Barbara Markiewicz, Ph. D.: Dr. Markiewicz has been working at the Lawton and Rhea Chiles Center for Healthy Mothers and Babies at the University of South Florida since 2004. In that capacity, she has worked on several projects all with the common theme of promoting health and well-being for Florida's children and their families.
Her first project was to facilitate the activities of the Florida Interprogram Task Force, a multi-agency group charged with the responsibility for the development of a Statewide Five-Year Plan for Prevention of Child Abuse, Neglect, and Abandonment. In June 2005, the Task Force published a comprehensive prevention plan requiring the state to take action in health, family and community safety, education and child care, substance abuse and mental health, housing and economic stability, collaboration, and funding and accountability. In her capacity as group facilitator, Dr. Markiewicz developed templates for statewide and local reports, integrated reports into comprehensive documents, and drafted publications for consideration by local planners and Task Force members. The statewide plan is now being implemented and revised by the Governor's Office of Child Abuse Prevention and Permanency.
Since 2007, Dr. Markiewicz participated in a project to first define the elements of a comprehensive perinatal care system and then to help Leon County, Florida to implement such a system. Her role was to facilitate the planning and implementation activities of a large, multidisciplinary community group focused on reducing infant mortality and to ensure the group's sustainability into the future.
Currently, Dr. Markiewicz is collaborating with the Florida Department of Health on two projects. For several years, she has worked with the Refugee Program to evaluate refugee utilization of health care. This project involves simultaneous analysis of health related data for refugees from the Agency for Health Care Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Health, and the Department of Children and Families. The purpose is to improve health care utilization and health outcomes for this vulnerable group. Beginning in 2009, Dr. Markiewicz has been working with the Division of Family Health Services to prepare needs assessments that will be instrumental in Florida obtaining federal funding for new and existing maternal and child health programs.
