Where Policy Meets Practice: A Conversation with Catherine Bohn on Improving the Wellbeing of New York Families
April 19, 2023
Cate Teuten Bohn of the Department of Health Policy, Management, and Behavior has always been aware of the concrete ways in which policy decisions affect the lives of everyday citizens.
“I earned a BS in psychology with a minor in peace and social justice studies from Fordham University, and during my time there I realized that everyday services like garbage pick-up, sidewalk maintenance and snow removal played a major role in our individual and collective health risks,” Teuten Bohn explains. “But decisions about those things were made elsewhere and with prejudice. I wanted to change that, so I started helping locals voice their grievances as well as their dreams for their neighborhood to policymakers. It was an eye-opening experience that has stayed with me.”
Today, Teuten Bohn is the NY Kids Count Director with the Council on Children and Families, where she coordinates the New York State Kids' Wellbeing Indicators Clearinghouse (KWIC). KWIC is a data warehouse that brings together data from several state agencies that work to promote and protect child, youth, and family wellbeing.
According to Teuten Bohn, “KWIC is designed to advance the use of children's health, social, and educational indicators tools for policy development, planning and accountability. For example, you can graph the data trends and review maps with locations of community assets such as libraries and childcare providers. We have demographic data for towns, cities, and villages, which is a rare feature for a data site. This data offers public health researchers a unique opportunity to learn more about the relationship between social demographics and health outcomes.”
The NYS Council on Children and Families (CCF) coordinates New York's health, education and human services systems as a means to provide more effective care for children and families. “We use data and user experience (also called parent voice or youth voices) such as first-time parents or youth to improve and innovate NYS systems of care,” Teuten Bohn explains. “Our CCF team is mindful of racial inequities, urban and rural differences, and linguistic access to information. NY's diversity is its strength and we must ensure that all of our children are living in communities that meet their needs as they grow into adults.”
Teuten Bohn believes that quality data collection and analysis are key to effective policymaking, and mastering these skills requires embracing new technologies.
“I recommend that students have a passing understanding of traditional social media platforms and emergent ones as public health educational and policy messaging have increased in frequency and success on the social platforms,” she says. “I would also recommend that students learn about mapping technology because spatial analysis for modern day policy development is essential.”
Today, Teuten Bohn wonders if the future of public health is in app development: “I’m leading a team to build and innovate the CCF's first mobile application for young parents that will help them with topics like child social and emotional development, fine and gross motor skills, and safety precautions. All of the messages are evidence-based and crafted in partnership with state agencies.”
For public health students interested in careers in health policy, Teuten Bohn notes that Albany offers some unique opportunities: “As the state capital, Albany is a great hub for policymaking and coalition building. The UAlbany School of Public Health, with its unique relationship with the New York State Department of Health, offers students a well-rounded policy education in addition to internship opportunities where it is possible to observe and participate in policy development.”
For Teuten Bohn, the bottom line is that good policies are informed by high quality data. She encourages students and public health professionals interested in using KWIC data to explore the tools they offer on the website.