Centre students collect 400+ surveys in partnership with Ephraim McDowell Health

In less than a week, 30 Centre College students accomplished what typically takes a professional research firm months of work, boosting the efforts of a local healthcare provider.

Students enrolled in Director of Undergraduate Research Jennifer Gander's Introduction to Public Health class fanned out across three counties to various sites, collecting more than 400 surveys for Ephraim McDowell Regional Health's Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA).

The last time Ephraim McDowell completed the assessment, the organization hired an outside firm that made 900 phone calls to gather comparable data.

"The fact that they collected 400 responses in a matter of days, just on their own, is pretty phenomenal,” said Dee Coffey ’95, Director of the McDowell Wellness Center, Associate Health and Occupational Health. “It gives us such a great head start on this year's Community Health Needs Assessment."

The partnership grew out of a relationship that Gander, a Danville native, had been building with Ephraim McDowell since her arrival at Centre in 2024.

A smaller collaboration held in fall 2025 laid the groundwork for this latest project. In Gander’s Epidemiology of Health Disparities course, students developed community health interventions using a previous CHNA. When Gander learned that Ephraim McDowell was preparing for a new survey, the opportunity became clear.

"What better opportunity for students to get hands-on, real public health experience than having them interact with local people they don’t know to conduct health surveys," Gander said. "It's not easy. But it’s important work."

Uncertainty loomed before the class began. The survey, being developed in partnership with the University of Kentucky, wasn't finalized until days before the term started. Gander leaned into the unpredictability as a teaching moment, spending the first day explaining to students that adaptability isn't just a useful skill in public health — it's the job.

Before heading into the community, students first had to become official Ephraim McDowell volunteers. To conduct surveys on behalf of the hospital system, each student completed background screenings, immunization documentation, and associate health visits.

With their credentials in hand, students spent a long weekend learning the ropes. Gander sent each of them out to administer the survey to five people, strangers if possible, and the class debriefed together before the first day of formal surveying.

She also prepared them for the harder moments ahead: demographic questions that might prompt politically charged reactions, and a reminder that rejection is part of the process, not a reason to stop.

“We went over a bunch of different scenarios and how to respond,” said first-year Isabella Gorrondona. “It was almost like a little bit of media training. We also spent time learning the basics of public health and why this kind of surveying matters.”

That preparation paid off.

“Roughly six in 10 people the students approached agreed to complete the survey,” said Gander. “To have that response rate from just approaching people in various locations is incredible by any research standard.”

On days when inclement weather made sites farther from campus unsafe, students voted to keep going. They chose to survey downtown Danville in 14-degree temperatures rather than return to the classroom.

“I was surprised with how many surveys we were able to collect in such a short time,” said Gorrondona. “We collected nearly 500, and we were able to synthesize that data in an even shorter time, which was surprising but exciting.”

After the surveying was completed, students spent roughly six hours on data entry before a full day of data visualization. This work culminated in a formal, community-facing presentation of preliminary findings attended by Ephraim McDowell stakeholders and community partners from across the region.

For Ephraim McDowell, the value extended beyond the data. Libby Mayes, Assistant Vice President of Community Engagement at Ephraim McDowell sees the collaboration as a model for what partnerships between the College and local community can look like when both sides are committed.

"Dr. Gander's public health background and knowledge are vast, and she has helped open doors for us in ways we didn't expect," Mayes said. "We hope we can be as beneficial to her and her students as they have been to us."

The partnership shows no signs of stopping at the survey. Students who completed the volunteer onboarding are eligible to continue shadowing and volunteering within Ephraim McDowell's system, and many of them are.

“I am definitely going to continue my volunteer work with Ephraim,” said Gorrondona. “I plan to go to cardiovascular perfusion school after graduation, and volunteering at a hospital is so rewarding and also beneficial preparation for that.”

Gander is also in conversations with Ephraim McDowell leadership about future collaborations.

“If we come together and we're intentional, we can create different experiences and opportunities for people that will better everyone in our community," she said.