Community Assessment and Strategy

Our team provides technical assistance to state and local health departments, nonprofits and healthcare systems to improve the health of communities. We collect, analyze, and visualize data in impactful ways that leads to improved decision-making strategy and better community health outcomes.

Collecting Data

What data are available about my community?

At NCIPH, we help organizations identify and integrate data and resources that provide insights into their communities by:

  • Collating publicly available secondary data
  • Navigating and interpreting systems accessible to public health and healthcare staff
  • Determining what gaps exist in existing data and identifying solutions to address these gaps

How can I collect data that represents my community?

Collection of data requires a strategic approach that is unique to each community. Our team works collaboratively with communities to assist in developing individualized sampling plans, survey design, interviews, focus groups, and more. Our data experts will work with you to:

  • Select a sample: Developing a plan for identifying target audiences and sampling procedures
  • Evaluate approaches for repeated surveys: Strategic thinking around frequency of surveying, measures to collect overtime, and engaging survey participants
  • Design questionnaires
  • Program, pilot, and launch surveys
  • Facilitate key-informant interviews, focus groups, and community conversations

How can I understand assets within my community?

Understanding assets in a community is essential for uplifting existing strengths and informing impactful allocation of funding. NCIPH will work collaboratively with your community to:

  • Develop comprehensive community health assessments
  • Conduct interviews and community conversations to collect first-hand experiences

Our work and past partners

Partners we have worked with on data collection projects include:

  • Grantmaking organizations in NC
  • Community coalitions supporting substance use
  • Local health departments
  • HBCU Health Equity Data Consortium

Selected products from this work are:

Analyzing Data

How can I use data to enact change for my community?

We understand the difference between basic data analysis and providing Our work helps others make data-informed decisions which benefit communities by:

  • Identifying meaningful data trends
  • Conducting statistical analyses using descriptive, inferential, spatial, and temporal methods
  • Assessing and addressing limitations and data bias
  • Identifying key findings from quantitative and qualitative data

What are the health priorities in my community?

Health priorities are based on the needs of a particular community and are determined by data collected there. In a community, the top health priorities often focus on making healthcare easier to access, addressing chronic conditions like diabetes and heart disease, and improving access to resources. We can help communities understand their health priorities by:

  • Launching a community health opinion and/or prioritization survey
  • Conducting interviews and community conversations to hear from community members first-hand
  • Facilitating priority-setting meetings with community partners

How can I plan and program according to the needs of my community?

We help communities plan and evaluate programs to best meet community needs by:

  • Setting program milestones and timelines
  • Developing and facilitate skill-building trainings and workshops
  • Convening community organizations to foster collaboration
  • Identifying existing resources and data
  • Assessing opportunities for new or enhanced intervention
  • Evaluating program outcomes

Our work and past partners

Partners we have worked with on data analysis projects include:

  • Grantmaking organizations

Selected products from this work are:

  • Community Data & Learning Cohort Program

Telling a Story with Data

How can I share findings within my community?

It is important to convey data in a way that community members can easily understand and get behind. Through data interpretation and visualization, we help communities to:

  • Interpret and summarize complicated data into meaningful insights and takeaways
  • Transform data into engaging and accessible reports
  • Develop tailored outputs like story maps, dashboards, reports, web pages, slides, and more

How can I tell a story with my data?

Data is more than numbers. Sharing data effectively with communities involves creating compelling stories that resonate and inspire action. We aim to share the story of your community by:

  • Applying an effective and empathetic data strategy to translate data into action
  • Creating story maps that combine data points, text, and multimedia to deliver interactive narratives

Team Members


Lois Adler-Johnson, MPH
Data Analyst & Advisor
lois.johnson@unc.edu


Emily Benson, MPH
Community Data Associate
bensoneg@unc.edu


Margaret Benson Nemitz

Margaret F. Benson Nemitz, MPH
Strategic Approaches Coordinator
margaret.nemitz@unc.edu


Rose Byrnes, MSW, MSPH
Qualitative Assessment Coordinator
rose.byrnes@unc.edu


Jaquayla Hodges, MPH
Data Scientist
hodgesdj@unc.edu


Destiny James, MPH
Community Engagement Coordinator
Dpj11@live.unc.edu


Jill Jiang, MPH
Project Associate
jirong@email.unc.edu


Lauren Jones, MPH
Community Data Coordinator
Lauren.Jones@unc.edu


Elisha Pittman
Program Evaluator
Elisha.Pittman@unc.edu


Sarah Salzmann
Program Coordinator and Assistant
sarahsts@unc.edu


Lauren Schauer

Lauren Schauer, MPH
Community Assessment Coordinator
lschauer@email.unc.edu


Headshot of Faith McHale

Faith Van Buskirk Feldt, MA
Operations Specialist
faith.vbfeldt@unc.edu


Dr. John Wallace

John Wallace, PhD
Senior Data Advisor
(919) 962-8870
john.wallace@unc.edu


NCIPH’s consultation programs reflect our organizational values as well as those of the Gillings School. Diversity, inclusiveness and civility are core values and characteristics of the School.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Email us at nciph@unc.edu.
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135 Dauer Drive
221 Rosenau Hall, CB #8165
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-8165
919-966-4609