Tori麦昆

Getting the MPH degree is an amazing thing for your career, 从我上的第一堂课开始, I learned useful tools that I was able to put into play right away.

当前位置: 社区环境l 他叫l协调员，公共卫生硕士学生

故事发布:2023年12月

Tori麦昆’s undergraduate major was Biology with an environmental focus. She dreamed of one day being holed up in a lab or out working in a field studying wildlife or ecology. The first job she took with the Montgomery County Office of Public 健康 was in their water quality division.

“I was out in the field all the time, doing soils studies. 我就是喜欢它，”她说. “I knew nothing about public health until then; it was my gateway into everything else.”

今天, 蒙哥马利县公共卫生办公室, Tori负责处理各种环境投诉, 在管理大型项目时, like working with Maternal Child 健康 to develop programming for lead hazard remediation, 健康的家庭, 哮喘干预.

托丽今天的工作主要是预防. “We have an amazing lead program that responds to children who’ve been identified with an elevated lead blood level, but our push has been – and I actually did my whole Integrative Learning Experience* on this – for primary prevention of lead, because the impact of lead poisoning on children’s brains and development is permanent. Once they have been identified with an elevated blood lead level, the dam年龄 is already done. So, we’ve been pushing for primary prevention in Montgomery County. One of the best ways to do that is to just get in and remediate as many homes as we can.”

2019年，托里和她的同事获得了1美元.8 million in funding from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to remediate lead hazards in 50 homes, and additional state funding in 2022 for another 22 homes. 这两个项目将于2024年完工, and they’re hoping to increase funding to continue the work.

Tori was part of the grant-writing team to secure the funding, 她是项目经理, 负责这两个项目的日常运作. “This kind of prevention in public health has immeasurable benefits,托丽说.

为什么要获得公共卫生硕士学位

Tori would like to continue to advance her career with the Montgomery County Office of Public 健康 and many of the higher positions within the office require a master’s degree, 所以她决定追求 密歇根大学的公共卫生硕士学位.

“I loved the 健康 Equity focus – especially with environmental health, 这是巨大的,她谈到这个项目时说. She applied to GMercyU’s MPH program and began classes in August 2021. She learned she was pregnant soon after but persevered with the degree through the birth of her child and will graduate in December 2023. “(我和我的家人)说，‘我们可以做到这一切，我们很好!’”她笑着说.

Near the end of the program, students complete an Integrated Learning Experience*. 当项目主管Dr. Sharla Willis, Tori said there was one idea that intimidated her, but Dr. 威利斯敦促她解决这个问题.

“谈到儿童铅中毒, the ultimate way to handle it is to enact changes in legislation. I’m not a policies person – public health policy is not one of my strengths – but I took on a policy analysis of Philadelphia lead laws and organized all of the data I could find on their effectiveness and limitations, and I put it all together to create a presentation to urge the Montgomery County Board of 健康 to consider legislation that focuses on primary prevention of childhood lead poisoning in our public health code. (Philly is very progressive with legislation to handle lead in the city.) The project was very academic for me, but it had very specific real-world application.”

Tori just finished the project and hopes to present it next year.

公共卫生的需要

What can be surprising to some is that a significant amount of public health work and progress has happened in just the last several decades. The Water Quality Division of the Montgomery County Office of Public 健康 was founded in 1991.

As a basic human need, it makes one wonder what water quality was like before the 1990s.

“The PA Sew年龄 Facilities Act was passed in 1966 but prior to 1991, 蒙哥马利县的监管权属于州政府,托丽说. “I have been giving a lecture on Montgomery County Water Quality each semester on campus [给公共卫生专业的本科生], and I like to share a picture with students of row homes in Reading, 20世纪30年代的PA，在后院有一排厕所, 他们的饮用水井就在那里. 人们总是会生病.”

平衡工作和生活的职业

“I love working for the Montgomery County Office of Public 健康,托丽说. “他们是一个了不起的雇主, they’re very progressive and so attentive to the needs of their employees. 我知道我想留在这里."

With remote work capabilities already in place before the pandemic, they were able to seamlessly shift in 2020 and provide immediate Covid-19 response. Tori has also appreciated the professional development opportunities they’re given, 以及他们平衡工作和生活的方法.

“他们不只是谈论平衡的重要性, 健康, 心理健康, they actually put things into practice to make sure that their employees are taken care of,”她说。.

*制作期末考试, 高质量的, written product developed during the Integrative Learning Experience (PUB-790) in the last semester of the MPH program allows students to synthesize the skills learned throughout the program.