Associate Scientist
Julie is the Community Engagement Lead on the Robert Wood Johnson funded Mobilizing Action Toward Community Health (MATCH) project. The goals of MATCH are to increase awareness of the multiple determinants and summary measures of population health among policy makers to engage multiple sectors in population health improvement efforts and to identify and examine alternative multi-sectoral governance partnerships or structures to improve population health and develop incentive models to stimulate multi-sectoral action toward community health improvement. Julie's role will be to engage community partners and policy makers in learning about population health and implementing action and policies to improve the community's health. Her initial work will focus on communication strategies for the release of the County Health Rankings in all 50 states.
Prior to joining the Population Health Institute, Julie worked in local public health for 21 years as a public health nurse, director of nursing, and for the last 8 years, as Marathon County's Health Officer. She has held state-wide leadership positions including past President of the Wisconsin Association of Local Health Departments and Boards and current Chairperson of the Wisconsin Public Health Council. She is a current fellow in the National Public Health Leadership Institute and a graduate of the Robert Wood Johnson Nurse Executive Fellows program. In addition to her traditional public health work, Julie has built partnerships and applied the multiple determinants of health through service on numerous community boards, including the Aspirus Wausau Hospital Board of Directors, the Wausau School District Board of Education, the Wausau Child Care Board of Directors, the Marathon County United Way's Local Initiatives for Excellence (LIFE) committee, and the Wausau/Marathon County Chamber of Commerce Leadership Wausau program.
Julie received a doctorate degree in Nursing with an emphasis in Public Health Leadership from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Her doctoral research focused on the impacts of Wisconsin's Prenatal Care Coordination on birth outcomes. She also holds a M.S.N. from UW-Oshkosh in primary care nursing, and a B.S.N. from UW-Eau Claire.
Contact Information:
Julie Willems Van Dijk
University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute
610 Walnut Street, 585 WARF
Madison, WI 53726-2336 USA
Phone: (608) 263-6731
Fax: (608) 262-6404
Email: willemsvandi@wisc.edu