Ira and Ineva Reilly Baldwin Wisconsin Idea Endowment 2006 Funded Projects
Better Health for Low-Income Children: Reducing the Asthma, Infections, and Cancer Caused by Exposure to Tobacco Smoke
Project Leaders: Michael Fiore (262-7539), MD, and director, and Lezli
Redmond (265-4143), outreach program manager; UW Center for Tobacco Research
and Intervention
Project Duration: 2006-2008
This new initiative will develop programs aimed at helping thousands of children from low-income families in Wisconsin whose parents smoke. Children whose parents smoke are much more likely to have asthma, bronchitis, and pneumonia and are at increased risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and cancers. Studies show children covered by Medicaid are 50 percent more likely than non-Medicaid covered children to have parents who smoke. The Center for Tobacco outreach initiative will work with the clinics, hospitals and HMOs to provide training and resource materials so pediatricians and family practice physicians can help the parents of Medicaid-covered children to quit smoking. The center will also provide evidence-based counseling materials through the Wisconsin Tobacco Quit Line to help the parents quit smoking. We will and systems involved so that these pediatric provider interventions are part of routine Physicians who treat children have a great opportunity to intervene with parents who smoke. Recent research showed that when pediatricians intervened, 50% of parents made a quit attempt, 18% were successful, and smoking in the home was cut in half. By helping parents of Medicaid children quit smoking, we can reduce an enormous health and economic burden on Wisconsin families.
Caring for Cancer Caregivers: Empowering Caregivers to Help Their Loved Ones and Themselves
Project Leader: Lori DuBenske (262-4088), associate researcher, UW Comprehensive Cancer Center
Project Duration: 2006-2007
The objective of this program is to implement a Cancer Caregiver Program within the University of Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Center. With increasing need for home-based care, caregiver issues are a significant public health concern. Often caregivers are ill-prepared for the caregiving role and are at increased risk for physical and psychological co-morbidity. While caregivers play a vital role in patient care, they are underserved by the medical community with limited resources available to them. This program will utilize research-based expertise on caregiver needs from the UW Center of Excellence in Cancer Communications Research as the foundation for service implementation to caregivers. Through support and education services provided through this program, caregivers may become more effective in their caregiving roles both at home and within the clinic setting, have reduced rates of physical and psychological co-morbidity, and be more satisfied with their caregiving experience. Caregiver satisfaction, as well as the cost-effectiveness of such a program and the ability to integrate it within a large cancer clinic, will be evaluated as part of this initiative.
Climate Change in the Lake Superior Region: An Exhibit and Community Education Project
Project Leaders: Dorothea Ledin (262-0478), program manager, Center
for Biology Education; David Mladenoff (262-1992), professor, Forest Ecology
and Management
Project Duration: 2006-2007
The Northwoods is cherished in Wisconsin and throughout the Midwest for its scenery, natural resources and unique biological diversity. This project will work with scientists, artists and educators on a traveling art exhibit that helps illustrate some of the obvious and less visible impact of climate change on the Wisconsin northwoods landscape. Developers of the exhibit will hope to create ways that citizens can relate personally to climate change concerns, which include threats to native species and a reduction in biodiversity. The exhibit will be shared across northern Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
Fields of Discovery: Wednesday Nite @ The Lab and Science Exploration Days
Project Leaders: Tom Zinnen (265-2420), outreach program manager, Biotechnology Center (; Sarah Schutt (262-5699), outreach specialist, Division of Continuing Studies/Wisconsin Alumni Association
Project Duration: 2006-2007
Fields of Discovery will present new avenues for the public to connect with the university’s science resources. “Wednesday Nite @ the Lab” will feature different science discussions and hands-on activity on campus each week, while “Science Exploration Days” will take unique programs on the road to Wisconsin schools and communities. The project will also conduct training sessions for UW-Madison community (students, staff, faculty, retirees and alumni) interested in developing their skills in sharing science with the public. And, via a special emphasis, this project will focus providing programs for senior citizens.
Here at Home: A Wisconsin Cultural Tour for K-12 Teachers
Project Leader: Ruth Olson (262-8180), associate director, Center
for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures
Project Duration: 2006-2007
The Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures will lead this effort to create an eight-day summer bus tour that brings to life Wisconsin’s unique culture, including its geography, folk life, music, art and environmental resources. The bus trip will include teachers across many disciplines from the kindergarten to high school level, as well as experts and undergraduates from the university and state. Topics will include cultural geography, meteorology, folklife, music, arts, history, geology, rural sociology, urban planning and environmental studies. The primary goal is to provide participants with direct knowledge of various local communities through on-site guided tours, interaction with local residents, community-based presentations and contextual scholarly commentary. Community members will also be engaged throughout the tour.
Nanotechnology Fellowships for Journalists, Policy Makers, and BusinesspeopleProject
Leaders: Wendy Krone (262-8384), professor Engineering, Terry Devitt (262-8282), science writer, University Communications
Project Duration: 2006-2008
Of all emerging technologies, nanotechnology is one expected to have a pervasive effect on society. Its influence is already manifest in an array of commercial areas ranging from automobile manufacturing and computers to the biomedical and pharmaceutical industries. New materials and processes that result from nanotechnology are likely to leave few areas of daily life unaffected. Despite the potential far-reaching influence of nanotechnology, the public understands little about it, and issues associated with these new technologies are likely to emerge in a public knowledge vacuum. This project will help address the knowledge gap by creating a two-and-a-half-day program, “Nanotechnology Fellowships for Reporters, Policy Makers, and Businesspeople.” In the first year of the grant, fellows will be drawn from the journalism and science writing communities, followed by policy makers and business people in the second and third years, respectively. The project will also help to spawn an ongoing effort that will include a reporter resource web site and presentations at professional conferences for journalists and science writers and meetings of government agencies and trade groups.
Teachers Teaching Teachers (T3): A Professional Development Model
Project Leaders: Joan Ershler (262-4718), program director, childhood program Waisman Center, and Carol Keintz (270-3408), associate director, Dane County Parent Council
Project Duration: 2006-2008
Teachers Teaching Teachers (T3) is a professional development model that will pair experienced staff from the Waisman Center’s Early Childhood Program with teachers from Dane County Head Start to provide an intensive mentoring program in their classrooms to enhance the classroom and social interaction skills of the teachers. The Project will increase the teachers’ skills in classroom management and facilitating children’s self-regulation and positive social interaction. Only 55% of Head Start teachers have an early childhood degree, yet they work with a highly needy population. This project will pair Head Start teachers with educators from the Waisman Center’s early childhood program and create an ongoing mentoring and professional development effort for Head Start. A manual to document the mentoring process will also be developed for statewide training and dissemination.
Women of the Scarred Earth Performance & Outreach Project
Project Leader: Peggy Choy (263-1755), professor, Asian American Studies and Dance Program and Jane Collins, Chair, Women’s Studies
Project Duration: 2006
This project will create dance and spoken word performances by faculty, staff and students that deal with women’s survival strategies in a world scarred by war and environmental damage. Four UW-Madison students will also be selected to be part of a touring company that will perform in a variety of high school locations around the state in fall 2006. The activities will represent the experiences of Asian Pacific American, African American, Caucasian, Latin American and Native American cultures.