Center Cores and Projects

Center Cores and Projects

  • Administrative and Planning Core (Risto Rautiainen, PI)
    • The Administrative and Planning Core provides leadership, governance, and central services to all Cores, projects, programs, and investigators in the Center. It facilitates participation of the Internal Advisory Committee and External Advisory Committee in the Center’s governance. The Core provides the administrative structure for day-to-day management, and for planning, budgeting, IRB compliance, evaluation, and other essential Center functions. The AP Core leads the Center’s public relations and community engagement efforts in the Center’s region. The Core manages the collaboration with regional institutions participating in the Center. With the strong leadership established by the AP Core, the Center has a clear vision, mission, and goals, aiming to contribute to the reduction of injuries and illnesses in the agricultural community in the Centers’ designated eight-state region.
  • The Pilot/Feasibility Projects and Emerging Issues Program (Eleanor Rogan, PI)
    • This program aims to support pilot and feasibility projects that lead to independent research projects concerning agricultural safety and health, with particular attention to emerging issues. The objective of this program is to support a series of well-constructed pilot and/or feasibility studies concerned with important issues in agricultural safety and health, particularly those identified in NIOSH National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing (AFF) and related guiding documents.
  • The Outreach Program (Deb Romberger, PI)
    • This program coordinates for the Center’s information dissemination efforts. It employs a systematic approach to identifying agricultural health and safety information that is relevant to producers in the CS-CASH region, translating it into focused educational messages, and disseminating messages to specific target audiences through the Center’s Community Contact Network (CCN) and a mix of dissemination channels. To reach the large number of farmers and ranchers in the region, the Outreach Program has an emphasis on use of mass media and internet-based communication.
  • Research Core
    • ADMA: A Novel Mediator in Organic Dust-mediated Allergic and Non-allergic Asthma (Sandra Wells, PI). 
      • PI Bio 
      • The goal of this project is to uncover novel pathways important in allergic and non-allergic inflammation induced by organic dust, enabling the identification of new strategies for the prevention and management of airway disease in at-risk workers. This project is supported by a strong agricultural lung disease interest group, and an established lung research program at UNMC which includes over 30 researchers conducting lung research using cellular and molecular biology, epidemiology, enzymology, animal models, pharmacology, toxicology, pathology, and clinical studies.
    • Surveillance of Agricultural Injuries in the Central States Region (Dana Loomis, PI).
      • PI Bio
      • The objective of this project is to develop an innovative, cost-effective system for the surveillance of injuries in agriculture. We will conduct an annual survey of injuries in the Central States region, linked with existing data on farm production and operator characteristics from the Census of Agriculture. We will use the data from the surveillance system to describe injuries and injured persons, estimate rates of injury and identify risk factors for injury. With this project we will demonstrate the feasibility of a model for injury surveillance that is capable of identifying high priority populations and injury risk factors and following risk trends over time. This project is a collaboration of UNMC and the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) of the US Department of Agriculture.
  • Education/Translation Core
    • Addressing Safety and Health Education Needs of Non-traditional Family Farms (Shari Burgus, PI).
      • PI Bio
      • The long-term goal of this project is to reduce injuries and illnesses in agriculture, particularly on non-traditional family farms, which now represent over 60% of US farms. We aim to identify the most important health and safety issues and preferred communication channels among retirement, residential/lifestyle, organic, and traditional family farms through a survey, focus groups, and interviews. We will then select, develop, and pilot-test educational resources designed for the specific non-traditional farm audiences. This project provides a better understanding of the changing health and safety needs and ways to reach diverse farm audiences effectively. This project is conducted by Farm Safety 4 Just Kids, National Agricultural Statistics Service and UNMC.
  • Evaluation
    • Evaluation Program (Mary Cramer, PI).
      • PI Bio
      • Evaluation is a critical function of the Center. The evaluation program will assess the effectiveness of the Center’s leadership and governance using the Internal Coalition Effectiveness model and the Internal Coalition Effectiveness (ICE©) instrument. Process evaluation includes tracking progress of all projects using the Targeting Outcomes of Programs model and the Center’s online evaluation database. The evaluation of outcomes and overall impact includes reviewing progress towards proving research hypotheses, evidence from systematic reviews of intervention studies, and evidence from the Center’s injury surveillance in region states. With the proposed evaluation plan, CS-CASH will have a mechanism to ensure that (a) the Center has effective leadership, (b) all projects make progress towards reaching their stated goals, (c) the Center becomes a valuable resource to the agricultural community in its region, (d) the Center makes an impact moving the field forward scientifically, and (e) the Center ultimately contributes to positive development, reducing the burden of injury and illness in the agricultural community in the region. The Evaluation Program is conducted by UNMC with input from all programs and projects.
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