ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
Officials with the Immunize Kansas Coalition are looking to partner with advocates across the state later this month in Topeka to educate lawmakers about the importance of immunizations.
Jan. 30, IKC will host its Advocacy Day at the statehouse, and Interim Executive Director Carrie Riordan said the main focus of the event is the vital importance of vaccines and the protection of public health through immunization.
“That’s really what IKC is all about,” she said. “We’ll have volunteers, partner organizations, board members, other interested folks.”
The day starts with the coalition’s quarterly meeting, and Riordan said those registering for Advocacy Day through the Web site at www.immunizekansascoaliton.org can join the meeting virtually.
“You don’t have to be here in person,” she said. “We’ll talk about the organization, immunizations and legislatively what’s coming down the pike. We don’t have a ton of information about that yet because it just started. We’ll be waiting to see what’s coming up from under the dome in the next week or so.”
Riordan said most of the day will be spent interacting and networking with and educating lawmakers.
“We have some folks who come from across the state, and the meet their lawmakers sometime for the very first time and share the good news about what IKC is doing,” she said.
A registration link is available on the home page of the coalition’s Web site, and Riordan said registration is quick and easy. She added IKC is a trusted source of infomation for lawmakers and the public on vaccine-related issues.
“We really want them to know if they have questions or are seeking information about vaccinations and their impact on public health, we at IKC want them to get that information,” she said.
At this time, Riordan said the coalition is not looking to push anything specific other than vaccines being the best defense against serious infectious diseases.
“Since the session just started, we don’t know yet what the legislative priorities will be for the House and the Senate,” she said. “We’re just going to continue to do the good work IKC does. If folks want more information either about Advocacy Day or IKC, both the Web site and our Facebook page offer lots of great information about the coalition and the importance of immunizations to public health.”
Riordan came on board as the interim IKC director in October 2024, and she said she has spent the majority of her time since then meeting with coalition partners.
“The one thing that has really amazed me is how committed to the mission and how passionate our partners are about public health,” she said. “It’s a great organization, and I’m really enjoying serving as the executive director. One thing I’ve been really impressed about with an organization like this is these people really do work every day to protect Kansans from vaccine-preventable diseases.”
With staff changes such as getting a new director, Riordan said these are great opportunities for boards to do some additional strategic planning to ensure the organization’s best line to achieve its mission and its goals. She added IKC has been a springboard for team members to go on to other great opportunities such as former Community Health Specialist Patricia Fierro becoming the new executive director for Seward County United Way.
“That came about through her work with IKC, being active in the community there, having connections and networking with board members of the United Way and other people in the community,” Riordan said. “We are looking forward to working with her on public health issues because that’s a lot of what United Way does there. We’ll definitely be working closely with here in the future in Seward County.”
With a new presidency starting this month, Riordan too said it is unknown what the federal priorities will be for public health at this time.
“Until we know those, we’ll just continue to do the good work we do to encourage vaccinations and immunizations and to remind folks vaccinations are our best defense against these diseases that can spread very quickly when people don’t have immunizations,” she said. “At the state level too, we’re waiting to see what those priorities are going to be both in the House and in the Senate, and we’ll see what we’ll be working on for this session.”
IKC does have some other events coming up in 2025, starting with newly-launched continuing education model “Shutting the Door on HPV Cancers.”
“This is a course we worked with an expert physician on,” Riordan said. “It’s a half hour continuing education activity, and we offer that at no cost to physicians, pharmacists, phsycians assistants, nurses, nurse practitioners, anyone working in health care who is eligible for continuing education.”
Riordan said other public health leaders across Kansas and the U.S. are working on the HPV issue too.
“It’s been a really good partnership,” she said.
Riordan said IKC will continue with its community health events across the Sunflower State including in Liberal.
“We partner with health departments and other public health organizations whether we are attending conferences and speaking or if we’re just at a booth to pass out information and make connections,” she said. “That’s going to continue.”
The Kansas Immunization Conference will take place in May in Wichita, and Riordan said this is a bigg meeting for both IKC and public health as a whole specifically about immunizations.
“There’s a lot of training, a lot of networking, a lot of information sharing that happens with that,” she said.
As Riordan is only the interim executive director of IKC, she said board members hope to have a permanent director in place this spring.
“It’s a perfect world when you make plans, but if something crazy drops at the statehouse or something that demands a lot of attention comes out of federal health policy, we’ll be working on that,” she said.
As for what she hopes people will get out of Advocacy Day, Riordan said first and foremost, she hopes lawmakers understand vaccines are best defense against serious infectious diseases and IKC being a trusted source for information about immunizations and vaccines and the impact they have on public health.
She also hopes to help all of those who attend make sure they have the information and materials they need to go out and continue educating lawmakers and the communities they serve.
Riordan also hopes people will walk away with an understanding of the legislative process and an understanding of how they can impact that process.
“Our government sits to serve the people,” she said. “That’s what they’re under the dome in Topeka to do and under the dome in Washington D.C. to do. We hope folks come away with confidence on how to contact and talk with lawmakers and to speak with confidence about all the good work that comes from having a vaccinated population and the good health that comes from having a vaccinated population.”
