Category: Sara G.

I can’t believe how fast this summer has gone by! I am now entering my last two weeks with the Durham County Department of Public Health, and it has been a great experience. I have been lucky to meet some great people who really care about the community of Durham. Most of my previous experiences up until now have been direct services, working with clients one on one, or with families. It has been good to branch out a bit and see more of a bird’s eye view of a community, and the Population Health Division has provided that this summer.

During this experience, I learned what a health department’s reaccreditation entails, and part of my work was thinking of ways to involve and teach the employees of the health department about accreditation. I made games and presentations about the accreditation process for employees to bring them into accreditation in a fun way. I also worked on newsletters for July, August, and September that will go out to staff to review important parts of accreditation like HIPAA policies, trainings, and how to prepare for a site visit. I do not have as much experience in communications, and it was fun to learn a new skill and think of fun ways to get employees involved.

I have also been able to see what goes into making a strategic plan for a health department and the importance of writing a good mission and vision to guide that strategic plan. I read different strategic plans from health department across the country and was able to see the great work that health departments do within communities.

I have enjoyed getting to know the staff that works in Population Health. They are all great and I have learned a lot from my preceptor. This internship has also been a great reminder to remain flexible as projects and timelines may change, and we must learn to roll with that.

I am going into my last two weeks where I will be wrapping up my final projects, leading a presentation and game about accreditation, and giving a final presentation to my division about what I have done this summer.

-Sara G.

Hello. My name is Sara Green and I am a rising 2^nd year MPH student in the Global Health concentration. I grew up in Massachusetts and attended George Washington University in Washington DC for college where I earned a BA in International Affairs with a minor in Arabic. I worked for a refugee resettlement agency for two years after college, where I was a Refugee School Liaison helping kids and parents navigate school in Virginia. I entered the Peace Corps in Morocco in 2018 and was evacuated due to COVID-19 in 2020. I was a Youth Development Volunteer in a small town near Marrakech. After the Peace Corps, I worked as a Contact Tracer for Partners in Health before I moved down to North Carolina to start my MPH. During my first year, I worked with the Humanitarian Health Initiative as an intern on a domestic project at a refugee resettlement agency in Durham.

This summer, for my practicum I am a Populations Health Intern at the Durham County Department of Public Health. I am supporting the health department’s re-accreditation, a process they must go through every four years to get certified by the state. I am also working on projects related to the department’s strategic plan. So far, it has been great to learn more about Durham County and the great work the health department is doing to do outreach to the community. The Population Health department is still relatively new in the health department, and it has been interesting to see how they are growing and using data to help different projects.

Currently, I am working on a Quality Improvement (QI) project for the Family Planning Clinic, creating activities around accreditation to get employees involved, and helping to organize the Health Department’s policies for the accreditation process.

I have been working a mix of in person and telework, and it has been good to get into an office environment again, which makes it a lot easier to interact with my coworkers and bosses. I look forward to the rest of the summer at the health department.

Outside of work, I have been enjoying swimming in Jordan Lake, lifting, and reading.

-Sara G.