Join the MCH Training’s Distance Learning grantees for a series of First Friday Webinars to learn about methods and strategies to effectively train MCH audiences through online learning.

Each Webinar will focus on the “Big I’s” — Innovation, Quality Improvement, Systems Integration, Investments, Interdisciplinary Training, and Impact — and will include background information, promising practices from the field, and where to go for more information.

Webinar 4: Distance Learning: Impact and Investments May 3, 2013, 11:00 AM - 12:00 Noon (EST) MCHB has maintained the MCH Distance Learning grantee program for over the past decade. The focus of this program is to increase the skills of MCH professionals by facilitating the timely transfer of new information, research findings and technology related to MCH, and updating and improving the knowledge and skills of health and related professionals in programs serving mothers and children. This webinar discusses the measurement of impact of distance learning projects -- both in content and in modality -- on the MCH workforce and the breadth and width of MCHB's investment in the program by looking at the range of topics addressed by these projects. Sarah Rhoads, DNP, APN and John Richards, MA, AITP will lead the presentation and discussion on this topic. Register here: https://hrsa.connectsolutions.com/dl_firstfridays_jan/event/registration.html

Speaker Biographies

Sarah Rhoads, DNP, APN, is an Assistant Professor in the College of Medicine at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) and the Director of Continuing Nursing Education for the Center for Distance Health at UAMS. She serves as the principal investigator for the DISCOVER Maternal Child Health Leadership funded through a MCH Training grant, HIV HEART (Health Education, Assessment and Research in Telehealth) funded through the AIDS Education and Training Center and the South Central Telehealth Resource Center which is funded through the Office for the Advancement of Telehealth which are all located within HRSA. She received her doctorate in nursing practice from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and is completing her PhD in May 2013 through UAMS.

John Richards, MA, AITP, is a research instructor at Georgetown University and serves as the director for the Health Information Group. For fifteen years he has served as the technical lead for MCH projects at GU, first with the Title V Information System, Bright Futures, and the Healthy Start National Resource Center; continuing with the MCH Library, the National SUID/SIDS Resource Center, and the National Maternal and Child Oral Health Resource Center. He also assists with the National Center for Cultural Competence, the National TA Center for Children’s Mental Health, the National Center for Effective Mental Health Consultation, the Contemporary Practices in Early Intervention, the University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, and the AIDS Education and Training Center/National Multicultural Center