The 2016 IACW Collaborator award goes to the Auburn School District School Nurses, represented by Jan Schneider, Jill Olson, and Tami Petrina. Together with the district's health technicians, they reduced the number of students in their district who were out of compliance (meaning their immunization paperwork wasn't submitted properly) by two-thirds, from 852 to 295. Thank you, Jan, Jill, Tami, and your colleagues for your hard work to ensure that Auburn's students are protected from vaccine-preventable diseases.

Our 2016 IACW Advocate is Becky Doughty, Health Services Coordinator of Spokane Public Schools. Working closely with school staff and the Spokane Regional Health District, Becky achieved a decrease in kindergarten out of compliance rates from 24.6% to 0.9%. In addition to her work in schools, Becky is founder and director of the Inland Northwest Transitional Respite Program, which provides shelter-based respite care to men and women experiencing homelessness, where Becky has ensured that preventive measures, including vaccines, reach this very vulnerable population. She also implemented a program to ensure that all staff at the Respite Program are fully up to date with hepatitis B and influenza vaccines.

Finally, we partnered with the Washington State Department of Health to recognize Dr. John Dunn as the 2016 CDC Childhood Immunization Champion for Washington (pictured above with Neil Kaneshiro and Janna Bardi). Whether it's appearing on local news segments, answering colleagues' questions about vaccines, providing care to patients and their families, or serving on numerous local boards that make decisions about vaccines in the state of Washington, Dr. Dunn steps up to support vaccines. He serves on the Washington Vaccine Association, the Vaccine Advisory Committee, and the Vax Northwest Oversight Committee. He also chairs the Immunization Program at Group Health. In these positions, he ensures that policies and practices are in place to keep state immunization levels high. Through his research work at Vax Northwest, Dr. Dunn continues to learn about vaccine hesitancy and apply his findings to his everyday interactions with children and their families.

The work that Jan, Jill, Tami, Becky, and John do every day touches each of us - when we go about our daily lives in a Washington State that is safe from the diseases that vaccines prevent. We're grateful to collaborate with, support, and recognize such fabulous partners! Read more about them on our blog. 

To order schedules for your clinic, send an email to [email protected] with your desired quantity and mailing address. Please keep in mind that these schedules are very detailed and include a lot of fine print - they are not patient-friendly and are intended solely for healthcare providers.