About

Valerie Cauhape, MA

Hello there! I’m so glad you stopped by!

Once upon a time, I was the designated Accreditation Coordinator for a local health department in rural Nevada. As myself and my team tried to figure out how on Earth we were going to meet the requirements of the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) with little funding and a lot of barriers, I found myself scouring the internet for as much information as I could. What I discovered was that, while there was quite a bit of helpful info out there, it was usually buried in governmental websites and publications, or tied to organizations that weren’t terribly similar to ours. This made finding information more difficult than it needed to be and was frustrating for both myself and my team.

Through our hard work and dedication, we became the first accredited health department in our state! Shortly thereafter, I left to pursue other projects, but wanted to develop a website that would provide the type of resources myself and my team had needed so badly.

And that, dear friends, is how Rural Health Roundup was born.

On this site I’ll be sharing my own experiences and lessons learned, as well as insight garnered from literature reviews and other research (don’t worry, I’ll keep it more fun than your average peer-reviewed journal article).

My specialties include: rural public health infrastructure and governance, quality improvement (QI) and performance management (PM), strategic planning, community health needs assessments (CHNA), community health improvement planning (CHIP), and preparation for PHAB accreditation.

Please feel free to contact me via email with any questions or requests! If there’s something you’re dying to hear more about, let me know!

Happy trails!

Valerie