Researchers´ Profiles - Rhonda Johnson

Dr. Rhonda Johnson currently serves as Chair, Department of Health Sciences and Associate Professor of Public Health at University of Alaska-Anchorage. She also coordinates the statewide Master of Public Health (MPH) graduate program that is entirely distance-delivered. Her interests in circumpolar health date to her time as a graduate student at the International Graduate School at University of Stockholm, Sweden, 1979-1980. Much of her professional experience over the past two decades has been as primary care provider (certified family nurse practitioner), mostly in rural, underserved regions of the US. She first came to Alaska in 1992 as a 638 tribal contractor working as clinician/administrator and Community Health Aide trainer for Chugachmiut. She completed her MPH project (with an emphasis in Health Education and Behavioral Sciences) with a thesis project related to Seasonal Affective Disorder and Cocaine Use in Women in Fairbanks, AK. She was a Public Health Leadership Fellow (with an emphasis in Maternal and Child Health) at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and completed a statewide evaluation of a national demonstration project to improve the health care response to domestic violence in Alaska as part of her dissertation. She is currently on the Board of the American Society of Circumpolar Health and Chairs the Women’s Health Working Group for the International Union. In Nov 2006, she was selected as one of fifteen national Rural Health Fellows in the US.

She is interested in strengthening ties between circumpolar researchers, educators and community members, and would welcome the opportunity to collaborate with others in our region.

RECENTLY- FUNDED PROJECTS

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) via Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault-DELTA Project (Primary Prevention of Interpersonal Violence-Evaluation Subcontract), March 2006-March 2008.

Chancellor’s Research Grants: Health Literacy and Cancer Communication with Alaskan Women-A Pilot Study, March 2006-2007.

Pfizer Visiting Professorship in Health Literacy (to support Dr. Barry Weiss visit to Alaska-one of just 10 such national projects funded), Spring 2007.

NIH-Fogarty International Travel Grant (to support graduate student attendance at the International Congress on Circumpolar Health, Novosibirsk, Siberia, June, 2006), $20,000.

HRSA-MCHB Training Grant-Principal Investigator, Frontier Models of MCH Leadership: Learning from Communities, July 2004-June 2007, ~$130,000 per year.

HRSA-MCHB Training Grant-Faculty Subcontract, MCH Leadership, Education and Workforce Development, Doug Taren, University of Arizona, PI, June 2004-May 2009, ~$7000 per year.

NCI-Project REACH-Evaluation Subcontract (Tobacco Training), Myra Muramoto, University of Arizona, PI, August 2003-July 2006, ~$4000 per year.

Selected Publications:

• Baldwin J, Johnson R, Got, N, Wayment H and Elwell K. (2006) Perspectives of College Students and Their Primary Health Care Providers on Substance Abuse Screening and Intervention. American Journal of College Health, 55(22): 115-119.
   
• Johnson R. (2006). Book Review: Japanese American Midwives, Culture, Community and Health Politics, 1890-1950. Journal of Midwifery and Women’s Health. Accepted, pending publication Fall/Winter 2006.
   
• Johnson R. (2006). Book Review: Who’s Got the Power: Transforming Health Systems for Women and Children-Millenium Project. Journal of Midwifery and Women’s Health, 51 (2), Mar-Apr, 132.
   
• Baldwin J, Johnson R, Wayment H and Callahan E (2005). Partnering with Community-Based Professionals to Improve Substance Abuse Screening and Intervention with Youth and Young Adults Case #5. Substance Abuse. 26 (3/4), 43-47.
   
• Johnson R. Community Based Training Using Technology and Distance Education: Focus on Community Health Workers. Manuscript prepared for the Frontier Education Center, Ojo Sarco, NM. September, 2005.
   
• Mullins J, Hernandez A, Riley C, Cohen S, Veazie M and Johnson R. Arizona’s Academy Without Walls-A Public Health Workforce Development Partnership. Submitted to Public Health Reports, 2005, Revisions pending.
   
• Hernandez A, Cohen S, Veazie M, Johnson R and Mullins J. Evaluating Public Health Workforce Development: When You Assess Determines What You Learn. Submitted to Public Health Reports, 2005, Revisions pending.
   
• Hernandez A, Mullins J, Veazie M, Cohen S and Johnson R. (May 2004). Evaluation Report Arizona’s Academy Without Walls (AWW) Report to Arizona Turning Point Project (AZTPP). Mel and Enid Zuckerman Arizona College of Public Health (MEZACOPH), Tucson, AZ.
   
• Johnson R. (August, 2001) Service Integration as Contributor to Program Success: A Case Study of the National Health Initiative in Alaska, 1999-2000. Doctoral Dissertation (Doctorate of Public Health, DrPH, Maternal and Child Health, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill).
   
• Johnson R. (April 2001). Emergency Department Screening for Domestic Violence. Letter to the Editor, American Journal of Public Health. (91),4: 651.
   
• Johnson R. (December 2000). Final Evaluation Report, National Health Initiative in Alaska, 1999-2000. Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, Juneau, AK.
   
• Johnson R. (August 2000) Health Care Response to Rural Domestic Violence, Emerging Public Policy Issues and Best Practices. Federal Office of Rural Health Policy, Washington, DC.
   
• Johnson R. (August 2000). Seasonal Affective Disorder: Primary Care Assessment and Management. The Nurse Practitioner: American Journal of Primary Care. (25), 8: 56-73.
   
• Johnson R and Morris, T. (1999). Federal Options for Stabilizing the Rural Public Health Infrastructure. Federal Office of Rural Health Policy, National Advisory Committee on Rural Health Publication. Washington, DC.
   
• Johnson R., Wilkerson, L., Cundiff, N. And Aaron, P. (Summer 1989) AIDS Prevention in the Rural Community: The Role of the Primary Care Center. Human Services in the Rural Environment, (13), 1.
   
• Johnson R. (March-April 1989), Book Review: McPherson, Ann (1988) Women’s Problems in General Practice, New York, in Journal of Nurse Midwifery, (34), 2.
   
• Johnson R. (January-February 1988), Book Review: Joffe, Carole (1986), The Regulation of Sexuality: Experiences of Family Planning Workers, Philadelphia, in Journal of Nurse Midwifery, (33), 1.

email: afrmj@uaa.alaska.edu