2024 NYSFPP Provider Meeting: Going Further Together

The New York State Family Planning Training Center (NYSFPTC) convened the 2024 New York State Family Planning Program (NYSFPP) Provider Meeting in Albany, NY from May 7-8, 2024. This page contains important information regarding the meeting agenda and logistics.

The 2024 NYSFPP Provider Meeting convened staff working in NYSFPP-funded agencies to increase their knowledge, skills, and capacity to provide comprehensive family planning services. The objectives for this meeting were to:

 

  • Energize staff around the mission of providing high-quality, equitable family planning services
  • Strengthen professional support systems
  • Increase awareness of New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) priorities for the NYSFPP
  • Identify strategies for enhancing the quality, accessibility, and equity of family planning services

Day 1 Agenda - Tuesday, May 7

8:30-9:00

Registration and Welcome Networking | Room Salon DE

Coffee and breakfast provided.

9:00-9:30

Welcoming Remarks | Room Salon DE

9:30-10:30

Reflecting on Where We’ve Been: Successes of the NYS Family Planning Program | Room Salon DE

NYSDOH will share data trends associated with family planning services, that may include contraceptives use, STI rates and counseling services offered to New York State family planning patients to provide background on the topics that will be discussed throughout the 1.5 days and to emphasize major FPP successes and progress. Small group discussion will allow participants to reflect on the data points and prompts including: What are you most proud about that your program has done in the prior year and why?

Speakers: Norman Rose, MPA, Data Manager, NYSDOH & Emily Moss, MPH, Unit Director, NYSDOH

Download session materials here:

10:30-10:45

Break

10:45-1:45 (Includes working lunch and break from 12:15-1:15)

From Job Description to Performance Appraisal: Staff Retention at Every Stage of the Employee Experience | Room Salon DE

Staff retention is a persistent agency challenge. Too often, though, investments in staff retention are made too late in the employment journey to have impact. In this workshop, we’ll look at staff retention at every stage of the employee journey, beginning with job descriptions and the hiring process through performance appraisal and staff development. Participants will begin by assessing their own agency’s performance at each stage. Then through a series of exchanges with fellow participants from other agencies to build on what IS working today, participants will identify opportunities to reinvent the employee experience at their own agency. The workshop will conclude with translating these ideas into action plans. Participants will leave the session with 30-60-90 and 180-day action items on their calendar for making immediate improvements in staff retention. Get ready to do something different!

Speaker: Julie Rennecker, PhD, CEO & Chief Catalyst of Syzygy Teams

Download session materials here:

 

1:45-3:15

Skill-Building Breakout Sessions (select one)

Breakout session 1. Maximizing your project promotion: Learning how to expand your reach and deepen your impact 

| Room Salon F

Effective project promotion is an invaluable tool for elevating your impact. In this session, participants will have the opportunity to self-assess your organization’s existing project promotion activities in 5 key areas: Setting Goals, Understanding Your Priority Audiences, Selecting Project Promotion Channels, Developing Engaging Content, and Evaluating Your Activities. Then, you’ll learn how you can use the Reproductive Health National Training Center (RHNTC) Title X Project Promotion Toolkit to help you enhance your project promotion in those areas. Finally, you will hear from other health organizations on what lessons they’ve learned when it comes to enhancing their own project promotion activities.

Speaker: Catherine Alonzo, CEO, Javelina

Download session materials here:

Breakout session 2. Ensuring access, quality, and equity through increased clinic efficiency and optimized clinic flow 

| Room Salon G

This session will explore the impact of clinic efficiency on access, quality, and equity, within sexual and reproductive health service sites. It will provide insights into evidence-informed strategies for enhancing clinic flow, optimizing efficiency, and elevating the overall patient experience. Participants will engage in small group activities, share experiences across agencies, and identify actionable items to implement upon their return to respective sites.

Speakers: Jennifer Kawatu, RN MPH, Clinical Training Consultant, JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc. & Bemi Oworu MPH, Training Consultant, JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc.

Download session materials here:

Breakout session 3. Increasing linkages between sexual and reproductive health and substance use service settings: A toolkit for practitioners 

| Room Salon H

Public Health Solutions’ Partnership to Advance Integrated Referrals (PAIR) project aimed to improve  linkages between sexual and reproductive (SRH) and substance use (SU) providers to better meet the SRH and SU needs of persons capable of pregnancy through a Quality Improvement Learning Collaborative. The project’s final product was the development of a toolkit for practitioners to disseminate the project’s work, enabling SRH and SU service settings to carry out similar improvement efforts. This session will describe the PAIR project, review the toolkit, and allow time for participants to begin planning for improvement work in their own clinical settings.

Speakers: Dayana Bermudez, Program Manager, Public Health Solutions & Leah Hargarten, MPH, Quality Improvement Specialist, Public Health Solutions

Download session materials here:

3:15-3:30

Break 

3:30-4:15

Clinical Update | Room Salon DE

This session will include a presentation by NYSDOH staff to share current clinical issues facing the field. Among other topics, Dr. Escobar will review sexually transmitted infections updates as they relate to Family Planning programs, and will provide specific details about the need for and recommendations surrounding syphilis testing and treatment. She will also introduce the goals and structure of the Clinical Advisory Group.

Speaker: Shaunna L. Escobar, MD, MPH, Title X Medical Director, Associate Medical Director for the Division of Family Health at the New York State Department of Health

Download session materials here:

4:15-4:30

Closing Remarks | Room Salon DE

Click here to view a full agenda.

Day 2 Agenda - Wednesday, May 8

8:30-9:00

Welcome Networking | Room Salon DE<

Coffee and breakfast provided.

9:00-9:30

Opening Remarks and Presentation of Peer Nomination Awards | Room Salon DE

9:30-9:45

Break

9:45-10:45

Working Strategy Sessions by Provider Agency Type

Strategy-focused working session with providers of the same agency type to reflect on current challenges and promising practices. Breakout rooms by agency type:

 

  • FQHC | Room Salon F
  • Hospital | Room Salon G
  • Health Department | Room Salon H
  • Planned Parenthood, Standalone Family Planning, and Teen-Focused | Room Salon DE
10:45-11:00

Break

11:00-11:45

Looking forward: What Do the Next Few Years Hold for Family Planning? A Panel Discussion with NYSFPP Colleagues | Room Salon DE

Colleagues representing a broad range of NYSFPP agencies will reflect on how far the family planning field has come, what they anticipate the field’s biggest challenges in the years ahead to be, as well as our greatest opportunities. They will speak to what brings them pride and motivates them to continue in this important work.

Speakers: Laura Bunora, VP Of Health Services, Planned Parenthood of Central and Western New York, Angela Diaz, MD, PhD, MPH, MSH, Director of the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center, & Debra Marcus, JD, Chief Executive Officer, Family Planning of South Central New York

11:45-12:45

Taking It All In: What Are Your Commitments? | Room Salon DE

Facilitated working session where teams will reflect on two days of the meeting and commit to their action steps following the meeting. Lunch provided.

12:45-1:00

Closing and Evaluation | Room Salon DE

Click here to view a full agenda.

General Meeting Information

Attendees

The provider meeting sessions are designed for program managers, administrators, clinic managers, clinical leadership, health educators, and outreach staff. Registration is now closed.

Click here for the 2024 Provider Meeting Directory.

Location

The 2024 NYSFPP Provider Meeting will be held at the Marriott Albany at 189 Wolf Road, in Albany NY. Breakfast and lunch will be provided both days and parking is available.

Covid and Other Respiratory Illness Policy

In accordance with CDC’s respiratory virus guidance:

  • If you are feeling sick, please do not come to the Provider Meeting. Please stay home and get well. 
  • If symptoms have resolved for at least 24 hours and you have been fever-free for 24 hours without fever-reducing medication, it is okay to resume normal activities. 
  • For 5 days after symptoms have resolved, additional precautions such as enhanced hygiene and masking is recommended.

We want everyone to feel comfortable at this meeting. To that end:

  • We will have optional masks at the registration booth. 
  • We will have stickers indicating your comfort level with physical contact like hugging and handshakes. 

 

Speaker Bios

Julie Rennecker, PhD, CEO & Chief Catalyst of Syzygy Teams

Julie Rennecker, CEO & Chief Catalyst of Syzygy Teams, is a scholar-practitioner specializing in talent optimization and management strategies to improve productivity, innovation, and employee well-being. She began her career as a nurse, then earned a doctorate in Organizational Behavior from MIT’s Sloan School of Management. After a stint on the faculty of Case Western Reserve University where she taught management communication and change leadership in the MBA and Executive Education programs, she returned to the real world to help healthcare and technology leaders build effective, resilient, human-friendly organizations. She has been a frequent speaker at Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) meetings, online and in-person workshops facilitated by the Reproductive Health National Training Center (RHNTC), and various HR and technology conferences.

 

Catherine Alonzo, CEO, Javelina

Catherine Alonzo is a business leader, consultant, podcast host and public speaker who works with individuals and organizations to create kinder, more equitable communities. She is CEO and founding partner of Javelina, a leading branding and marketing agency that helps organizations that are creating equity in their communities develop and elevate their powerful stories. Catherine combines her political background (having served on the teams that raised the Arizona minimum wage in 2016, as well as having elected candidates up and down the ballot) with her passion for storytelling for change. Catherine is proud to support organizations on the frontlines of social change, and has been a part of efforts tackling critical issues such as reproductive health, transportation and infrastructure, housing and homelessness, education access, and more. She has been recognized for her business leadership by the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, Arizona Business Magazine, Arizona Big Media, and the Phoenix Business Journal. Originally from the UK, Catherine lives in Phoenix with her husband Ruben, who shares her love of bunnies, travel, and Yahtzee.

 

Jennifer Kawatu, RN MPH, Clinical Training Consultant, JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc.

Jennifer Kawatu, RN, MPH has almost twenty years of experience developing and delivering training and technical assistance for sexual and reproductive health providers. She combines her background in nursing and public health to provide training and technical assistance with a particular focus on using proven, data-driven approaches to advancing equity, access, and quality of services. Specifically, she has led three successful national learning collaboratives on clinic efficiency. She serves as the Office on Women’s Health Team Lead for the Reproductive Health National Training Center (RHNTC). Outside of work Jennifer is a mother who likes to spend time reading, hiking, cooking, and getting into good trouble.

 

Bemi Oworu MPH, Training Consultant, JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc.

Oyegbemisola (Bemi) Oworu, MPH is a public health professional specializing in reproductive, maternal, and child health. With a background working as a Title X grantee liaison for the Florida Department of Health, she played a pivotal role in providing performance improvement and monitoring to Title X clinics statewide. Currently she serves on the Reproductive Health National Training Center (RHNTC) Title X and Office on Women’s Health teams. In her role at the RHNTC, she is a liaison for grantees, offering valuable training and technical assistance to the network. and contributes significantly to the development of resources for both the Title X and Office on Women’s Health teams. When she’s not working you can find Bemi tucked into a good book, refining her newly acquired baking skills, or enjoying cooking and traveling.

 

Dayana Bermudez, Program Manager, Public Health Solutions

Dayana Bermudez (she/her/ella) is a Program Manager in the Healthcare-Community Partnerships (HCP) – Capacity Building Team in Public Health Solutions (PHS). She has been with PHS for 11 years, starting as a Research Assistant for the Research and Evaluation Unit. Her work for the HCP Capacity Building Team included managing the Partnership to Advance Integrated Referrals (PAIR) project. Currently she supports the management of PHS’ Title X Program in addition to supporting the team with trainings, presentations, and the implementation of other projects.

 

Leah Hargarten, MPH, Quality Improvement Specialist, Public Health Solutions

Leah Hargarten, MPH (she/her) is a quality improvement and public health professional. She received a Masters in Public Health from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. She is passionate about sexual and reproductive health and justice and using quality improvement and data to create a more equitable healthcare system. As the Quality Improvement and Evaluation Manager on PHS’s Healthcare Community Partnerships Capacity Building Team, Leah supports various health centers in their quality improvement projects related to SRH and other health topics.

 

Shaunna L. Escobar, MD, MPH, Title X Medical Director, Associate Medical Director for the Division of Family Health at the New York State Department of Health

Shaunna L. Escobar, MD, MPH (she/her), is the Title X Medical Director and is the Associate Medical Director for the Division of Family Health at the New York State Department of Health.  She is a Family Medicine physician and is fellowship trained in Maternal Child Health and Global Health. Before transitioning to Public Health, Dr Escobar provided the full spectrum of Family Medicine from prenatal care and delivery, pediatrics, adult medicine, women’s health, and geriatrics.  She practiced at a residency program where she mentored and taught the next generation of family medicine physicians and emphasized the importance of women’s health and obstetrics within the family medicine specialty.  She brings this rich clinical expertise to the Department of Health to support the wide array of programs in the Division of Family Health that support New Yorkers across their lives from pregnancy, childhood, adolescence, and into the reproductive years.  After leaving New York for her residency, fellowship, and clinical work, Dr Escobar is ecstatic to be back in New York where she was born and raised.

 

Emily Moss, MPH, Unit Director, New York State Department of Health

Emily Moss, MPH is the unit director of the NYS Comprehensive Family Planning and Reproductive Health Services Program and project director of Title X Family Planning Project grant. Emily holds a Master’s degree in Public Health from the SUNY University at Albany School of Public Health, and has nearly a decade of experience in administering local and state public health programming.

Norman Rose, MPA, Data Manager, New York State Department of Health

Norman Rose is the Data Manager for the NYS Comprehensive Family Planning and Reproductive Health Services Program and for the Title X Family Planning Project grant. Norman has a Master’s degree in Public Administration from New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service, and has experience managing survey and data projects on the city and state level, and with a national membership organization.