#UMNMCH student, Bella Mualem (MPH 2025), describes her deployment with the Minneapolis Public Schools Early Childhood Screening Department and the Vision Health Task Force. As a part of her deployment, Bella helped create awareness campaign materials to improve vision screening in Minnesota children. She also actively developed leadership skills to formalize training processes and create collaborative spaces where all team members are seen and heard.

My time at UMN has been rich with opportunities for exploration. Early into the program, I was fortunate enough to be deployed with the Minneapolis Public Schools Early Childhood Screening Department working on their Vision Health Task Force. Through this deployment, I have learned about and assisted with management, facilitation, and the skills needed to run a successful task force while improving health in Minnesota.

The Power of Connections

Early into my time at the UMN School of Public Health, I had just moved alone from Denver and wanted to give myself time to get situated into the flow of grad school before overcommitting myself to other tasks and passions (something I am known to do). During this time of transition, I made the choice to attend the 2023 NAMI Walk with the MCH Student Interest Group, where I met Center Director Sara Benning during the beautiful fall walk along the Mississippi. She told me about the deployment opportunity with Minneapolis Public Schools on the Minnesota Vision Health Task Force with her colleague, Cindy Hillyer. After the walk, I researched and applied for the position and the rest is history.

In life, there is a lot of power in who you know. While not always “right” or the most equitable, most jobs and opportunities come through nonchalant conversations with friends and friends of friends. The connections at the University of Minnesota, especially in the School of Public Health, run deep and I am sure this serves students well in their future endeavors. 

The Minnesota Vision Health Task Force

The Minnesota Vision Health Task Force (MNVHTF) is an interdisciplinary group of professionals working together to improve vision and eye health in Minnesota. The task force meets monthly to discuss members’ work, engage collaboratively with one another, and build on existing ideas to create systems-level change. Task force members’ backgrounds include nursing, non-profit work, local, state, and federal levels of government, philanthropy, and education.  The success of the task force is attributable to Cindy, director of Early Childhood Education, because of her exemplary leadership and drive to move work forward, creating a healthier Minnesota for all. The task force offers vision screenings for children to identify vision-related challenges early and connect children and families to care early.

The Power of Good Leadership 

As a new member of the task force, Cindy asked if there were areas I was interested in. I took this opportunity to learn about the management and leadership style of the task force. In previous jobs, I had experienced “us vs them” leadership structures, which never led to peaceful or successful workplace environments, so I was eager to learn better alternatives.

As the intern, Cindy mentored me on the importance of building trust and safe spaces for everyone. Allowing task force members to feel comfortable in voicing their opinions is necessary to move the work forward. I was immersed in the new organizational structure of a task force where all voices mattered, which was a stark contrast to the hierarchical leadership that I was used to. Through my role, I learned valuable interpersonal leadership skills that have served me not only in my work life but in my personal life as well. It is important to understand how to diffuse tension before the onset of conflict for projects to progress.

Little Eyes Big Eyes: Creation of an Awareness Campaign

During my time with the task force, I had the opportunity to collaborate with the Center’s former Communications RA, Cassie Mohawk, to create an awareness campaign for the Little Eyes Big Eyes Project (LEBE) in the task force. LEBE was created in 2022 through a grant from the SEVA Foundation. LEBE addresses the vision health needs of Native communities in Minnesota. Minnesota is home to 11 sovereign tribal nations with unique needs and obstacles to consistent healthcare and preventative screenings.

The awareness campaign created materials for Native populations to increase knowledge of the importance of childhood vision screenings, as well as communication materials for screening events. In addition to the awareness campaign materials, Cassie and I had the privilege to present our work with LEBE at the 2024 Minnesota Public Health Association conference. There, we spoke with others in the field about the task force’s work and learned about other innovative public health projects.

Designing the Role of the Intern

The creation of the task force in 2019 faced challenges in creating a stable role for the research intern amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The role of the intern remained increasingly flexible through 2022 to allow students to design and implement a role for themselves within the task force that aligned with their personal interests. 

At the end of my time with the MNVHTF, I created materials to help streamline the process of transitioning from one intern to the next. Creating an MNVHTF Intern guidebook outlined processes and important tasks that I worked on throughout the year to facilitate the seamless onboarding of future interns. Through this project, I honed my organizational skills by creating onboarding documents, a skill set that will serve me in future jobs as I dive into my public health career.

Through my time with the MNVHTF, I learned about the unique epidemiology of vision health in Minnesota, specifically in Native populations. I also learned that trust is the glue to hold collaborations together, as well as the importance of skillful communication. I am forever grateful for the opportunity I had to learn and grow with the Minnesota Vision Health Task Force, engage in a collaborative task force, and experience different leadership and facilitator roles. Finally, the invaluable mentorship from Cindy and Sara early on in my public health career through my deployment is an experience I cannot recommend enough for future UMN MCH students.

Bella is a second-year MCH MPH student. Bella received her B.S. from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (SLO).

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