SONNET: Evaluation & Research Committee
Meet our Evaluation & Research Committee
SONNET's Evaluation & Research Committee (ERC) serves as a bridge between researchers and operational teams involved in social health initiatives across Kaiser Permanente. The ERC includes representatives from all 8 Kaiser Permanente regions, the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine, the Kaiser Permanente Community Health Evaluation & Measurement team, and the Social Interventions Research and Evaluation Network (SIREN).
Each SONNET ERC member is involved in a regional or national social health evaluation project – from understanding screening and the best way to elicit pregnant members’ social needs in the context of their care to testing artificial intelligence driven approaches to linking members to community resources to evaluating specific social health initiatives. Learn more about our ERC members and their social health works-in-progress below.
Meagan Brown, PhD, MPH
SONNET Associate Director
KP Washington Health Research Institute
Meagan is working with collaborators from across KP to develop a web-based training module for KP physicians and social workers to help providers improve their ability to deliver social risk-informed care.
View Meagan's bio │ meagan.c.brown@kp.org
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Morgan Clennin, PhD, MPH
KP Colorado Institute for Health Research
Morgan is evaluating the association between social needs, health care utilization, chronic disease, and neighborhood resources to inform clinic-based approaches to improve member outcomes and identify leverage points for community-based interventions to ensure access to essential resources.
Learn more | View Morgan's bio │ morgan.n.clennin@kp.org
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Katie Coleman , MSPH
SONNET Director
KP Washington Health Research Institute
Katie is helping lead SONNET's strategic direction and contributing to our operationally driven research agenda. She also co-leads the Center for Accelerating Care Transformation (ACT Center) at KP Washington Health Research Institute.
View Katie's bio │ katie.f.coleman@kp.org
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Teaniese “Tina” Davis, PhD, MPH
KP Georgia Center for Research and Evaluation
Tina is leading 2 SONNET-related evaluations. One will examine social needs among members whose race is not documented in KP's electronic health record. The second will assess KP's new Digital Social Needs Screening program.
Learn more | View Tina's bio │ teaniese.l.davis@kp.org
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Alex Erkenbeck, MPH
KP National Office of Community Health
Alex is a Senior Evaluation Consultant who contributes to KP Community Health’s regional and national strategies, including Social Health Practice initiatives. She works closely with the SONNET ERC to align social health research and evaluation studies with KP Community Health outcomes and priorities.
alex.erkenbeck@kp.org
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Laura Gottlieb, MD, MPH
Social Interventions Research & Evaluation Network (SIREN)
As SIREN's director, Laura advises SONNET on developments in the field of social health and helps us share what we learn outside of KP. She is also collaborating with fellow ERC member Richard Grant on KP's TracFone evaluation.
Learn more | View Laura's bio | laura.gottlieb@ucsf.edu
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Richard Grant, MD, MPH
KP Northern California Division of Research
Richard and his team, including fellow ERC member Laura Gottlieb, are designing an evaluation to assess the impact of TracFone on health care access among KP members. TracFone Wireless provides free or discounted phones and data services for low-income households.
Learn more | View Richard's bio │ richard.w.grant@kp.org
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David Mosen, PhD, MPH
KP Northwest Center for Health Research
With former SONNET Director John Steiner, David is using data from the Medicare Total Health Assessment to explore the link between loneliness and self-reported health and utilization of care. Early results found that improvements in loneliness were associated with improvements in self-reported health, such as depression.
Learn more | View David's bio │ david.mosen@kpchr.org
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Claudia Nau, PhD
KP Southern California Department of Research & Evaluation
Claudia leading the evaluation of KP's Food for Life Healthy Savings initiative, assessing the use of the app over time, cost savings, and barriers. She is also collaborating on the design of an intervention for a fruit and vegetable prescription trial at KP Southern California.
Learn more | View Claudia's bio │ claudia.l.nau@kp.org
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Robert S Nocon, PhD
KP Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine
Robert is analyzing data from KP’s national social needs survey to assess correlations between social needs and health care costs and to examine the business case for social health investment in KP.
View Robert's bio │ robert.s.nocon@kp.org
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Maile M Tauali’i, PhD, MPH
KP Center for Integrated Health Care Research, Hawai`i Permanente Medical Group
Maile joined the SONNET ERC because she believes that upstream influences, such as poverty, racism and colonization, have a huge influence on health outcomes. She brings her experience and knowledge of the nation’s First Peoples and aims to help KP serve this population well.
View Maile's bio │ maile.m.taualii@kp.org
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Nancy Weinfield, PhD
KP Mid-Atlantic Permanente Research Institute
Nancy is leading a study to understand preferences for social health screening and referral among KP members who are pregnant. She is also leading a literature review on interventions to reduce social isolation for KP’s National Office of Community Health.
Learn more | View Nancy's bio │ nancy.s.weinfield@kp.org
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Recent SONNET reports
Kaiser Permanente 2022 National Social Health Survey
In this follow up to our 2020 survey, we heard from more than 6,300 members nationwide about their social needs
and desire for assistance from Kaiser Permanente. Project lead: Meagan Brown, PhD, MPH.
Social risks and acute health care utilization
This report summarizes findings on the link between 3 specific social risks — financial strain, food insecurity, and housing instability — and emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalizations among Kaiser Permanente members nationwide. Project lead: Morgan Clenin, PhD, MPH.
Social risks and health care utilization among older adults
Looking at data from KP’s Medicare Total Health Assessment survey, this SONNET project found that having more social needs was linked to higher emergency department (ED) utilization and hospital admissions among older adult members of KP Northwest. Project lead: David Mosen, PhD, MPH.
Social risks and racial differences in chronic illness outcomes
This project took a deep dive into data from Kaiser Permanente's 2020 National Social Health Survey, finding that Black members had a higher prevalence of type 2 diabetes and hypertension compared to white members. Project leads: Jennifer Gander, PhD, and Suma Vupputuri, PhD, MPH.
Land Acknowledgment
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