Podcast episode 15: Sonja Armbruster

Welcome to the Pioneers in Health podcast. In this podcast, we share inspiring stories of pioneering leaders from our nation and from your backyard who are working to improve health.

In episode 15, we interview Sonja Armbruster, MA. Sonja is a public health educator, consultant and advocate with an insatiable curiosity about how we can improve public health practice.

Sonja’s work focuses on providing training and technical assistance to state, local, tribal and territorial health departments through her role as a performance improvement consultant for the Public Health Foundation. She also supports facilitation and training experiences for several health-related audiences.

She continues to connect the worlds of academic public health and the practice community through her more than 10 years of service to the Midwestern Public Health Training Center. Through her work with Wichita State University’s Center for Public Health Initiatives, she provides training and technical assistance to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and local health departments across Kansas. Sonja has been teaching and facilitating meetings or training experiences for over 25 years.

In this episode, she discusses the role of public health and highlights two areas that public health efforts have greatly impacted — tobacco usage and vaccine adoption.

She discusses how the broad availability and access to vaccines has been critical for preventing disease, maximizing health and providing economic health benefits.

One study showed that for children born between 1994-2023, their routine childhood vaccinations will have prevented 508 million cases of illness, 32 million hospitalizations and over 1 million deaths, resulting in a savings of $540 billion in direct costs and a societal savings of $2.7 trillion.

“It’s really hard to explain how vaccinations work and how they have that positive impact, because even though we know vaccines are safe and effective, when we are experiencing not having illness, it’s hard to quantify how great that is,” she said.

She also discusses:

Her journey into public health

The importance of defending against attacks on public health programs

Efforts to reduce tobacco use to the lowest rate it’s ever been

The role and importance of local health departments

Why funding for public health is challenging

How to be better champions for public health

The importance of expanding Medicaid coverage and how it would benefit Kansans’ health and reduce health care costs for everyone

Efforts she’s excited about moving into 2025, including a community health worker coalition

And much more! Listen now, and learn more about how Sonja is a pioneering leader in health care.