Hi, Atlanta!

Happy Birthday to us! Healthbeat turned 1 year old this week. As a native Atlantan, it’s been an honor to get to cover my hometown. I’m moved every day by the generosity of readers and sources. Thank you! 

Here are four lessons I’ve learned.

1. Atlanta’s public health community is large and highly engaged — but also segmented. 

Atlanta public health ranges from county health departments to frontline clinics like the Mosaic Health Center in Clarkston to major institutions like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The people who work at these organizations are engaged in a common mission, but they aren’t always in close touch with each other, and information and projects can be siloed. I hope to help bridge some of those gaps with my reporting. 

2. Data is important, but public health is about people first.

It’s easy to get caught up in data and dashboards, but it’s committed people who drive public health. At Healthbeat, we want to tell their stories — from the nurses and medical assistants at DeKalb County’s tuberculosis clinic, to community health workers helping people navigate health care, or researchers who find new ways to bring screening and treatment to populations in need. 

There are many inspiring people soldiering through the challenges to find solutions. People and groups like: Atlanta pediatrician Preeti Jaggi who is leading a movement to tackle climate change; first-generation American Roxana Chicas at Emory School of Nursing who is using technology to ensure people working in high temperatures stay safe; and the county public health workers who helped contain a measles outbreak.

3. Anxiety is high, but there are ways to help ease it.

Climate change and extreme weather. A shooting at the CDC. Worries about childhood vaccination rates. A giant chemical fire. Funding cuts. There’s a lot for public health people to worry about, personally and professionally. Will important work get done? Will I get laid off? Am I safe? 

Sometimes I get worried, too. In those moments, I think about the advice we shared earlier this year from Monica Swahn, the former dean of Kennesaw State University’s College of Health and Human Services: Focus on what’s in your control and let go of the things that are not – and find peer support, which she said is one of the most protective factors for anxiety.

4. How faith and science can work together. 

When former President Jimmy Carter died in December, his colleagues told me how he approached faith and religion, never seeing them as opposed but as complementary. More recently, I’ve grown interested in the role of religious institutions in talking about issues like HIV prevention and climate change. Houses of worship and other faith-based institutions are places where people come together and form a community. It’s that kind of engagement that can help build trust, several public health leaders have recently told me. I’m excited to explore this further. Send me your thoughts. 

Public Health on the Move 

• After 16 years in the role, Linda McCauley, dean of the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University, will step down at the end of this year. She’ll remain on the faculty. 

• Morehouse School of Medicine is partnering with Black Women’s Health Imperative for a new study on barriers to cervical and breast cancer screening for Black and Latina women. 

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