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“It opened my eyes to the world–to a bigger world,” said Wood County Health Commissioner Pam Butler. As a former nursing instructor,
Butler was accustomed to focusing on a single patient. “Now I’m looking at keeping a community safer. I can’t imagine doing
anything else.”
In order to cover the growing demands on public health, the master’s program has to be equally broad. It’s not just immunizations
anymore. It’s bioterrorism, bird flu, leaking septic tanks, restaurant inspections, smoking ban enforcement, nutrition programs
for infants and much more.
“It’s a constant struggle to try to keep up with all that,” said James Watkins, health commissioner in Williams County.
And since the staffing numbers haven’t grown with the demands, a lot of flexibility is required. “It’s trying to get the staff
to think in a new way. It just doesn’t end.”
The master’s program helped prepare Watkins, who graduated in 2004, for those challenges.
“The breadth of the curriculum was really important,” he said. “It does stretch you. It gives you a more worldly view. It
gives you a bigger perspective than your own little health department.”
Kimberly Moss, Defiance County health commissioner, got a rapid-fire look at the big picture on her first day as health commissioner
after earning her degree in 2001.
“That very day we had an outbreak,” she said, explaining that a tuberculosis case was discovered at a local factory and caused
great panic in the community. “It was baptism by fire.”
But it’s that type of challenge that drives these public health officials.
“There’s always something new in public health. It’s not stagnant,” said Rebecca Kille, Henry County health commissioner.
Peter Schade, Erie County health commissioner, fondly calls his career choice, “herd health,” and credits the master’s program
for equipping him for the job.
“It helped prepare me for the diversity I was going to face,” said Schade, who earned his master’s in 2000. “It helped me
put those jigsaw pieces together.”
“I think the program is a great advocate for public health,” Schade said of the program. “All of us as students should carry
that advocate banner.”
They not only learned to push publicly for community health, but also to assess their efforts to see exactly how successful
their work is at keeping their residents in good health.
“I like to see what the needs are and then address them,” said Kille, who received her degree in 1999. And if done correctly,
public health actually empowers people to make their own lives healthier, she said.
“When you can make a difference in people’s lives, that’s an added bonus,” Kille said.
In addition to keeping an eye on the public’s vital signs, the health commissioners also have to be watchful of dollar signs.
The finances behind their programs–most notably the growing problem of unfunded mandates from state and federal governments–provide
great challenges.
“How can we do more with less? Less funding. Less grants,” Butler said. “Every time we turn around, they are adding more and
more things for us to do.”
And that leads to an issue that those in private medical professions don’t have to worry about–getting voters to trust them
enough to pass tax levies on the election ballots. “We are trying to get a levy on the ballot,” Watkins from Williams County
said, describing the burden of winning citizen support.
In Erie County, the health department relies on three levies. And that means the office must stretch not only within services
but also geographically.
“For years, the health department was only in its four walls,” Schade said. But he now encourages his staff to frequently
visit various governmental entities in their county. “It’s really opened communication.”
Like most health professionals, the focus is on medicine, not marketing, administration or economics. But the program did
shed light on all these less appealing aspects of public health, Moss said.
“That was like a foreign language to me,” she said. “No nurse takes marketing.”
The five health commissioners meet frequently to discuss common issues they face daily in their jobs. The discussions go far
beyond the new septic system rules and smoking ban enforcement.
“We’re all interested in helping people lead better lives,” Watkins said.
–Jan Larson ’85
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