County approves travel for tobacco-control staff to national conference

The Elkhart County Board of Commissioners on June 29 approved out-of-state travel requests for two members of the county’s tobacco-control team to attend a national public-health conference.

Health Administrator Andrew Bilesma said the request would send Erica Contra Padilla and Marian Hoy to the National Network of Public Health Institutes next-generation conference in Nashville, Tennessee, Aug. 24–26. Bilesma told the board the travel will be paid from the tobacco-control grant appropriation already in the county budget and that the conference focuses on data and epidemiology, which the county seeks to use to better measure program impact.

"They've expanded to include vaping and all nicotine-containing products," Bilesma said when asked whether vaping topics were part of the program. He added the conference is beginning to address THC delivery devices as well. Commissioners approved the travel request unanimously.

The authorization sends staff to a conference intended to improve the county’s capacity to track and evaluate tobacco- and nicotine-related public-health programs; no additional county funding beyond the existing grant appropriation was reported.