Christine A. Bevc | Research Triangle Institute International (original) (raw)

Papers by Christine A. Bevc

International journal of mass emergencies and disasters, Aug 1, 2013

There has been renewed interest in radiological preparedness and countermeasures for nuclear powe... more There has been renewed interest in radiological preparedness and countermeasures for nuclear power plant (NPP) emergencies in the United States as a result of the Fukushima Daiichi accident in March 2011. One such countermeasure, potassium iodide (KI), was voluntarily pre-distributed to households in a central North Carolina community living within the 10-mile Emergency Planning Zone (EPZ) of a NPP in 2010. The goal of this study was to evaluate household KI coverage among EPZ residents following this pre-distribution campaign, as well as to assess knowledge and beliefs about KI. A guided interview and self-administered questionnaire was administered to a random sample of 177 EPZ households. Findings indicate four months post-distribution that this program resulted in low household KI coverage rates (< 5%) and low KI knowledge levels. Results demonstrate the need for improved KI pre-distribution and education strategies targeting households within the designated 10-mile EPZ.

Carolina Digital Repository (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), 2014

In a response to scarce public resources and the nature of complex intractable public health prob... more In a response to scarce public resources and the nature of complex intractable public health problems, there have been increased multiorganizational and multisector collaborations to address population needs. Building organizational capacity to better serve community public health and other public service needs is an important mandate for improving the integrity and performance of public health systems. 1 Fostering interorganizational partnerships to achieve public health outcomes is believed to have distinct advantages, 1,2 and the practice of collaboration is growing within the public health system. 3,4 Although this trend toward collaborating continues to increase, it is not clear to what extent the disciplinary and organizational silos that traditionally characterize public health still exist. Organizations are more inclined to work across boundaries, but that does not mean that they have aborted the tendency to work with those most "like" them, perpetuating the accompanying "silo effect." We explored to what extent silos persist in this new era of interorganizational collaboration in the public health sector.

Children, Youth and Environments, 2008

Citizen Science: Theory and Practice

Online learning communities for citizen science have been growing in number and scale in recent y... more Online learning communities for citizen science have been growing in number and scale in recent years. The WeatherBlur project was designed to apply knowledge-building theory to a non-hierarchical online citizen science community for students in grades three to eight, their teachers, and scientists. This case study explores one investigation to determine the kinds of interactions that encouraged online knowledge-building and the individuals who served as the key drivers for the investigation. Posts from the project's discussion board were analyzed via a discourse analysis. The results indicated that students, teachers, and scientists initiated online discourse at similar rates, affirming the project's non-hierarchical design. Two knowledge-building constructs were used to initiate dialogue, including comments that added to the quantity and then quality of information in the conversation and those that included some conceptual advancement. Photos were also used more often to initiate rather than respond to conversation. By comparison, ongoing conversation was sustained by comments that enhanced the quality of information shared. Using activity log data, the results from a social network analysis indicated high variation in posting frequency, high probability of reciprocity, and dense core-periphery structure. Both the discourse analysis and social network analysis revealed multiple ways for individuals to become core to the network and thus primary drivers for the investigation. The findings are discussed in relation to knowledge-building in online citizen science communities.

Cultural Studies of Science Education, 2018

The field of citizen science is one of the fastest growing sectors in informal education, specifi... more The field of citizen science is one of the fastest growing sectors in informal education, specifically because of the new opportunities that are now available within today's digitized and networked world. This paper describes a unique co-created citizen science project, WeatherBlur, which brought fishermen, elementary students, and teachers from island and coastal communities together with research scientists via an online platform to share, analyze, and interpret data about the local impact of climate change. The project was designed utilizing a sociocultural learning approach that integrated communities of practice, knowledge building, funds of knowledge, and place-based education theory. The study aimed to understand how scientists, community members, and students interact to promote learning and collaboration within an online learning community. In addition, the study addressed the impact of the program on elementary student learning outcomes in earth science and graph interpretation. Data analyses suggest that the model implemented provided a high level of interactivity across all ages and groups, and increased students' understanding of earth science and skills in graph interpretation. Findings are used to describe the utility of using citizen science projects in K-5 schools. Keywords Weather and climate Á Elementary school Á Citizen science Á Online learning Á Co-created citizen science The field of citizen science is one of the fastest growing sectors in informal education, and is finding a niche in formal education settings as well. Citizen science is defined as scientific research projects in which volunteers from the public partner with scientists to Lead editor: Ruth Kermish-Allen.

International is an independent, nonprofit research organization dedicated to improving the human... more International is an independent, nonprofit research organization dedicated to improving the human condition. The RTI Press mission is to disseminate information about RTI research, analytic tools, and technical expertise to a national and international audience. RTI Press publications are peer-reviewed by at least two independent substantive experts and one or more Press editors.

American Journal of Health Promotion

Purpose Identifying drivers of behavior is essential to develop effective messaging around COVID-... more Purpose Identifying drivers of behavior is essential to develop effective messaging around COVID-19 prevention and mitigation. Our study assessed for behavioral antecedents of social distancing, wearing face coverings, and sheltering in place during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although ours is an early assessment, understanding motivation for behavior will remain critical as U.S. vaccination uptake has stalled and variants continue to pose a health threat. Design Cross-sectional survey; Setting: Online assessments in April 10–13 and 17–20, 2020; Subjects: 2,279 U.S. adults identified through a national, probability-based web panel (34% response rate). Measures: self-reported behavior, perceived effectiveness and risk, worry, social norms, and knowledge. Analysis Multivariable regression analyses Results Most Americans reported social distancing (91%) and sheltering in place (86%). Just over half reported wearing face coverings (51%), whereas more (77%) said they intended to ...

Local health departments (LHDs) are essential to emergency preparedness and response activities. ... more Local health departments (LHDs) are essential to emergency preparedness and response activities. Since 2005, LHD resources for preparedness, including personnel, are declining in the face of continuing gaps and variation in the performance of preparedness activities. The effect of these funding decreases on LHD preparedness performance is not well understood. This study examines the performance of preparedness capacities among NC LHDs and a matched national comparison group of LHDs over three years. We observe significant decreases in five of eight preparedness domains from three years of survey data collected from 2010 through 2012. Most notably, we observe significant decreases in the Surveillance & Investigation domain. Performance decreases may be a result of continued, compounding declines in preparedness funding.

Abstract: Inter-organizational networks represent one of the most promising practice-based approa... more Abstract: Inter-organizational networks represent one of the most promising practice-based approaches in public health as a way to attain resources, share knowledge, and, in turn, improve population health outcomes. However, the interdependencies and effectiveness related to the structure, management, and costs of these networks represents a critical item to be addressed. The objective of this research is to identify and determine the extent to which potential partnering patterns influence the structure of collaborative networks. This study examines data collected by PARTNER, specifically public health networks (n = 162), to better understand the structured relationships and interactions among public health organizations and their partners, in relation to collaborative activities. Combined with descriptive analysis, we focus on the composition of public health collaboratives in a series of Exponential Random Graph (ERG) models to examine the partnerships between different organizati...

Frontiers in Public Health, 2013

This report demonstrates how providing survey feedback, like comparative reports, to survey respo... more This report demonstrates how providing survey feedback, like comparative reports, to survey respondents can result in improvement activities. For each of the past three years (2010-2013), the North Carolina Institute for Public Health (NCIPH) has invited local health departments (LHDs) from 40 states to participate in a preparedness capacities survey. In addition, NCIPH fielded a six-question evaluation survey to a subset of LHDs (n=70) to determine how LHDs use these reports. LHDs that reported using their custom reports compared their preparedness capacities to other LHDs, conducted strategic planning (e.g., benchmarking, setting preparedness goals), planned staff trainings, and disseminated the report both internally and to external preparedness partners. Through evaluation of custom report use, we have found that survey feedback is a valuable part of a participatory research approach that promotes and encourages discussion, motivates improvement, and provides opportunities to id...

Frontiers in Public Health, 2015

Background: The outbreak of Ebola virus disease in West Africa and confirmation of the first case... more Background: The outbreak of Ebola virus disease in West Africa and confirmation of the first cases in the United States highlight the need for robust and responsive public health surveillance system. With a 25% decline in funding since 2007, the impact on local surveillance capacities has not previously been described. Purpose: The Surveillance & Investigation domain of the Local Health Department Preparedness Capacities Survey (PCAS) was reweighted to reflect the national profile of LHDs. Changes in subdomain performance of capacities and the effect of population size on subdomain capacity performance were examined over time. Methods: Participating LHDs (n=208) from the PCAS sample were reweighted according to characteristics from the 2010 National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) Profile. Overall changes in preparedness capacity across four subdomains from 2010 to 2012 were tested for significant differences using a weighted t-test. A series of weighted lea...

North Carolina’s public health system is a complex structure of organizations, offi ces, sources ... more North Carolina’s public health system is a complex structure of organizations, offi ces, sources and destinations of information, and data repositories. Public health emergency preparedness requires the maintenance of situational awareness, coordination of information discovery, and dissemination among system components. To maintain preparedness, successful communication is a key element; failure to effectively communicate may result in a variety of problems, including delayed notifi cation or dissemination of false positive alerts. This case study applies social network analysis (SNA) in an investigation of communications during the 2009 H1N1 outbreak in North Carolina.

Public Health Reports, 2021

Policy Studies Journal, 2012

The delegation of decision-making capacity from one actor to another-known variously as authority... more The delegation of decision-making capacity from one actor to another-known variously as authority or control-is a central phenomenon of organizational sociology. Despite its theoretical and practical significance, however, the dynamics of control within disrupted settings (such as disasters) remain poorly understood. Here, we shed light on this question by a reexamination of historical data on multiorganizational disaster response networks, using recently developed statistical methods for robust inference from error-prone informant reports. Specifically, we test competing hypotheses about the relationship of control during the response process to the structure of interorganizational communication. We find that both the realized and normative response hierarchies are likely shaped by coordination among both nonadjacent alters and along indirect channels. Our results suggested that the communication structure of these networks is consistent with a control at a distance model of command. This article makes a substantial contribution to understanding the role of network structure in the emergence of control between organizations in disrupted settings. Additionally, our innovative approach to network inference will guide researchers in dealing with error-prone data in their own research on policy networks.