On a sunny weekday morning in Logan, Utah, a mother brings her toddler into the Bear River Health Department for a regular check-up. Nearby, a father sits with his son, awaiting back-to-school immunization updates. Outside, a staff member explains to a young pregnant woman how to safely install a car seat.
Each day across the United States, health departments like Bear River offer these and many other health services to local residents. How each department meets local needs tells a critical story about community health, but for all, making communities healthier requires access to reliable and updated data. Yet in many public health departments across the country, antiquated data systems, lack of access to data storage and management systems and limited staff can make accessing vital data difficult.
“It's not just ‘X’ number of mothers that continue breastfeeding past three months,” said Jordan Mathis, health officer for the Bear River Health Department. “We need to be able to tell the stories of some of these data points.”
A father waits with his son in the Bear River Health Department for a back-to-school vaccine, one of the many services provided by health departments across the country.
The Bear River Health Department serves approximately 200,000 people over three counties in northern Utah.
A staff member instructs a pregnant woman in car seat safety at the Bear River Health Department in Logan, Utah.
Turning these data points into insights requires updated technology and uniquely skilled professionals. Launched in late 2024 in 49 public health authorities across the United States, the CDC Foundation’s Workforce Acceleration Initiative (WAI) provides both. Designed as a way to modernize America’s public health data infrastructure, WAI has two main goals, says Angela Hagy, senior technical advisor for public health information systems at the CDC Foundation.
“Let's get public health agencies the resources they need to advance and create efficiency and better access to data,” Hagy said. “And let's get data experts experience working in public health so there is a pool we can tap for these and future projects.”
Why is this work so critical? With accurate, up-to-date data, health officials like Jordan Mathis can detect disease and other health patterns that threaten community health, better measure the impact of public health programs, inform health policy, better educate the public and allocate limited resources where they are needed most. Serving a population of about 200,000 local residents over three largely rural counties in northern Utah, the Bear River Health Department offers everything from clinical and counseling services to community health education classes and water sampling. Though Bear River had data at hand, there was no central system for organizing and examining that data, impacting the reach and effectiveness of the department’s programs.
“We knew that we suffered from this data debt, meaning we had the data, but we weren't able to capitalize on that data,” Mathis said. “And so, we weren't connecting the dots between things.”
Mathis reached out to the CDC Foundation through the WAI project. Project staff worked with the health department to hire both a data engineer and a data architect to work full time with Bear River. Once on board, Mathis said, their role was to create a unified dashboard of Bear River’s data to show how the various department service areas were meeting the needs of the community, and where they might be improved. The challenge was apparent, said Tyler Ford, a systems architect hired through WAI at Bear River.
“If Bear River wanted to understand what was happening within their departments, multiple people from different areas would all have to send in individual reports, and it was almost impossible to see in real-time how their work was going,” Ford said. “And so that was the idea behind the dashboard–a high level view of the department’s impact. We took it and ran with it and created it.”
Tyler Ford, a systems architect hired at the Bear River Health Department through the Workforce Acceleration Intiative (WAI) project.
Angela Hagy, senior technical advisor for public health information systems at the CDC Foundation.
Venkata Namuduri, a data engineer hired through The Workforce Acceleration Iniative (WAI) project at the Bear River Health Department.
Working closely with data engineer Venkata Namuduri, also hired at Bear River through WAI, the two developed a visual and integrated Key Performance Indicator (KPI) dashboard, allowing Bear River to track their progress on critical department objectives like using resources wisely, providing quality health services and earning the public’s trust. Involved end-to-end in the dashboard design and data warehouse maintenance, Venkata met with Bear River staff for their feedback, adding clear labels, larger fonts, numeric call outs and concise chart descriptions to ensure readability, and replacing outdated manual processes with automated data.
“Changing from manual inputs to automation is like changing from gasoline cars to electric cars,” Namuduri said. “In the health department, this dashboard will help them make decisions more quickly than before and not waste time looking for figures and data.”
While such platforms can be prohibitively expensive, costing tens of thousands of dollars, Ford and Namuduri approached the project with Bear River’s limited budget in mind. Designed using low-cost cloud tools and open-source software available to the general public with no usage restrictions, the KPI Dashboard costs less than $220 per month to maintain, a cost-effective and sustainable long-term solution other health departments can replicate.
Jordan Mathis, health officer for the Bear River Health Department, presents the KPI dashboard to the department's board.
In largely rural counties like those served by the Bear River Health Department, many residents face challenges accessing physical and mental health care, making public health departments vitally important.
Hired through June 2026, Ford and Namuduri are working with Bear River to see the dashboard integrated fully into the department. Through the dashboard, Bear River plans to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of its outreach by tracking the success of its programs, and have vital data on hand to better educate lawmakers and community members on public health issues.
While tech and data skillsets are readily available in the for-profit world, drawing such sought after workers to public health has always been a challenge. Having worked at for-profit companies previously, both Ford and Namuduri said they were drawn to community service aspect of public health that they found missing from those employment experiences. Through their experience with WAI at Bear River, both men say they can envision continuing their careers in public health, a critical aim of the project.
“After this project and this experience helping the public health department build these dashboards, I see the fulfillment,” Namuduri said. “Using my technical skills, and my creative skills sometimes, to create a product which helps the community, that’s my drive behind working in the non-profit sector.”
