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NORC at the University Chicago

Ilana Dickman

Senior Research Director
Public Health
Ilana develops educational resources and trainings and conducts research on a wide variety of topics.

Ilana manages the development and implementation of educational resources and conducts research on topics such as language and communication access, physical accessibility, disability competency, maternal mortality, and COVID-19. Ilana specializes in work that falls at the intersection of health education and health communication. She is a Certified Health Education Specialist©  (CHES) and also holds a certification in the fundamentals of focus group moderation.

Ilana is currently leading a project for the Oregon Health Authority, focused on the development of resources designed to educate providers about meaningful language access in Oregon. She also leads a project for the CDC Division of Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention where she develops and runs workshops focused on writing and disseminating evaluation findings. For more than a decade, she was an integral team member on multiple projects for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Office of Minority Health (OMH). In roles such as Communications and Training Lead, Ilana led the development of multiple educational resources for providers, worked with the CMS Medicare Learning Network to develop web-based trainings, and led the development of issue briefs and other resources focused on improving access to care for people with disabilities and increasing language access services. In addition to her work in support of CMS OMH, Ilana recently led the development of a web-based training for public health professionals. Since 2023, she has also served as the Training Lead for a cervical cancer learning series.

Prior to joining NORC, Ilana also developed educational programs, trainings, and resources for health care providers. For three years, she worked in support of the HHS Office of Minority Health, developing cultural competency continuing education programs grounded in the National CLAS Standards. Before that, she worked as a Fellow at the CDC in the Division of Tuberculosis Prevention and Elimination, developing educational guides focused on promoting cultural competency in tuberculosis programs for refugee and immigrant populations.

Project Contributions

HRSA Cervical Cancer Learning Series

Empowering safety-net health care settings to provide cervical cancer prevention, screening, and management

Client:

Health Resources and Services Administration

Developing Tools for Sexual and Gender Minority Youth

Analyzing survey data to inform HIV prevention materials that engage minority adolescents

Client:

Division of Adolescent and School Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Community Health Toolkits for Rural America

Evidence-based approaches for building effective rural community health programs

Client:

Federal Office of Rural Health Policy

Testing Violence Prevention Messages & Materials

Supporting CDC’s efforts to improve resources for parents and anti-violence practitioners

Client:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Violence Prevention

AHRQ’s National Nursing Home COVID-19 Coordinating Center

Connecting AHRQ’s nursing home safety initiatives and the nursing home quality improvement community

Client:

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

CERV-Net Expansion

Extending the reach of a learning series focused on cervical cancer prevention, screening, and management

Client:

Health Resources and Services Administration

Improving Health Through Quality Improvement

Helping ensure health quality in Medicare and Medicaid services

Client:

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Office of Minority Health

Building Climate and Health Capacity within Health Departments

An interactive, self-paced, web-based training about climate change for health department staff.

Client:

CDC Foundation

Improving Language Access in Oregon’s Health Care System

Supporting inclusive care through interpreter access and provider education

Client:

Oregon Health Authority, Health Policy & Analytics Division