Rural Needs, Statewide Answers: Demographics, Health Care Access, and Community Engagement

About the Event

This annual all councils meeting explored topics related to CTS's 2024 theme of Rural Needs, Statewide Answers: Improving Transportation for All Communities.

The interactive meeting featured presentations on:

• The changing demographics of Minnesota by Eric Guthrie, senior demographer in the Minnesota State Demographic Center.
• The challenges and opportunities in providing access to health care and services in rural and/or disconnected settings by Valerie Lefler of Feonix – Mobility Rising. 
• How effective community engagement strategies could be used to develop transportation infrastructure and safety improvements by Nichole Morris, director of the U's HumanFIRST Laboratory.

Attendees were also invited to engage with our speakers and each other through conversation circle/fishbowl model discussions.

Event Materials

• Watch the recording
• Read event coverage
• Eric Guthrie's presentation slides (PDF)
• Valerie Lefler's presentation slides (PDF)
• Nichole Morris's presentation slides (PDF)
• RCUT videos from Nichole Morris's presentation
  • 360 video of an RCUT
  • Robert Wagner interview
  • James Erwin interview
  • Art Benson interview
  • Joe Dellwo interview
  • Todd Prafke interview
  • Laurie Green interview
  • Ryan Stern interview

Speakers

Eric Guthrie is a senior demographer in the Minnesota State Demographic Center. He came to the Demographic Center in May 2021, following time spent managing the South Dakota Rural Life and Census Data Center and serving as the state demographer in Michigan. Throughout his career, Guthrie has always found the greatest fulfillment in using demographic knowledge and techniques to help others better understand the world in which we live and work. This has led to countless presentations ranging from local township meetings to legislative testimony.

Valerie Lefler is the founder and executive director of Feonix – Mobility Rising. She is an international expert in rural transportation, accessibility, and mobility as a service. In its first six years, Feonix has launched programs in 10 states with notable partners, including the National Aging and Disability Transportation Center, Easterseals, the AARP Office of Driver Safety, Toyota North America Social Innovation, Ford Motor Company Fund, Centene Corporation, and the Michigan Department of Transportation. 

Nichole Morris is the director of the HumanFIRST Laboratory at the University of Minnesota. Her main research interests are in the human factors of transportation safety, especially as it relates to in-vehicle technologies, pedestrian and non-motorist safety, safety data collection, gender biases in trauma care, and work-zone safety. Her most recent research has examined interactions between drivers and automated vehicles, pedestrian safety programs, work-zone intrusion mitigation and documentation, rural intersection designs, police pursuits, vehicle collision detection and warnings with non-motorist road users, and in-vehicle displays for snowplow lane guidance. 

More Information

Please contact Samantha Hahn-Douville at snhahn@umn.edu.