Makenzie Atherton, MPH
Content Development Coordinator
Makenzie M. M. Atherton serves as the content development coordinator, working on a federally funded national website supporting the response to the opioid crisis in rural areas and at the Rural Health Information Hub (RHIhub) at the Center for Rural Health (CRH) at the University of North Dakota (UND) School of Medicine & Health Sciences in Grand Forks.
She assists RHIhub with project coordination and finding resources needed to support rural health projects. She is also responsible for compiling, developing, and maintaining data and research content.
Prior to joining the RHIhub, Makenzie worked for the CRH as a systems evaluator for a rural healthcare grant that provided medical equipment to rural emergency medical services and hospitals in seven Midwest and Mountain West states.
Makenzie has a Bachelor of Science in education and human sciences from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a Master of Public Health from UND. She is originally from Bismarck, North Dakota.
Projects
Most Recent Publications & Presentations
The University of North Dakota programme, Students/residents Experiences And Rotations in Community Health (SEARCH), was implemented to address recruitment and retention problems and stereotypes associated with practicing in rural areas.
The article details how to conduct process flow mapping for systems improvement. The method and its importance are explained in the context of evaluating a cardiac care system.
The article suggests a set of indicators of buy-in that novice evaluators can use to assess stakeholder engagement and responsiveness. It also showcases a tracking tool which serves as a systematic, responsive prompt to monitor buy-in.