of parens patriae. According to the Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law, parens patriae is Latin for "parent of the people." Under parens patriae, a state or court has a paternal and protective role over its citizens or others subject to its jurisdiction. Megan discusses the court case, In re Gault, as one of the landmark Supreme Court cases that changed how juvenile justice was approached back in the 1960s. Rick refers to the MAYSI-2, the Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument – Second Version, when mentioning how behavioral health and substance use issues are assessed among justice-involved youth. Additionally, Rick discusses how the Pennsylvania Commonwealth has incorporated the University of Cincinnati's EPICS, Effective Practices in Community Supervision, into their probation model. Rick mentions using a standardized program evaluation protocol based on the work by Mark Lipsey, Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University. Megan mentions a prevention program that partners nurses with young mothers called the Nurse-Family Partnership. The School-to-Prison Pipeline is something that both Megan and Rick discuss as it relates to prevention research and programming. Megan talks about risk need assessments for assessing justice-involved youth. More information is available here. Rick discusses the Models for Change program, which helped to advance reforms to make juvenile justice systems more fair, effective, rational, and developmentally appropriate. He also mentions the Big Brothers, Big Sisters program, which is nationally renowned. JCJC's reports are available online for anyone interested in reading more about their work. Rick talks about working with other researchers in the field such as Gina Vincent, Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts, Keith Cruise from Fordham University, and Edward Mulvey, Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh's School of Medicine. Megan mentions her book, The Cycle of Juvenile Justice, which she co-wrote with Tom Bernard, Ph.D. back in 2010. The transcript for the episode is available here.

This month's episode tackles all things related to the U.S. Census. We discussed the decennial Census, the data products created and released from the U.S. Census Bureau, the current demographic trends and challenges, and measuring hard-to-reach populations. We spoke to Raeven Chandler, Ph.D., Director of the Pennsylvania Population Network (PPN) at the Population Research Institute (PRI), and Assistant Research Professor of Rural Sociology at Penn State, and Eric Jensen, Ph.D., Senior Technical Expert for Demographic Analysis in the Population Division at the U.S. Census Bureau, about their work as demographers, both in academic and government settings, and some issues around collecting and analyzing data, especially as it pertains to the 2020 Census. Episode Resources and Notes Eric mentions the American Community Survey (ACS) and the Current Population Survey as some examples of the many data products that the U.S. Census Bureau produces for the public. Eric discusses how Penn State has a Federal Statistical Research Data Center (RDC), a place where qualified researchers can access restricted microdata from a variety of statistical agencies. Raeven and Eric talk about some issues around collecting data in college towns across the United States. Most recently, some towns have said that they want to challenge the results of the 2020 Census. Raeven discusses the concerns surrounding questions about Latino and Hispanic heritage questions on the 2020 Census. For more information about that topic, this is a blog post from the U.S. Census about the issue. Eric mentions the U.S. Census Bureau working with two Penn State demographers, John Iceland, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Demography, and Jenny Van Hook, Ph.D., Roy C. Buck Professor of Sociology and Demography at Penn State. He also mentions Sue Capella at the Pennsylvania State Data Center, which is part of Penn State Harrisburg. The transcript for this episode can be found here.

In this month’s episode, we tackled innovations in healthcare. Since the beginning of the pandemic, we’ve seen a focus on various healthcare innovations and technology like artificial intelligence, cloud-enabled solutions, and inpatient telehealth, but other innovations are important, too. Some of these focused on in Pennsylvania include how we can get more value out of the country’s healthcare system without sacrificing the quality of care and lowering barriers for underserved populations. We spoke to Dr. Doug Jacobs, M.D., M.P.H., Chief Medical Officer and Chief Innovation Officer in the Office of the Secretary at the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, and Meg Small, Ph.D., Director of Social Innovation and Assistant Research Professor at the Penn State Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center, about what it means to have a healthcare system that pays for value, promotes health equity and addresses the social determinants of health; measuring the success of healthcare innovation; healthcare innovations involving mobile technology; and other improvements to expanding access while reducing healthcare costs. Episode Resources and Notes For more information about DHS’s efforts on healthcare innovation, visit this page. In response to a question about how health equity frames prevention science, Meg brings up a collaboration project with a woman named Lavelle Smith Hall, an entrepreneur and founder of a company called MOMLogics. MOMLogics serves Black moms and empowers them with parenting strategies so they can enjoy better relationships with their children, spouses, and families. Meg discusses a program called Museums for All that allows families and children receiving food assistance (SNAP benefits) free or reduced admission to over 700 museums throughout the United States simply by presenting their EBT card. Meg mentions the research of Karen Bierman, Ph.D., Evan Pugh Professor, Professor of Psychology and Human Development and Family Studies, and Director of the Child Study Center at Penn State. For more of her work, visit Karen’s Google Scholar page. Meg mentions Penn State faculty affiliate and pediatrician, Laura Jana, M.D., and her work on adopting reach out and read programs into early learning centers. More information about Laura can be found here. Doug refers to a healthcare system in Pennsylvania that has a “fresh food pharmacy” where physicians can prescribe fresh food for families. Meg references The Common Good by Robert Reich. The transcript for this episode is available here.

This month marks the beginning of the third season of this podcast! We're kicking things off by exploring the opportunities and challenges of Pennsylvania's child welfare system. For the past several years, there has been an ongoing partnership between Penn State researchers and government partners to change the Commonwealth's county-based child welfare system through legislative and policy actions. We spoke to Jennie Noll, Ph.D., Professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies and the Director of the Child Maltreatment Solutions Network at Penn State University, and Brian Bornman, Esq., Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Children and Youth Administrators Association, about their collaborative process, the challenges of navigating a stressed bureaucratic system, and what the future holds for resolving issues of child welfare and maltreatment. Episode Resources and Notes Brian mentions several horrific cases of child abuse that made headlines in Pennsylvania, including the Danieal Kelly case in Philadelphia, the Grace Packer case, and the Jerry Sandusky case. (Please note that these links include severe graphic descriptions of child abuse and violence.) The transcript for this episode is available here.

This month marks the beginning of the third season of this podcast! We're kicking things off by exploring the opportunities and challenges of Pennsylvania's child welfare system. For the past several years, there has been an ongoing partnership between Penn State researchers and government partners to change the Commonwealth's county-based child welfare system through legislative and policy actions. We spoke to Jennie Noll, Ph.D., Professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies and the Director of the Child Maltreatment Solutions Network at Penn State University, and Brian Bornman, Esq., Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Children and Youth Administrators Association, about their collaborative process, the challenges of navigating a stressed bureaucratic system, and what the future holds for resolving issues of child welfare and maltreatment. Episode Resources and Notes Brian mentions several horrific cases of child abuse that made headlines in Pennsylvania, including the Danieal Kelly case in Philadelphia, the Grace Packer case, and the Jerry Sandusky case. (Please note that these links include severe graphic descriptions of child abuse and violence.) The transcript for this episode is available here.

  For this month's episode, we explore a topic that we have wanted to cover for some time: unemployment and the pandemic labor market. As the nation begins to "reopen" and the economy begins shifting, many states have begun ending pandemic-era unemployment insurance benefits. For many, unemployment insurance was the only thing keeping them afloat following the unprecedented unemployment crisis at the beginning of the pandemic. And yet, despite the unbelievable numbers of unemployed workers in our country, the stigma of receiving unemployment insurance persists. We asked ourselves why, in a time of tremendous health and economic crisis, are we giving folks who need help a hard time? We know that research shows that many families and individuals are still out of work and struggling to afford adequate food and pay mortgages or rent. Like other topics we covered - childcare and food insecurity, for example - the pandemic has made it abundantly clear that our country's systems are unsustainable and not enough to support the financial needs of families and individuals. To debunk some of the concerns and myths of unemployment and dive into the shifting economy, we spoke to Sarah Damaske, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Labor and Employment Relations, Sociology and Women's Studies at Penn State and Associate Director of the Population Research Institute (PRI), and Mark Price, Ph.D., Associate Director of Research at the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA). We discussed the stigma of experiencing unemployment or receiving unemployment insurance, how and why men and women experience unemployment differently, wage stagnation in the education sector, and more. We encourage listeners to also check out Sarah's new book, The Tolls of Uncertainty: How Privilege and the Guilt Gap Shape Unemployment in America. While it is not required reading for this episode, it does paint a picture of pre-pandemic unemployment and provides salient policy recommendations to our unemployment system. Episode Resources and Notes Sarah's new book, The Tolls of Uncertainty: How Privilege and the Guilt Gap Shape Unemployment in America, is out now. Buy it through Princeton University Press or on Amazon. Sarah and Mark mention the work of Kathryn Edwards, an economist at the Rand Corporation. Sarah mentions the Great Depression-era photographs by Dorothea Lange as inspiration for her book. You can find more of Dorothea Lange's work here. The transcript for this episode is available here.    

  For this month's episode, we explore a topic that we have wanted to cover for some time: unemployment and the pandemic labor market. As the nation begins to "reopen" and the economy begins shifting, many states have begun ending pandemic-era unemployment insurance benefits. For many, unemployment insurance was the only thing keeping them afloat following the unprecedented unemployment crisis at the beginning of the pandemic. And yet, despite the unbelievable numbers of unemployed workers in our country, the stigma of receiving unemployment insurance persists. We asked ourselves why, in a time of tremendous health and economic crisis, are we giving folks who need help a hard time? We know that research shows that many families and individuals are still out of work and struggling to afford adequate food and pay mortgages or rent. Like other topics we covered - childcare and food insecurity, for example - the pandemic has made it abundantly clear that our country's systems are unsustainable and not enough to support the financial needs of families and individuals. To debunk some of the concerns and myths of unemployment and dive into the shifting economy, we spoke to Sarah Damaske, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Labor and Employment Relations, Sociology and Women's Studies at Penn State and Associate Director of the Population Research Institute (PRI), and Mark Price, Ph.D., Associate Director of Research at the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA). We discussed the stigma of experiencing unemployment or receiving unemployment insurance, how and why men and women experience unemployment differently, wage stagnation in the education sector, and more. We encourage listeners to also check out Sarah's new book, The Tolls of Uncertainty: How Privilege and the Guilt Gap Shape Unemployment in America. While it is not required reading for this episode, it does paint a picture of pre-pandemic unemployment and provides salient policy recommendations to our unemployment system. Episode Resources and Notes Sarah's new book, The Tolls of Uncertainty: How Privilege and the Guilt Gap Shape Unemployment in America, is out now. Buy it through Princeton University Press or on Amazon. Sarah and Mark mention the work of Kathryn Edwards, an economist at the Rand Corporation. Sarah mentions the Great Depression-era photographs by Dorothea Lange as inspiration for her book. You can find more of Dorothea Lange's work here. The transcript for this episode is available here.    

For this month's episode, we examined how the pandemic has revealed the "hidden crisis" of food insecurity throughout Pennsylvania and the rest of the country. According to the U.S. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, food insecurity is defined as the disruption of food intake or eating patterns because of lack of money or other resources. For example, this could mean cutting down on the number of meals or changing the types of food that you eat to save money. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the issue of food insecurity moved to the forefront as many people lost their jobs, schools went virtual and scrambled to set up school lunch pickups, supply chains stumbled, and food banks and community refrigerators flooded with people seeking food to feed their families. While we would argue that food insecurity was never a "hidden crisis," the pandemic worsened it for many children and families. We spoke to Muzi Na, Ph.D., M.H.S., Assistant Professor of Nutritional Sciences and the Broadhurst Career Development Professor for the Study of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention at Penn State University, and Vonda Ramp, M.S., R.D., State Director of Child Nutrition Programs at the Division of Food and Nutrition in the Bureau of Budget and Fiscal Management within the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PA DOE), about who has been impacted by food insecurity and what is being done to help people access healthy food in their communities. Episode Resources and Notes SSRI "Insights from the Experts" COVID-19 Blog Series: Food insecurity in Pennsylvania during the COVID-19 pandemic: Addressing immediate concerns and opportunities for the future JAMA Network Open: Disparities in Diet Quality in School-Age Children—Opportunities and Challenges Dr. Na discusses something called the 24-hour recall method following a question about how to measure the nutritional and health concerns related to food insecurity. According to the National Institutes of Health, the 24-hour dietary recall method is a structured interview intended to capture detailed information about all foods and beverages (and possibly consumed by the respondent in the past 24 hours, most commonly, from midnight to midnight the previous day. Ms. Ramp references how the PA DOE has applied for over 80+ U.S. Department of Agriculture child nutrition program waivers since the pandemic began. At this time, the PA DOE has applied to over 90 waivers. The transcript for this episode is available here.

For this month's episode, we examined how the pandemic has revealed the "hidden crisis" of food insecurity throughout Pennsylvania and the rest of the country. According to the U.S. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, food insecurity is defined as the disruption of food intake or eating patterns because of lack of money or other resources. For example, this could mean cutting down on the number of meals or changing the types of food that you eat to save money. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the issue of food insecurity moved to the forefront as many people lost their jobs, schools went virtual and scrambled to set up school lunch pickups, supply chains stumbled, and food banks and community refrigerators flooded with people seeking food to feed their families. While we would argue that food insecurity was never a "hidden crisis," the pandemic worsened it for many children and families. We spoke to Muzi Na, Ph.D., M.H.S., Assistant Professor of Nutritional Sciences and the Broadhurst Career Development Professor for the Study of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention at Penn State University, and Vonda Ramp, M.S., R.D., State Director of Child Nutrition Programs at the Division of Food and Nutrition in the Bureau of Budget and Fiscal Management within the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PA DOE), about who has been impacted by food insecurity and what is being done to help people access healthy food in their communities. Episode Resources and Notes SSRI "Insights from the Experts" COVID-19 Blog Series: Food insecurity in Pennsylvania during the COVID-19 pandemic: Addressing immediate concerns and opportunities for the future JAMA Network Open: Disparities in Diet Quality in School-Age Children—Opportunities and Challenges Dr. Na discusses something called the 24-hour recall method following a question about how to measure the nutritional and health concerns related to food insecurity. According to the National Institutes of Health, the 24-hour dietary recall method is a structured interview intended to capture detailed information about all foods and beverages (and possibly consumed by the respondent in the past 24 hours, most commonly, from midnight to midnight the previous day. Ms. Ramp references how the PA DOE has applied for over 80+ U.S. Department of Agriculture child nutrition program waivers since the pandemic began. At this time, the PA DOE has applied to over 90 waivers. The transcript for this episode is available here.

This month, we return to our Pandemic Perspective series and explore the state of the childcare system in Pennsylvania during the pandemic. We discuss the challenges and opportunities to funding, access, and quality for the childcare system. We spoke to Karen Grimm-Thomas, Director of External Relations at the Pennsylvania Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL), and Philip Sirinides, Associate Professor of Education in the School of Behavioral Sciences and Education and Director of the Institute of State and Regional Affairs (ISRA) at Penn State Harrisburg, about the impact that the pandemic has had on childcare providers and families throughout Pennsylvania. OCDEL is a collaborative effort between the Pennsylvania Department of Education and the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services that focuses on creating opportunities for the commonwealth's youngest citizens to develop and learn to their fullest potential. The Institute of State and Regional Affairs leverages Penn State's unbiased data expertise and the resources to provide multifaceted data and research support services to partners in government and the private sector. Episode Resources ISRA's Report on the Impact of COVID-19 on Pennsylvania Child Care ISRA's Report on the Cost of Childcare in Pennsylvania Breakdown About OCDEL's COVID-19 Funding The transcript for this episode is available here.