Celebrating 33 years of public health service
During the 30th anniversary of National Public Health Week, HHS is highlighting team members who make a difference with the work they do to help North Dakota become the healthiest state in the nation.
Public health career
Dawn Mayer, Child Passenger Safety Program director for HHS, joined the department in 1992 as an injury prevention program specialist working with the Agricultural Injury Prevention Program funded by a National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health grant.
“The goal of the program was to reduce serious and fatal injuries to those working in agriculture. We contracted with nurses who did the injury prevention work in rural communities. The nurses also investigated and collected data on agricultural injuries and death because a big part of this grant involved agricultural injury surveillance in North Dakota,” Dawn said.
How her public health career evolved
Dawn has had the opportunity to work in a variety of areas in public health. Around 1994, she transitioned to the immunization program and worked with health care providers to expand the Vaccines for Children program. A few years later, she returned to the injury prevention field and focused on childhood injury prevention. She worked with playground safety, bike safety, infant safety, home safety and conducted U.S. Consumer Product Safety investigations to make sure recalled products were removed from retail store shelves.
In 1998, she was able to attend the newly created National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Child Passenger Safety (CPS) Certification Training. When her mentor Carol Meidinger retired in 2005, Dawn was hired as the Child Passenger Safety Program director.
She appreciates the opportunity to work with local public health professionals and other community partners to educate parents and others about child passenger safety with the goal of saving lives and reducing serious injuries.
“I manage the statewide Child Passenger Safety Program and administer the Department of Transportation CPS grant, which allows me to subcontract with vendors to do outreach in communities offering trainings and car seat checkups. I also coordinate national CPS certification trainings and a statewide car seat distribution program and oversee a network of over 30 car seat programs that assist the public with their child passenger safety needs.”
What she enjoys most about her work
Dawn said, she always wanted to work in a career that helps other.
“I have been very fortunate to be able to work where I do. The thing I enjoy most is working with local public health professionals who have the passion to help the public; they are amazing to work with,” said Dawn.” I also love working with caregivers at car seat checkups. It’s very satisfying to teach parents and others how to properly use equipment and transport children in the safest way possible.”