Barbara Newman, Jefferson County Department of Health, is scheduled to speak on “Health Impacts of Healthy Communities” on August 28, 2013 at 11:30 a.m. in the Robert Juster Conference Room at RPCGB. Health Impact Assessments are designed to help policymakers craft health conscience public policy. Given this working definition, the Jefferson County Department of Health in collaboration with the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham and Joseph Stanford an Urban Environmental Studies student at Birmingham Southern College conducted a Health Impact Study of a planned new health center on Highway 11, in Midfield. The Jefferson County Department of Health Western Health Center will be located in the heart of the Southwest Corridor Transit Study. The Health Impact Assessment (HIA) deals with access to health care, transportation, and healthy food in a region of Jefferson County called the Southwest Corridor. The Southwest Corridor is a 22 mile long area spanning from downtown Birmingham to the Tuscaloosa County line along U.S. Highway 11/ Bessemer Super Highway.
Barbara Newman serves in the Community Assessment Division of Environmental Health Services at the Jefferson County Department of Health. She is currently chairing the Environmental Quality Committee formed under the Health Action Partnership, a coalition of over 100 agencies committed to improving health and quality of life. She also is a member of the Livable Community Priority Group under the Health Action Partnership. She is a member of the Society of Practitioners of Health Impact Assessment (SOPHIA).
Barbara has been with the Health Department 27 years. Her formal education includes a dual Master’s Degree in Public Administration and Public Health from the University of Alabama in Birmingham.
August 28, 2013
11:30 a.m.
Robert Juster Conference Room, RPCGB