CDC Director Dr. Mandy Cohen visits Northwest Arkansas

SPRINGDALE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Mandy Cohen was in Northwest Arkansas Monday.

After an invitation from U.S. Representative Steve Womack, she toured Bentonville Head Start, the Walmart headquarters and met with students and staff of Bentonville Schools. The trip was for Cohen to see the state of health care in Northwest Arkansas with a few things that would be “enlightening” to her, Womack said.

“What I learned seeing a ton of things over the course of the day was the incredible teamwork that I see between health care, public health, education, academia,” Cohen said.

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Maternal health care and vaccine hesitancy were just two of the conversation-starters during the roundtable discussion that rounded out Cohen’s tour.

Arkansas is one of the worst states in the United States for maternal care, according to the CDC. Cohen said the CDC’s expertise and data can be used to help improve maternal health care.

In addition to University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Mercy and the Arkansas Department of Health, multiple organizations from the Hispanic and Marshallese communities sat in on the roundtable.

“It was great to see here at Community Clinic and that UAMS is bringing together a very diverse coalition to make sure that we are building trust between the Marshallese community, the Hispanic community and what’s going on in public health and health care,” Cohen said.

Womack called the day a “home run.”

The congressman said the CDC needs authorization to move forward with its data findings and timely funding to implement change.

“Those are the two things that I think Congress owes the Centers for Disease Control,” Womack said. “Just like they do national defense, just like they do homeland security, just like they do transportation and [agriculture].”

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