Charmaine Branchaud can see the stories of Red Lake Nation students in the data.  

Branchaud says the work to improve Red Lake School District’s immunization rates began as she sifted through paper records. The data allowed her to understand student health needs.  

“I wanted to see if we had any frequent fliers,” she said, referring to children who often require health care. “It could be a red flag for something else going on in a student’s life.” 

For her work with organizing immunization clinics at all Red Lake schools, Branchaud has been named this year’s Immunization Champion by the Association of Immunization Managers and the Minnesota Department of Health.

A registered nurse for four and a half decades, she began overseeing school clinics across all Red Lake Nation schools in 2021.

While the school district had software for tracking immunization records, Branchaud recognized that it was underutilized. With help from the school administrative staff, she started by entering paper records into the school’s electronic database.

“It took us weeks,” Branchaud said.

Once student health records were fully digitized, Branchaud made sure the school’s database interfaced with the system used by the state for tracking immunizations.

With the pandemic near its height, Branchaud says she turned to the task of raising the district’s immunization rates.

She brainstormed with Red Lake Schools’ superintendent, principals, administrative staff, health technicians, the Red Lake Indian Health Service pediatrics unit and Red Lake IHS.

Together, they worked to organize school-based immunization clinics. A clinic held at the Red Lake Elementary Complex in April immunized 38 elementary students raising the district’s overall rates for kindergartners, first and second grades from 84 percent to 94 percent.

Branchaud says she shares her award with her school district co-workers and healthcare partners, “because it takes a village, it takes a team.”

One of her team members, Hannah Tolman, a public health nurse, nominated Branchaud for the award.

“I know how tedious and time consuming and difficult and rewarding that the job can be,” said Tolmon, “And I’ve seen Charmaine do it. I’ve seen her enjoy doing it and how much passion she has for it.”

The clinics made a big difference in community’s health, Tolman said. “Making it convenient for parents to get their kids immunized at school … is huge.” 

46 years and counting

Born and raised in the Twin Cities, Branchaud said she knew from a very young age she wanted to be a nurse.  

“Seeing people helping people. And then I thought, well, maybe you know, that’s something I could do when I get older, “she said, “And I held on to that dream.”

During vacations and holidays, Charmaine and her family visited relatives in Red Lake.  

She attributes much of her success to her grandmothers, “truly having some strong women in our family that go way back.”

One family story helped decide her own path. As a child, Branchaud’s father lost his eyesight from an apparent illness. She was inspired by her paternal grandmother’s relationship with the natural world.

“His mother for a long time would go out in the woods and gather medicine that she thought would heal him,” Branchaud remembered. “And she would put ice packs on his eyes. And one day his vision came back. So, I don’t know what she used, but it was like … wow.”

‘Using data all my life’

Branchaud’s father, well-respected Anishinaabe artist Patrick DesJarlait, encouraged his children to pursue higher education.

While in high school she worked as a volunteer at a nursing home in New Hope, Minn. She said a school counselor discouraged her from pursuing a nursing degree, so she studied occupational therapy at a local community college which bored her. Encouragement from a family friend led Branchaud to St. Scholastica’s nursing program in Duluth.

“I didn’t know it until I was actually in college that I was taking the best of both worlds — non-Indian and Indian world — and I combined both. I think combining both of them was the success of me getting to college.”

She graduated with a nursing degree in 1977. She didn’t know it then, but a course in statistics would prove valuable in her public health work.

“I took statistics in nursing school, and I hated that course. And I’m like, What the heck am I going to use this for?” Branchaud said, “I’ve been using data all my life.”

For the next decade and a half, Branchaud worked as a nurse in hospitals and clinics in the Twin Cities before moving with her family to Red Lake Nation in the late 1980s.

Her work with Red Lake School District is just one of several roles in which she’s worked to improve public health in her community.

From Sept. 2022 to June, Branchaud served as a member of the Minnesota Department of Health’s Childhood Immunization Workgroup.

Branchaud says that once parents have accurate information, it’s up to them to make an informed decision.

“It’s our duty to educate them.”

Branchaud will be honored later this fall at an awards ceremony in Plymouth, Minn.