Injury & Violence Prevention INdepth
Injury & Violence Prevention INdepth
This is IVP - Shining a Light on Careers in Injury and Violence Prevention
In this episode, host Mighty Fine sits down with several IVP professionals to discuss their unique roles and rich experiences as an IVP professional. Featured guests include:
Beatriz Menanteau is a human rights and public health attorney. As Supervisor to the Minnesota Department of Health’s (MDH) Violence Prevention Programs Unit, she oversees efforts to change systems that perpetuate sexual violence, human trafficking, and exploitation, and ensure appropriate system-wide responses to victims of commercial sexual exploitation.
Katie Mueller is a Senior Program Manager II in the Mobility Safety, Impairment Practice section at the National Safety Council.
Lisa Roth is the Deputy Director and Outreach Core Director of the University of Iowa’s Injury Prevention Research Center (UIIPRC). She has a background in Community Health Education and more than 25 years of experience in the field of injury and violence prevention. In her role at the UI IPRC she oversees outreach activities and community collaborations.
Lorna Beckloff is an Administrative Officer with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. She has been with the bureau for seven years, and has worked in criminal justice/court administration for over twenty years. Lorna is currently responsible for acquisition and abstraction of law enforcement reports from across the state for the Oklahoma/National Violent Death Reporting System (OKVDRS/NVDRS).
Sam Chasin is the Senior Manager for Youth Development Partnerships & Policy at YMCA of the USA, the national resource office for the nation’s 2,600 YMCAs. In his role, he works to increase government investment in and prioritization of programming that supports child and youth development, including violence prevention and community strengthening.
Video podcast of this episode is available for viewing here:
http://media.safestates.org/This_is_IVPcareers_vodcast.mp4
Welcome to the Injury and Violence Prevention INdepth podcast. My name is Mighty Fine, and I'm the host of this Safe States Alliance production. In this space, we'll engage in dialogue with IVP professionals on a variety of issues to help inform our listeners on the latest trends and hot topics in injury and violence prevention. Today's episode is sponsored by the National Center for Fatality Review and Prevention. And they are the technical support and data center serving child death review, and fetal and infant mortality review programs throughout the United States. Learn more about them and cfrp.org. For this episode, our guests will be sharing their journey in injury and violence prevention. We'll get to hear what brought them to the field, what keeps them motivated and so much more. I think we have a stellar panel. today. We have joining with us Lorna Beckloff, who is an administrative officer with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. She has been with the Bureau for seven years and has worked in criminal justice and court administration for over 20 years. Lorna is currently responsible for the acquisition and abstraction of law enforcement reports from across the state for the Oklahoma slash National Violent Death Reporting System. Sam Chasin is also joining us. Sam is the Senior Manager for youth development partnerships and policy. at YMCA of us have the USA the national resource office for the nation's 2700 YMCAs. In this role, he works with government to prioritize programming that supports child and youth development, including violence prevention and community strengthening. Beatrice Menanteau is a human rights and public health attorney and supervisor at the Minnesota Department of Health's Violence Prevention Programs unit. She oversees efforts to change systems that perpetuate sexual violence, human trafficking and exploitation and ensures appropriate system wide responses to victims of commercial sexual exploitation. Katie Mueller has been a safety advocate for over 20 years. She specializes in developing and implementing evidence based countermeasure programs for transportation including the evolving landscape of cannabis regulation and its intersection with safety. Katie has worked for the state of Oklahoma and transportation safety and policy, the pediatric Injury Prevention Network at Safe Kids, and is now a senior program manager at the National Safety Council working on traffic safety programs. Rounding us out today is Lisa Roth who is a deputy director and outreach core director of the University of Iowa's Injury Prevention Research Center. She has a background in community health education and more than 25 years of experience in the field of injury and violence prevention. In her current role at UI-IPRC she oversees outreach activities and community collaborations. So I think we have a pretty stellar group with us today. So let's not waste any time and get started. I just want to thank you all for joining me today for the podcast. We have some great questions lined up for you all to learn a little bit more about your history in injury and violence prevention, what brought you here and just to kick us off to have a little fun, I have a question I want to pose to the group. And whoever wants to go first, just jump right in. So thinking about the trajectory of your career, where you are currently, what sort of song or genre of music comes to mind that best describes either your role currently or your career in injury and violence prevention thus far. Anybody want to take that on first?
Lorna Beckloff:Okay, I will. Oh, go ahead, Katie.
Mighty Fine:Sorry, Lorna.
Lorna Beckloff:That's okay.
Katie Mueller:Sure. Yeah. So one of the things the thing that came to my mind was just as the the song wrecking bottle, um, because oftentimes, you know, I'm the, I'm the tester of the waters and a lot of groups that I'm in, but when the CEO the children's hospital that I worked at, a little bit earlier in my career, said that I was the youngest Bulldog he ever knew. And I always took that as a compliment. Because, you know, our work is not always welcome. But, you know, we tend to have professionals in our field who are pushers and push through.
Mighty Fine:Like that. You come come through right come through really, really hard. Lorna, how about you? What were you thinking?
Lorna Beckloff:Yeah, that the first thing that came to mind on
Mighty Fine:Okay, I'm with the Blues as well, Wrecking Ball. that question would be genre. And to me, that's easy. It would be the blues. Because every person on my list every case on Okay, we're generating a playlist here. How about you, Lisa, what are you thinking? my list, those folks are deceased. So I like the blues. But that's, that's kind of where I came to mind on that one.
Lisa Roth:Yeah, Mighty, I was gonna say something else comes to my mind. I actually started my career in traffic safety. So I was gonna say life is a highway. It's like that the movie cars, you know, it's like life's like the road that you travel on. Sometimes you've been sometimes you stand sometimes you turn your back to the wind, if I had a better singing voice, I would have sung that for you. I sang it in my head. So we're, everybody's singing it in their head. But you know, it's one of those things, I think an injury and violence prevention. Isn't that so true? Sometimes you bet. Sometimes you stand and sometimes you have to just turn your back to the wind and do your thing, regardless of you know, what the topic is or who you're trying to impact. So that's, that's the song that resonates with me.
Mighty Fine:I love it. Sam, what do you think it?
Sam Chasin:Yeah, I love all these answers. I was I've been thinking of that, you know that song by The Proclaimers? I'm going to be and so I would walk 500 miles, I think there's a theme there that resonates with me about like, I work in the advocacy space, and that you're you planting all these seeds, and you're elevating these conversations, and they're the start of a longer journey. So that's kind of where my head was at. And I also this like the song, it's probably I think it might be about love or something as many songs are, but Yeah, feels relatable.
Mighty Fine:Love it.
Beatriz Menanteau:Well, you just lead right into mind when you said the word journey, because mine would be don't stop believing. You know, there's just so much of a sometimes uphill battle, and you're working on getting people to believe in prevention, sometimes, you know, and working in intervention and prevention, and along the full spectrum, and you just have to keep going, you have to just, you know, keep going keep believing and don't stop believing. So and I'm saying that in my mind.
Mighty Fine:That's a good one. Because you do I will speak for myself sometimes throughout my work, there are some days where you just like you have to push a little harder than others, you know, to Lorna's point, it's sort of blue and Katie really want to come through like a wrecking ball. But sometimes it's it's maybe not as forceful as you you want it but recognizing that it is a journey. And you know, the good the bad. And in between all the part of that? And sort of speaking of journeys, sort of a great tea for the next question I have for you all, I would love to hear a bit about your professional journey. Certainly like your elevator speech. How did you get to where you are currently? And did you see yourself here initially?Lorna. What - what about you?
Lorna Beckloff:Um, did I see myself here? A few years ago? No. It kind of was by happenstance, happenstance, I've been with the OSPI for about seven years. Doing the Violent Death Reporting System for about five years. I've got over 20 years of experience with criminal justice and with court administration. So kind of fell into this, but it's just very interesting. It's fascinating. It can be sad. That always, always something new.
Mighty Fine:Here keeps you on your toes
Lorna Beckloff:right, it does. It sure does.
Mighty Fine:I was waiting. Okay, there you go Lisa...
Lisa Roth:I'll pop in here. And just, you know, I've been doing injury and violence prevention work for more than 25 years. And it really just started from my passion to do community work and be out kind of boots on the ground type of work and starlet started when I was a freshman in college, actually, I took a class in community health education in our professor was like we need to do a survey of bike use and bike helmet, you know, usage on campus. And if you can imagine on a college campus, nobody was wearing a bike helmet at all. And I don't know it just really started from there. And it really kind of sparked a new passion in me to want to continue to do injury prevention. And so from there, I went to a state health department and did child passenger safety. And from there I went to work at a children's hospital and did some advocacy and outreach. And then I ended up in the position I'm currently in at an Injury Control Research Center, getting to see how the research impacts the practice. So I kind of took a little bit of a - yeah, a long road kind of like my song. Life's a highway. It's been twists and turns and things like that, but a real a nice opportunity to see that kind of continuum of injury and violence prevention from, you know, practice to research to policy to back and forth. So it's been a great journey. Yeah.
Mighty Fine:Awesome - I always tell people, I sort of got started, I was at the cafeteria. This is before I knew better. I had like waffles with ice cream. College student, you think that's totally nutritious, right. And that's how I learned about public health and injury prevention. It had never dawned on me. You know, prior to that, even though when I looked back and sort of assess some of the work I was doing before that it certainly was in alignment with public health principles and injury, violence prevention, but I didn't have a name for it at that time. So I like to think that it sort of was percolating all all along, and then I had an opportunity for it to come to fruition. What do you Katie, how about you?
Katie Mueller:Yeah. So I was, I actually survived a fatality crash as an infant. And so I knew, very early that I really wanted to work in traffic safety. And, but I have a communications degree. So that's a little bit of a sideways motion. But it's worked really well, for me, you know, I took the opportunity to work with Safe Kids early in my career, which provided a lot of advocacy training, and, you know, communications type of training, at the same time was that at Children's Hospital, so very evidence based work happening there. And then I went to work on policy in my state, with our Highway Safety Office and working with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, on like federal grant management and things like that all still working on those evidence based strategies that we knew were working in Oklahoma. We were the first state to pass a rear facing to 2 car seat law. So that was a really exciting time in my in my career, working on that. But then I now I am working at the National Safety Council, really working more with adults, but still working on the roadway, and preventing crashes, really helping translate that research that Lisa, and all the great researchers are doing translating that to practice in the workplace, and how do we educate adults, and then have them take that information home to their families?
Sam Chasin:I can share too, I think I heard a lot of people mentioned advocacy. And I think that I knew that that would be a component of my job. But a little bit later to the injury and violence prevention work. That is a real focal point of what we do at the YMCA. So I'm on our government relations team and I started my career as an eighth grade teacher down in Houston. I'm in DC now. But I worked as a teacher for a few years I always loved it. I love kids. Working with young people can be a chaotic, but it's it's an exciting environment to be a part of. So I love that. And I moved to DC and had a variety of odd jobs. But I ultimately started working on Capitol Hill first in the House of Representatives and in the Senate. And a big component was constituent interaction, but also taking a lot of meeting with different advocates, it's a really great way to learn about a lot of different topics. And kind of you know, you get to kind of be the conduit between the constituent and the the member of Congress you work for I work for three. And I love the why I always liked with a why camper. I like the services that the the YMCA is provided throughout the country. And I thought I had a pretty good understanding of the portfolio more or less, that I'd be coming into working when I transitioned to work for the uh- childcare subsidy childcare regulations is sort of my background. But we do a lot. And it's interesting how the themes around the federal investment in injury and violence prevention are so relevant to our mission of community strengthening. So those are really funding streams, initiatives to the CDC and other entities that are really impactful to the work that we're doing on the ground. So I really spend a lot of my time in this portfolio, looking at the Injury Center at CDC, but then again, other sort of initiatives at the Department of Justice, HHS more broadly looking at that violence prevention lens, so I'm definitely less community I have don't have a background in public health, in training or anything like that, but it's been a really great learning experience for me. Just how relevant those topics are to like, when you think about the community you want to live in. A lot of the stuff that we work on here as a collective is really the backbone of that.
Mighty Fine:Awesome.
Beatriz Menanteau:So my path into public health and injury and prevention has been pretty winding, by trade, I'm an attorney. And after some, you know, stints with traditional federal clerkships and commercial civil litigation, I found a home within human rights law. And I worked with an organization called The Advocates for Human Rights, located in Minnesota, but we did a lot of international and national and local work. My focus was on gender based violence, sexual violence, and human trafficking. I did work, I said, a lot of international focus, but my focus on Minnesota was in developing our human trafficking response with many, many partners. And so it was sort of at that stage that I was connected with the Minnesota Department of Health, because they were a prime partner with in this effort and in that work, and really enjoyed the lens of prevention coming in before the harm has been, has occurred, which as an attorney is so often my approach and my response. So so at some point, I made the switch into MDH, to supervise these programs that I'd been very much involved in, as from this human rights, social justice perspective, and then being able to jump into public health and more specifically, injury violence prevention. So I went back and I got my MPH and have just really enjoyed this and found a new home within public health, and then really enjoyed this connection of policy work of prevention work of programming and intervention, it's just been a great fit. And so I don't begrudge my time as an attorney, I think it's has sort of melded really well, for me to be able to think about things, and especially my advocacy and policy work in the past. And so, but it's been, it's where I'm supposed to be now I definitely with working on these issues within the health department, so to serve in the statewide and, and still like consider it, you know, human rights, social justice work to be public health work. So I feel like I'm still connected to my roots in that sense.
Mighty Fine:So for me, what's sort of resonating is that we have five different folks here, who have had very different sort of career trajectories, there's still so much synergy there. And I think the wonderful thing about that it really shows you sort of the the right opportunities that exists within injury and public health, certainly an injury and violence prevention, more specifically, so that as we start thinking about how do we promote, and get folks to be more interested in injury and violence prevention, I think is really cool for them to hear these different stories, and hear that there's sort of no like injury and violence prevention training, per se, right. I can probably count on one hand, how many courses I actually took. But I sort of borrowed and took from other jobs, other courses, just other ways of learning about and becoming an injury violence prevention professional. So I just think the conversation here really just taps into this idea that there's not a singular course, to get into. And by course, I mean, sort of pathway to get into this work. And that's the beauty of it.
Beatriz Menanteau:I was just gonna say, I think that that's what makes it work, too, because public health is so multi dimensional. And the issues that we address and injury, violence prevention are so tight, and they're so layered, that we have to address them with this multi dimensional lens. And so if we can take, you know, people from different walks of life from different, you know, educational backgrounds and practical backgrounds, that's what makes our approach even stronger.
Mighty Fine:Absolutely. They have the experience, like Katie mentioned, you know,
Katie Mueller:Absolutely, I'm jealous. Beatrice like I always say, I wish I would have been an attorney. And we need more attorneys in this field, because we're constantly, you know, relying on policy or, you know, building policy to lead the way. So, it's a great, it's a great place to be.
Mighty Fine:Yeah, and I would say I had to gain an appreciation for policy, right? Some of you the folks here from GR and advocacy, maybe can understand this, but I just thought at one point policy felt so nebulous to me even though it shouldn't, it should be pretty straightforward. But so I think like, the more I learned about it, I was like, What is going on here? You know, you think that the solutions are so straightforward, but you realize how, for lack of a better word convoluted that process can be, but also how important it is because I can't think of a major public health achievement that you can name that didn't have a policy component or implication to it. So I say that to say, even coming into this work, I sort of had one frame of mind, and the more I got into it, I got a broader appreciation for all of the pieces that needed to be part of the puzzle. And so I know the answer to no Lorna, please.
Lorna Beckloff:No, I don't know how to do that. Thank you.
Mighty Fine:Okay. Good. You're gonna say something? I was gonna say that. I'm sure the next response to my question, the
Katie Mueller:I'm talking about what I've been most recently response to my next question is everything. But I would love for you to tell the listeners sort of like, what's one interesting thing about your job or one fact that folks would be surprised to learn about in the work that you're doing? And I know it's everything. So it's hard to answer, right? working on, and everyone wants to talk about it, which is cannabis. Yes, the NSC just, I was about to do a motion. But I stopped, National Safety Council just finished a survey of over 1000 employers, and a third of workers report observing cannabis use on the job. And so I think that a third, yeah, yeah. So I think that, you know, our frame of reference for cannabis and cannabis use is changing. And, you know, as states legalize and kind of figure out the regulatory framework that's necessary. We have lots of challenges in front of us. But I think, you know, the way forward is, is elevating public health. And so I priority here.
Sam Chasin:I have a lot of, kind of, like fun YMCA facts like, we're 175 years old. Basketball was invented at a YMCA. I think Fathers Day it's hard to say it's for celebrated at a YMCA. So there's a lot of really kind of cool, YMCA facts and a lot of complicated ones, too. It's such an old history. So a lot of it mirrors the kind of complicated history of the states of the United States. But then I think, you know, maybe it's interesting to folks listening, that there's is this whole advocacy ecosystem, ecosystem that like that, a lot of nonprofits, a lot of different entities. You know, they have all these experts, but then there's just like this middleman who helps bring that message to elected officials more seamlessly. So that exists in nonprofits, for profit entities, obviously, but it's an interesting, pretty dynamic,middle ground to be a part of
Mighty Fine:interesting facts, indeed. Others anything interesting, or what folks would be surprised to learn about your organization?
Beatriz Menanteau:I think, you know, for MDH, Department of Minnesota Department of Health, our human trafficking approach has always been sort of unique, in the sense that are saved many, many states have a safe harbor law that sort of protects us from criminal prosecution for being prostituted or being bought and sold for sex. But ours is sort of a two fold process, which one it is sort of preclude some protects them from prosecution, but it also directs them to services. And those are the services that we grant out funds for, and oversee programming and interventions and support and regional coordination. But at the at, at the time, and maybe even now, we were the only state that had the sort of the centralized office with all of our Safe Harbor program and our human trafficking response out of a health department. But we partner with our Department of Public Safety and Human Services, so that it is this multi agency approach. But still, the backbone would be public at recognizing this form of injury and violence as a public health issue. Even though it's traditionally been seen as a criminal justice issue with the connection to pimping and prostitution, etc. So, but really recognizing forms of exploitation as a form of injury and violence and applying in partnership with other approaches a public health approach, which is, it's been sort of fun and unique and difficult to be unique sometimes, because you're sort of creating things that on your own, but at the same time, it gives you, you know, some leeway, you're trying things and you're you're you're working on, you know, moving things forward in partnership. So that's been
Mighty Fine:I have a follow up question for you on that. So sort of fun. thinking about sort of the balance of the public health, criminal justice, where would you say, sort of in your purview, culturally, what shifts are happening and sort of how we think about sex trafficking and sexual violence in general, do you see any positive shifts in how we sort of understand the etiology of it?
Beatriz Menanteau:I think so. Hence, my you know, believing and change I think that there has been a shift in our culture, we've seen things that have been normalized for a very long time now be called out or be called in and be acknowledged as like, wait a second, this isn't normal, this isn't healthy. This doesn't have to be this way. It's no longer just accepted that certain groups will be harmed or left for exploitation. It still happens. But I think that there's an acknowledgment shift and recognizing that what we accepted as to be just normalized, will always have prostitution the oldest, the oldest, you know, profession is also the oldest oppression now is that shifting of acknowledgement, that it doesn't have to be normalized that that it is harmful, that it might not always be a choice that it doesn't always have forced fraud in the way that we, we think something is, the images show that it can be much more nuanced, and that, that individuals that are in the life might need some additional supports, as well. And, and, and how, and that there is a role for different agencies to play that criminal justice has a role to play. And so but it doesn't have to be the only role there can be some augmenting of our response as a state. And public health definitely has that collaborative nature at its root. And so, yes, to answer your question, there's been a shift, we still need more, you know, we create culture, we can change culture, we create a culture of exploitation sometimes. And we can change that. And I think I've seen some of that be shifting and an awareness and an acknowledgement and a desire to try different things. So, so yeah, I'm positive, you know, more to go. But
Mighty Fine:Sure sure. Just when you brought that up, I was curious. So thanks for that. And, Lorna, you in what's sort of interesting
Lorna Beckloff:I would say, I think my job is incredibly interesting. The violent death reporting system is basically a victimology study, we look at the how, who, where, when, what and why. On one death, we look at it from three different angles, we take the medical examiner report, we take the law enforcement record, and then we also use the death certificate. And we pull so many different circumstances from all of those documents, to look at how to use this as a tool towards prevention, or what are the trends and why. Why is this happening? Each case to me is just a snapshot into the victims worst day, it's the day of their death and how that happened and how it came about No, no two cases are the same. Whether it's a homicide or suicide, we also look at some undetermined deaths. We look at unintentional, unintentional firearm deaths. And then we also look at legal intervention, which is when law enforcement in the line of duty, kill someone and the circumstances on that. So it's, it's fascinating, and in alarming way, I guess, I would say,
Mighty Fine:Yeah, for sure. I always say I think in another life, I was a forensic pathologist or anything. When I think about things like that, in the National Violent Death Reporting System, as I'm sure you're aware, is having their first ever national conference in 2023, which I'm sure it's going to be super fascinating. We're gonna hear a lot of great work that folks are doing when they're analyzing the data. And I know I've read some reports. And so hats off to the abstractors as in folks like you who are in that, and that data day in and day out, because it's certainly not an easy lift. But it's very necessary for the work that we're all trying to do.
Lorna Beckloff:Yes.
Mighty Fine:So as you think about your own sort of journey in injury and violence prevention, what some advice you would give to either a student or early career professionals who are considering injury and violence or some relation to this work. And as a part of their career trajectory.
Lisa Roth:Well, Mighty, I'll jump in here, just say, working, obviously, at an Injury Control Research Center based in a College of Public Health, we certainly have an opportunity to do training with the workforce that's coming in, and the students that we get to work with, and I always talk to them about how important it is to build their networks, but build a network that's based on like genuine connection, right? I feel like I couldn't do the work that I do if I hadn't sought out the people who might have kind of this compatible collaborative spirits. Sure. You know, I think it's incredibly important to the work that we all do. But not only do you know value that you have to value them right like so you build these connections, but if you don't value them and take the time to kind of what I want to say to foster them, yeah, them and help them along, you know, you just don't know who's going to be able to be part of that network. And so I guess that's one of my biggest like things when I'm talking to a student or somebody like early career that's maybe joining a professional organization like Safe States or SAVIR or APHA or those types of things, like, seek out the people that you think you have a connection with, and then continue to foster it, because they'll likely provide you assistance in the future, and vice versa, that you're able to provide them assistance. So just kind of one of those give and take types of thing. That's one of my biggest pieces of advice, I guess.
Mighty Fine:Yeah, I love that. That's, it's great. It makes me think about so sometimes I work with CIF, and they do the site visits to accredit schools of public health. And as oftentimes, we're reviewing sort of the academic advisor, and seeing how they pair them up until your point, students say, hey, I'm interested in this. And then they try to find someone who has some shared research interests or whatever, because I do think that creates an opportunity for there to be a firm or firmer foundation, if there's already something that's connecting the folks, and maybe that's going to create a likelihood for them to actually foster and facilitate that relationship, as opposed to it just being some randos. You know, so I think that's a great point. Others.
Sam Chasin:I think, from the perspective I have now, you know, I would just encourage folks to look broadly at if you know, you're interested in injury and violence prevention, and just in general, like making communities better, I don't think you necessarily think of, let's say, like the YMCA. But when you get a little deeper, obviously, we want safe routes to schools, and we want to prevent drowning injury in the swimming pools that we operate around the country. We want. We do violence interruption programs at a local level. So really thinking broadly, because I know it's certainly or maybe
Mighty Fine:Yeah, yeah, I like that. And it to me also takes a more asset based approach, right? When you think about the even looking locally at like, what those look like in work that we're all doing, it's not just about the absence of injury and violence, but it's also about the presence of application, who's coming together in your community to opportunities, and other things. So folks really can reach self actualization. And Sam, I think that's what you're talking make your community be the place where everyone wants to be? And about. I think about myself when I did case management, and I was doing like, after school programs, and financial yeah, just that that would have been an is really helpful to me literacy, all these things that I had no idea sort of like were protective, you know, and then help folks to just facilitate to keep that, that that kind of broad lens doesn't have to be as their lives in a way. So again, it took a while for me to make the connection. But once I made the connection, I was like, oh, that's what we're talking about here. And I think that's very technical or medical, you know, I don't know the right word for much what you're, what you're alluding to is not just thinking about sort of those adverse events, but really thinking like scientific as you think. But there's an applied applied about the upstream factors, the buffers, and the other things we can do to prevent untimely deaths. And the like, portion to it, too.
Sam Chasin:Yeah. I was gonna say I always find the word
Katie Mueller:I think being open to that squiggly path, you upstream. A little confusing, but he totally what you're saying like those foundations, and that's what we're working upstream, right, like having a quality childcare program is going to change the outcomes. And it is yeah, like you said, it's really exciting. For you think about it. know, knowing that your path is going to be squiggly. All of us here have kind of demonstrated that, that we come from different backgrounds, and we have very different jobs. And that being open to that squiggly path. You know, I worked as a lifeguard at the YMCA in college, you know, and so, which has nothing to do with my job now. But no doubt, you know, I learned great skills there. And, you know, my early work with in pediatric injury prevention, you know, and now in working in adult injury prevention, it's just that path is unpredictable and embrace it because the the road straight up is, is probably not going to happen.
Mighty Fine:Yeah, and it's boring probably right.
Katie Mueller:Yeah, we can all probably tell great stories on here aboutthe jobs that we've had.
Mighty Fine:Yeah, I have some I have some great ones about a nursing home I worked in. How about some others - what would your advice be?
Lorna Beckloff:I like the the squiggly path scenario that Katie mentioned, I think that is so true. Because I think no matter what small job, maybe you start out going up, everything applies to your life experiences. And I think being open to to all kinds of things, I think that the injury prevention field is very broad. And, you know, there's just so many nooks and crannies of a dam that you can can get into. So I just think it's a great field.
Mighty Fine:Yeah, keep like the squiggly line keeping an open mind. And I just like to think about like, when, when you're in school, and kids are like, I want to be a doctor or a lawyer, I want to be a teacher, would it be cool if they're like, I want to be a child passenger safety seat technician or an epidemiologist or whatever. It'd be cool to get those injury professions more integrated into our lexicon, you know, but that's, that's my dream. And my hope.
Katie Mueller:Just wait until your kids come home and totally tell you that they have told your teacher, their teacher that they that my mom works in weed.
Mighty Fine:Does your mom sell weed?
Katie Mueller:Please don't tell people that, not that it's not a worthy profession? Right?
Beatriz Menanteau:I'm not always the most exciting person at the dinner parties. Well, what do you do? Well, sexual violence prevention? You know, that's when it gets heavy sometimes, but that's okay. You do you deal with that?
Mighty Fine:Yeah, I think interesting.
Beatriz Menanteau:My, you know, for for students, you know, or people just starting off, it's, you know, I think about three words, I think about showing up, I think about being engaged when you do show up. And I think about being proactive, you know, we don't know all of the possibilities, we learn those options in our life and those opportunities by showing up, by being engaged, and then by reaching out, and I think that's what, you know, echoes a lot of what people have already said, we, you know, can find out so many more opportunities, I wouldn't have known my, my path was not direct. And I wouldn't have known some of these opportunities if I hadn't just had some random conversations, because I showed up to events that maybe it's relevant, and it's interesting, and it feels connected. And, and then I'd also say, you know, for me, personally, I had to find a passion, I had to stay connected, that's how I continue to do the work. That's how I continue to believe that we can create change, because it fits what I'm passionate about. Not everybody needs that in their life. And you can choose that or what you want or what you don't want. But it definitely I think it helps within injury and violence prevention work to continue to believe that change can be made and you can move forward. But you don't have to find that right away, you can sort of create a path that will lead you there and don't be afraid to change your path or completely jump if that's what you think your passion is calling you towards or to
Mighty Fine:Awesome - very sage advice across the board. Are you going to say something Lisa - so okay, so now that you sort of impart it your your knowledge on to potential students and early career professionals, is that something you wish you would have known sort of going into your own fields and if not, with something that you wish you would have known or thought about before you got into this work broadly or, or your current role? If anything.
Lorna Beckloff:Mighty, I wish I would have known how prevalent suicide is. We are currently working on the 2021 dataset, which is normal, we kind of work in waiting for that data to come in. I'll give you a rough idea of of about 1400 deaths in the state of Oklahoma, about 70% of those are suicide and that is much higher than I expected would have you know you would think homicide because that's what you see on the news and that's what you hear about but and it's not just Oklahoma that and that's pretty that's pretty normal on the averages overall the cases are going up but I think I have no idea how many suicides we have every year and the and the young ages as well is very sad to see. So what can we do to to find out what what is causing this what can we do to help what what are some programs what are some tools that are needed to help maybe alleviate some of that.
Mighty Fine:Sure. And Lorna, I want to ask you sort of the same question as to Beatriz? Do you see there being a shift in sort of us, whether it's Oklahoma or otherwise, from your purview, or perspective? We're, we're grappling with that a little bit more. So when you hear those stats, that's pretty startling. And I just wonder, do people from your perspective, are they? Are they getting it? Are they recognizing how devastating of a toll that is putting on on us all collectively as a society?
Lorna Beckloff:Yeah. I think the numbers speak for themselves. But the real question is, you know, what can we do to alleviate that? What can we do to make the numbers go down? You do see a lot of Suicide Prevention Week and promotions and, you know, getting facts out into the media. So I hope that we're going in the right direction, and, and trying to identify some things that, that play into that.
Mighty Fine:Sure. Or their advice or what you thought you would have known prior to getting into the work you're currently doing. Beatriz, yeah.
Beatriz Menanteau:Yeah. So for me, you know, I felt very comfortable in the policy and programming world. But I had to sort of build my skills quite a bit within being able to speak to epidemiology to surveillance, to be able to speak to those worlds of, you know, for me, it was always the issue itself, that the quantitative was there, but there was the qualitative stories that spoke to me. And so building the skill set to be able to use both in tandem to use both to their strengths. And that still isn't me, but I've recognized where I'm gap where
Mighty Fine:And that's the beauty of public health, right, my gaps, I've tried to fill it with my, you know, studies and mph, but I, you know, relying on those epidemiologists and those that speak that language and have that skill, so that together, we can really address the issues by using those the two, the two languages, the two sides of this, you know, multifaceted coin, I guess it's not just the two sides. But but really, that was something that I think, you know, I stepped into and quickly realized I got to hone my skills here, at least my understanding, so that I knew what questions to ask or of my, of my colleagues who have those skill sets. And, and we've been those partnerships, and why we speak so much about not working able to build that we've been able to build a lot more surveillance on these issues. But, you know, that was something where I had to get up to speed and find my allies, my the people that could fill in too. And so understanding what your gaps what you don't know, being able to make those connections to fill it in to do the work to. in silos, you know, it's particularly with even in your organization, because I think of it sort of like the SWOT analysis, right, seeing where the weaknesses are, but the opportunities, and how do we sort of do the cross pollination to to counter some of those issues, or to bolster what we see as opportunities and strengths. So I think that is sort of indicative of what more of us should be doing in the spaces that we occupy.
Lisa Roth:I was just gonna say not being afraid to step outside your comfort zone, right? And like, if you don't know, do you know what I mean, seeking the resources and asking the questions and things like that. So I started in practice. Now I kind of work in research, but dabble in practice. And so I think it's just recognizing and making sure we know the value of all of the contributors, you know, to this issue, whether it's an epidemiologist, whether it's, you know, somebody who's doing community health education, and like you said, mighty, not working in our silos, but we being willing to bust through those silos and just Yeah, stepping out.
Mighty Fine:I love stepping out acknowledging when you don't know something. I one thing that people laugh at me, but I say it all the time. If you know nothing else about me, you know, I'm going to ask questions, you know, I'm inquisitive, I'm going to inquire, I will never fade in or act as if I know something when I don't. Because because when I speak about something, I want to know that I know what I'm speaking about, you know, so I think of the same thing and the spaces and I get as to your point, Beatriz, get an ally ship with folks who do know more than me in certain areas, because it's an opportunity to learn and there may be some opportunities for me to share and impart knowledge in that direction as well. So I love the idea of just owning it, and then stepping out there. Katie, you were gonna say something?
Katie Mueller:Yeah. I think that it surprised me early in my career, how many barriers there were to accepting public health as a priority, you know, I had to learn to listen to others who had because that's not my immediate nature. And so I had to learn, you know, where we fit in where, in take the opportunity when it came to talk about public health, and to talk about the importance of, you know, the public health in economics and public health in being able to translate that to so many different things. Because the audiences are so diverse. And they don't, they aren't public health professionals, like as they safety and health is not their top priority a lot of times, and so helping them understand in getting listening to what their needs and priorities are. And then figuring out how to weave public health into that was something that I was shocked to find out in my early career that not everyone wanted, you know, everyone to be safe and healthy and happy all the time. So it's a challenge, but I think it's what makes our field interesting.
Mighty Fine:Absolutely
Sam Chasin:I was gonna add to, you know, something I've learned and this might be kind of during the pandemic little more, but I do a lot of storytelling, you just did the power of building of bringing in that authentic, that authentic voice and that lived experience. So once silver lining the pandemic, perhaps it's been so much easier, we have a meeting with maybe like a senator from wherever to have local folks zoom in and just like the power of that authentic lived experience in our field is so different. And that can be from somebody impacted by violence or injury or practitioner working to alleviate that in thinking from kind of a Y lens, YMCA lens. But yeah, just how valuable that is. And it just, you know, someone doing the work on the ground, at a local Y otherwise can speak, you know, tenfold to the impact that I can convey. Even if I've you know, taken ridiculous notes and worked on being compelling. So yeah, just kind of grounding ourselves in the, for me, this product, for me talking about grounding, grounding ourselves in the sort of the lived experience. And just the power that that contains.
Mighty Fine:Totally, totally can appreciate that there. There's a lot of power there. There's some community work that I do here in DC, and one of the wards and just think about the access that we've been able to get because we've had folks with lived experience, who serve as gatekeepers in a sense, and, you know, just working with them, I don't I don't think though, the work would have been possible without engaging the folk with the lived experience, because they were able to tap into things that we just wouldn't think of, on the surface as we're sort of trying to reach out to the broader community, because it was a gun violence Sexual Violence Project. And I kid you not it just, it's when I first learned the term citizen scientists. And I thought that was pretty cool, you know, because they may not have that formal training, but they they know all the intricacies of that community. And, and without them, the work would not have been possible. So certainly appreciate that. Ah, we are coming to an end here. Great chatting with you all today. Again, thank you for lending your time for the podcast today. I just want to know sort of where you see yourself I know sort of a maybe a hard question to answer. But as you think about your profession, and your work continuing to grow at your current organization, or just how you want to impact the field of injury and violence prevention, more broadly, where do you where do you see yourself going? When you grow up? But in all seriousness.
Sam Chasin:Well, I'll say I'm kind of something like 15 years into my professional career. I like - where do I see myself going? I like the work that I do now. And that it makes me happy. And I feel like it's mission driven. So I think yeah, I think I'll continue to do something that is you know, has community impact and also ultimately works around young people to improve the lives of young people and help them grow and learn and develop into great citizens who in turn, you know, continue the cycle. So that's kind of vague, but
Mighty Fine:No, no, I love it. I love it. The joy particularly when when you think about young folks in the energy and the just the vigor there. I I'm totally on board with it. I learned like texting lingo. So I stay cool. just shorthand, I have a mentee, and I kid you not pardon the tangent here. But he, when he texted me, I had to, like decode it, like, do what are you talking about. But hey, if I'm like you say him and I work more with the young people, I'll say a little more involved and, and I'll be able to tell what some of that shorthand text stands for. Others - Beatriz...
Beatriz Menanteau:I think the irony of prevention work is that you're pretty much trying to work your way out of a job, you want to, you know, have your position be no longer necessary. So, so that's probably the ultimate goal, professionally, but short of that, you know, I true to the sort of the, my path, I'm just continuing to leave myself open, I enjoy working at the with, with the state with my colleagues, I enjoy having that, you know, attempted to, to support and change the lives of the people in Minnesota and work with them in that process. So, you know, and, you know, like I said, this is sort of a passion area for me. So I see myself always being involved in some way or another to, you know, ensure that, you know, we're we are meeting the needs of our communities, and holding ourselves accountable for those social justice, human rights goals. And that exists in public health too. So in some way, all those being connected to that, and but I've got a lot more work to do left here at MDH. So I'm excited for that.
Mighty Fine:Awesome.
Lisa Roth:Yeah, I'll just say that I love what I do. And so it's one of those things that I'm very happy where I'm at now, but I think it'd be interested, I would keep myself open. But I think, you know, I have a front row seat right now to seeing how research, you know, can inform the practice and even policy measures and things like that. And that's really exciting to me, because it kind of is that whole continuum, but, you know, ultimately, and this is going to sound very cliche, right. But you know, it's it's to continue to promote injury and violence prevention as a public health priority. I think that's what we're all trying to do. And, you know, ultimately, hopefully, we can create, you know, safer, more equitable communities a safer world, you know, that's like pie in the sky dreams. But it's it's one of those things that yeah, this is a passion area for me. And I, I hope that we can continue to Yeah, to work together, because I think just even this conversation has opened my eyes to all of the different facets. I mean, I know that there's multiple facets of injury and violence prevention, but it's really things like this open you in a different way and help you see the possibility.
Mighty Fine:Absolutely. I think to your point to Lisa, it's like, sometimes we may not call it injury prevention or violence prevention, but we know it's totally in alignment with those tenants, those principles and those practices. So I'm with you on that. Let's keep pushing it forward. Katie, what are you thinking?
Katie Mueller:Yeah, so just to what Lisa said, you know, elevate for me, it's traffic safety and elevating traffic safety as a priority and recognizing it, recognizing car crashes as the public health crisis that they are, you know, before, a couple of years ago, car crashes were the leading cause of death, you know, for many, many age groups. And so really getting, you know, in the National Safety Council, we really hope to promote traffic safety as a priority in the boardroom, you know, where CEOs are talking about it and prioritizing funding for it for safety and injury prevention in their companies. But also when we're taking it home, to talk to our families. And I think one of the keys to that is really embracing and educating ourselves about technology. I think we have a lot to learn. As you know, technology is evolving in the vehicle space in the infrastructure space. And working together to kind of elevate all of those priorities to save lives.
Mighty Fine:Absolutely. Lorna,
Lorna Beckloff:Yeah, I think every one of us wants to just feel like we make a difference. I still love what I do. I enjoy my job. I will be here who knows how much longer? I guess in general, I would just like to know that I would leave the program even better than I found it. I just want to strive to have the most accurate and complete information we can so that we can hand over a toolbox with with some meaningful components to it. So yeah,
Mighty Fine:Absolutely. Awesome. Well, I would say on behalf of my fellow injury and violence prevention folks, public health, our communities that you all serve and do great work for. Thank you for the work that you're doing. I find it inspirational, aspirational. And, you know, I think we'll be fortunate of if you all are in mentoring roles and bringing folks up behind you, because we certainly need people like you are in those roles to help facilitate and foster the next generation of leaders, although we still have a lot of work to do. But kudos to you all for the great work that you all have done thus far. And so that concludes it unless there's something that somebody else wants to say, as a closing remark before we head out of here. No, awesome. Thanks, everybody. Appreciate it. Thanks for listening to IVP in depth. Be sure to subscribe and listen to us on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and Google podcasts. You can also follow safe states on Twitter at Safe States and LinkedIn and don't forget to check out our website at safe states.org For more injury violence prevention tools and resources. Again, I'd like to thank our sponsor, the National Center for Fatality Review and prevention for supporting Safe States and helping us to bring you programs such as this, this is your host mighty fine signing off. Until next time, stay safe and injury free.