Indiana state health commissioner to speak at Purdue’s women’s health symposium

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Dr. Kristina Box, Indiana state health commissioner, is the keynote speaker for Breaking Barriers: Improving Access to Health Services for Women and Children in Indiana, a women’s health symposium at Purdue University on April 22. Box will present “Public Health in Today’s World.”

This event, hosted by the Public Health Graduate Program in Purdue’s College of Health and Human Sciences, will take place from 1 to 5:30 p.m. Attendees will get the opportunity to learn, collaborate and network about various issues regarding women’s and children’s access to health services.

The symposium is free and open to the public but registration is required online by April 15.

Box has been an obstetrician and gynecologist in Indianapolis for 30 years. She has served as the lead physician for Community Health Network’s Women’s Service Line since 2015, where she has worked to improve women and children’s access to various health services. In her role, Box built the first multidisciplinary women’s team at Community Health Network, developed multiple partnerships with area children’s hospitals in order to improve care and decrease health care costs, and led efforts to guarantee that low-income women receive necessary health screenings. Box has also served on the Indiana Perinatal Quality Improvement Collaborative, an advisory council to the Indiana State Department of Health that works to reduce infant mortality.

The event will also feature a panel titled “From Local to Global: Translating Women’s Health Research to Improve Health Outcomes.” The panel will be moderated by Dr. Judith Monroe, president and CEO of the CDC Foundation. Before joining the CDC Foundation and the CDC, Monroe served as Indiana state health commissioner from 2005 to 2010.

The panel discussion will include:

• Michael Budd, CEO of the United Way of Greater Lafayette.
• Jacqueline Linnes, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Purdue.
• Dr. Jennifer Walthall, secretary of the Family and Social Services Administration for the State of Indiana.

There also will be roundtable discussions and research presentations. The event will conclude with a celebration of the Public Health Graduate Program’s recent accreditation by the Council on Education for Public Health, which is awarded to schools that meet the highest standard in different areas of the public health discipline.

For more information on the event, contact Emilie Maurais at emaurais@purdue.edu. For registration questions, contact Erica Wilson at ericaw@purdue.edu. 

Writer: Jaclyn Lawmaster, jlawmast@purdue.edu

Media Contact: Matthew Oates, 765-496-2571,  oatesw@purdue.edu

Sources: Andrea DeMaria assistant professor in the Department of Consumer Science and Public Health Graduate Program, ademaria@purdue.edu

Laura Reese Schwab, assistant professor in the Department of Health and Kinesiology and Public Health Graduate Program, lschwabr@purdue.edu