07/25/2023

Staff Smarts: Running the Numbers

Data gathering can be powerful for an association

A few years before the pandemic, Kelly McKenna got a clear sense of how powerful well-managed data can be. She was working at an Illinois nonprofit that was trying to efficiently coordinate immunization efforts. But easily accessible data could often be years out of date, or included statewide averages that made it hard to identify areas that needed the most help.

With some digging, though, McKenna found some more granular school-level data that made for better planning around childhood immunizations. “That way, we were able to identify areas where immunization rates were troublingly low, where if you had an outbreak, that school was pretty likely to have some significant challenges,” she said. “Then we were able to direct our various limited resources for programming and education in communities that needed more support.”

Now, as analytics manager at the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM), she’s doing much the same work: Generating and identifying the most meaningful and accurate data to serve members. But the challenge of the job involves more than just plugging in information and spitting out charts.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Associations Now.