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Community Health Annual Meetings

A page within Community Health Annual Meetings

Advancing Health Together: Innovation, Communication, & Community at the Core

Wisconsin Rural Health Promotion & Wisconsin Health Education Network (WHEN) Annual Meetings

NCHEC

Expand your professional network and build lasting connections with public health professionals, health educators, community leaders, and clinicians from across the nation. Through two complementary annual meetings, we’ll collaborate on bold, actionable strategies to improve community health in Wisconsin and beyond.

 

5th ANNUAL

Wisconsin Rural Health Promotion Meeting

October 1, 2025 | 9 a.m.–3:30 p.m. | A virtual event

Connecting Health Care & Health Promotion with Rural Settings for Enhanced Well-Being

Wisconsin Rural Health Promotion Annual MeetingThis national gathering focuses on the challenges facing Wisconsin’s rural healthcare workforce — and the innovative solutions taking shape through cross-sector partnerships. Throughout the meeting, we will explore actionable steps to influence structural determinants of health and support vibrant, healthy rural communities. By connecting thought leaders, frontline professionals, and community changemakers, we will drive forward strategies that build sustainable systems of care. Whether you are a healthcare provider, policymaker, educator, or advocate, this event offers critical insights and practical tools to promote health equity and workforce resilience.

Learning Objectives

Participants will be able to:

  • Specify the challenges facing the rural healthcare workforce in Wisconsin and learn of novel approaches undertaken by the state’s two medical schools, health system partners, and the public health community to address those challenges.
  • Review the impact of the healthcare workforce shortage on patients in rural Wisconsin.
  • Examine strategies to create a robust, durable healthcare workforce in rural Wisconsin.
  • Identify areas of the state with the most and least disadvantaged groups using the Neighborhood Atlas, a website created to share measures of neighborhood disadvantage with the public, including health systems.
  • Evaluate how partnering with the Orion Initiative could improve health care delivery challenges experienced in rural practice areas.
  • Describe how collaboration between rural frontline providers and academic physicians has resulted in opportunities to reduce patient referrals, improve health outcomes, and provide physician support.
  • Explore the Wisconsin Collaborative for Rural Graduate Medical Education (GME) with engagement with stakeholders statewide and nationally to expand rural residency training.
  • Define key health impactors to include the structural and social determinants of health.
  • Explore and better understand how to navigate health-related data and evidence-informed strategies relevant to the communities in which they live and/or work.
  • Propose up to three action steps to influence the structural determinants of health impacting a community they support.
  • Consider “rural” as having many unique and positive perspectives.
  • Recognize the value that living in rural settings is a healthy choice for many.
Planning Committee

5th Annual Wisconsin Rural Health Promotion Meeting Planning Committee

  • Gary D. Gilmore, M.P.H., Ph.D., MCHES, Chair
  • John Eich, B.A., Director, Wisconsin Office of Rural Health
  • Jonathan Temte, M.D., Ph.D., M.S., Associate Dean for Public Health and Community Engagement, UW School of Medicine and Public Health 

39th ANNUAL

Wisconsin Health Education Network (WHEN) Meeting

October 2, 2025 | 9 a.m.–3:30 p.m. | A virtual event

Enhancing Health Promotion with the Essence of Artificial Intelligence & Motivational Interviewing

WHEN Annual MeetingThis year’s interactive program features innovative sessions on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Motivational Interviewing (MI) — two distinct yet complementary strategies that together can enhance health promotion practice. This engaging professional development event will equip you with the tools, strategies, and confidence to enhance communication, drive behavior change, and responsibly integrate emerging technologies into public health practice. You'll leave empowered with actionable insights and ready-to-implement skills that can immediately strengthen your work and impact in the community.

Learning Objectives

Regarding Artificial Intelligence, participants will be able to:

  • Recognize the benefits of Artificial Intelligence (AI) use in health promotion and public health.
  • Identify common misconceptions and inaccuracies about AI use.
  • Describe how AI can be responsibly, ethically, and effectively utilized by health professionals.
  • Identify practical and actionable AI use cases to enhance health promotion efforts and communication for using AI for various efforts.
  • Assess organizational readiness for AI adoption.
  • Identify ways to establish a clear rationale for ethical and effective AI use.
  • Identify next steps for integrating AI into workplace functions.

Regarding Motivational Interviewing, participants will be able to:

  • Explain the core principles and applications of Motivational Interviewing (MI) in healthcare and public health settings to facilitate effective behavior change.
  • Demonstrate MI techniques through hands-on practice tailored to different experience levels to enhance participant skill development.
  • Apply MI strategies to improve patient and community interactions supporting behavior change and health decision -making.
  • Assess personal competency and integrate MI approaches into professional settings with confidence and adaptability.

Overall, participants will be able to:

  • Recognize those receiving the 2025 Barbara A. Lange Memorial Award.
  • Network virtually with colleagues and new contacts near and far throughout the 39th Annual WHEN Meeting.
Planning Committee

39th Annual WHEN Meeting Planning Committee

  • Gary D. Gilmore, M.P.H., Ph.D., MCHES, Chair
  • Christa Cupp, M.P.H., MCHES
  • Sheri Seimers, M.P.H., CHES
  • Catherine Sendelbach, M.S., CHES

Sponsored by:

UWL Public Health & Community Health, UWL Graduate & Extended Learning logo

Cooperating sponsors:

University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health Wisconsin Office of Rural Health

Questions:

For questions about the program: Gary D. Gilmore, M.P.H., Ph.D., MCHES, 608.785.8163 or ggilmore@uwlax.edu.

For questions regarding registration: Graduate & Extended Learning, 608.785.6500 or  ex@uwlax.edu.

Become a leader in public health promotion, advocacy, policy and administration.

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