feature
is located) and for the City of Coralville,
which made a small, but symbolically
important contribution to CALS via
tax increment financing. This initial
support was sufficient to capture the
attention of local legislators, who
secured $1 million in state funding
for the project. The University of Iowa
then agreed to make up the shortfall,
and CALS was completed in 2014.
The problem that sometimes
arises for PHLs, however, is that
some public health services, such
as routine disease surveillance,
have no clear-cut constituency. The
Minnesota PHL, for example, relies on
federal funding for about 45% of its
budget overall, but a whopping 85%
of its infectious disease testing.
You can fund the work of the
PHL or you can ignore it and accept
the risks that ignoring it brings.”
APHL’s Kyriacopoulos uses a timely
analogy. He points out that London
firefighters were stymied during that
city’s catastrophic Grenfell Tower
inferno because the fire department
budget had been gutted.
He said, “You can fund the work of the
PHL or you can ignore it and accept
the risks that ignoring it brings.”
In addition to successes, that’s
a story worth telling too. ■
Whelen said, “The bottom line is:
we do what we’re resourced to do.
And if the current administration
decides that certain things are not
going to be resourced, we stop doing
them. It’s as simple as that.”
SHL limnologist Todd Hubbard (right) sorts debris and critters
gathered from an Iowa stream as a University of Iowa producer
videotapes his work. Photo courtesy of the State Hygenic
Laboratory at the University of Iowa
Attention
Member Labs!
APHL Now Offers
Communications
Coaching!
Stakeholders need the information and perspective of
public health laboratorians to make sound decisions
about public health services and funding, but with
anti-government and anti-science sentiments running
high these days, making the case for your lab’s
achievements can be tough.
Our free coaching includes instruction and real-life
examples to help your lab:
• Identify communication goals and audiences
• Develop effective communication strategies
• Develop messages
Need assistance crafting messages that can cut through the noise? APHL is here to help!
For more information, contact Jody DeVoll, director of Strategic Communications, at [email protected] or 240.485.2753.
PublicHealthLabs
@APHL
APHL.org
Summer 2017 LAB MATTERS
15