Blog Post by Caroline Brazeel from Louisiana
Every Woman Southeast is having an incredibly positive impact on my personal and professional life through its meaningful webinars and support from my colleagues in other states. It’s the fact that we are a regional organization of local people that makes us uniquely poised to impact change. Here’s one example of how EWSE pops into my life at random and opportune moments:
I spent some of the last moments of 2013 talking about Jamila Batts and Dr. Kimberlle Wyche-Etheridge’s October EWSE webinar. After a great NYE dinner, one of the guests, an architect, began describing his most recent work project – a redesign of some of New Orleans’ public schools. In an effort to design a building that met the needs of the students, parents, teachers and school board, he had immersed himself in the lives of the people that flowed into and out of the school. He found old pictures of the building’s façade from the early twentieth century and attended community meetings where neighbors voiced concerns and parents expressed their hopes for the new building. He took that information and thoughtfully proposed options to the school board for adapting the existing structure to meet the current and future needs of those who use it.
His process of reaching into archives for an explanation of how the school became what it is today evoked Dr. Wyche-Etheridge’s work on the Nashville CityMatCH Racial Healing project. When I told him about how they worked in Nashville to map the history of one neighborhood’s development, he couldn’t wait to get home and look it up on the EWSE site. To him, the Nashville project was a combination of his interest in urban planning, architecture, and social justice. To me, his work was a window into how the physical infrastructure for school health and wellness is shaped. At work, I don’t spend any time talking to architects, but our conversation made me realize I needed to reexamine my definition of non-traditional partners.
I’m not sure I would have seen the connection between architecture, education and public health as clearly had I not heard Dr. Wyche-Etheridge and Ms. Batts speak about their work in Tennessee. What I know for sure is we have to ask the right questions of the right people to know how to go about doing our work differently. In 2014, I’m hoping to work on the expansion of my definition of non-traditional partners, and I know my EWSE colleagues will help guide me in that pursuit.
Caroline works at the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals in the Office of Public Health. She is a member of the EWSE Leadership Team.
Thursday, January 2, 2014
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Jessica Hardy is Leading the Way in Alabama
Happy New Year Everyone!
Jessica Hardy is a very active and engaged member of the EWSE leadership team. She is a registered nurse, with an advanced degree in public health from the University of Alabama, Birmingham (UAB). She has served more than nineteen years with the Alabama Department of Public Health in various capacities, including the Alabama Women’s Health Liaison for the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services and for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Jessica was appointed to serve as the first Director for the Alabama Office of Women’s Health (OWH) in 2002 (a position she continues to hold), and was appointed as Acting Director of Alabama’s office of Minority Health from 2009 to 2012. In addition to her work and volunteering with EWSE, Jessica is currently a doctoral candidate in the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program at Troy University, in Alabama. We asked Jessica about the health problem she cares the most about as well as about the favorite part of her work and her favorite book. Here are her responses!
Infant mortality is a concern not only for Alabama but for the nation as a whole. In Alabama the infant mortality rate is higher than the national average and is compounded with a very daunting disparate rate between the white and black infant mortality rate. It has been said that the infant mortality rate reflects the health of a community; in Alabama this is one of our top women's health issues today. What I love most about my current responsibilities is the outreach into the community. My work allows me to advocate for health in general, and preventive health programs in particular. Communities are very receptive to shared health information. I enjoy serving as liaison between public health and the communities across our state. One of my favorite books is by Christine Northrop, Women's Bodies Women's Wisdom. I have found that women in the community can often relate to the information Dr. Northrop shares in her books, and it opens the door for me to introduce additional resources to the women in communities across Alabama.
Jessica Hardy is a very active and engaged member of the EWSE leadership team. She is a registered nurse, with an advanced degree in public health from the University of Alabama, Birmingham (UAB). She has served more than nineteen years with the Alabama Department of Public Health in various capacities, including the Alabama Women’s Health Liaison for the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services and for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Jessica was appointed to serve as the first Director for the Alabama Office of Women’s Health (OWH) in 2002 (a position she continues to hold), and was appointed as Acting Director of Alabama’s office of Minority Health from 2009 to 2012. In addition to her work and volunteering with EWSE, Jessica is currently a doctoral candidate in the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program at Troy University, in Alabama. We asked Jessica about the health problem she cares the most about as well as about the favorite part of her work and her favorite book. Here are her responses!
Infant mortality is a concern not only for Alabama but for the nation as a whole. In Alabama the infant mortality rate is higher than the national average and is compounded with a very daunting disparate rate between the white and black infant mortality rate. It has been said that the infant mortality rate reflects the health of a community; in Alabama this is one of our top women's health issues today. What I love most about my current responsibilities is the outreach into the community. My work allows me to advocate for health in general, and preventive health programs in particular. Communities are very receptive to shared health information. I enjoy serving as liaison between public health and the communities across our state. One of my favorite books is by Christine Northrop, Women's Bodies Women's Wisdom. I have found that women in the community can often relate to the information Dr. Northrop shares in her books, and it opens the door for me to introduce additional resources to the women in communities across Alabama.
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