Episode #449 Public Health Is Everywhere
- 12 hours ago
- 5 min read
On This Episode Of The Public Health Epidemiology Conversations (PHEC) Podcast
The Question Every Public Health Professional Gets Asked
What do you actually do? It sounds like a simple question, but if you work in public health, you know how hard it is to answer in a way that truly lands. In this roundtable episode, Dr. Huntley is joined by three public health professionals who explore what it really takes to explain this field to the people closest to them and why getting that explanation right matters more than ever.
When Prevention Doesn't Make Headlines
Public health is often invisible. When it is working well, diseases are prevented, accidents are avoided, and communities thrive, and most people never think twice about why. This episode digs into that invisibility and the challenge it creates for building public support, sustaining funding, and recruiting the next generation of professionals into the field.
The guests share a range of examples that bring public health to life in unexpected ways: the grooves on the edge of a highway, the cones around a sidewalk pothole, the seatbelt law you follow without thinking. These are not just safety features. They are public health initiatives, and naming them as such is how awareness grows.
Loneliness, Workforce Gaps, and the Work That Never Goes Away
The conversation goes well beyond definitions. Alexandra Piatkowski brings her work with the Toronto Council on Aging into focus, describing how senior loneliness has become a growing public health crisis with real consequences for both mental and physical health. Dr. Sarah Hartzell speaks candidly about the behavioral health workforce shortage in Nevada and across the country, explaining why going to high school career fairs might be one of the most consequential public health interventions her team does. Michele Alexander shares a story about workforce development at a mental health clinic that stayed with her long after the work was done, a woman who came in hoping to earn $40,000, bought a home, and changed the trajectory of her family's life.
Why Your Stories Are a Public Health Tool
Dr. Huntley brings a consistent challenge to each guest throughout the conversation: what stories are you using to help people understand? The roundtable reveals that the most effective explanations of public health are not definitions at all. They are moments people can picture. When professionals arm the people around them with accurate, relatable stories, those stories travel, and that reach is how public health builds the community understanding it needs to survive and thrive.
About Our Guest
Michele D. Alexander
Michele D. Alexander is a healthcare consultant and executive coach specializing in EHR implementation, quality improvement, and improving outcomes for patient populations that are often overlooked. She brings deep expertise in addressing healthcare disparities for people of color and rural communities and consistently asks the critical questions of why inequities exist and how systems can do better.
Dr. Sarah Hartzell
Dr. Sarah Hartzell is a public health researcher and mental health advocate dedicated to improving mental health outcomes for people and communities. Her research explores how social and policy changes affect well-being, including published work on adolescent suicide attempts during the COVID-19 pandemic. She currently serves as regional project coordinator for the Behavioral Health Education, Retention, and Expansion Network of Nevada (BeHERE NV), working to build Nevada's behavioral health workforce and reduce disparities in access to care, particularly in rural communities. She also serves on the board of directors for NAMI Northern Nevada.
Alexandra Piatkowski
Alexandra Piatkowski is an epidemiologist, project manager, and the Founder and CEO of Piat Public Health. She works with public health, healthcare, and social impact organizations to assess community health needs, center equity, and translate complex data into clear, actionable strategies. Her work spans community needs assessment and engagement, evaluation, strategic planning, and data analytics. Alexandra also serves on the board of directors of the Toronto Council on Aging and is deeply committed to mentorship of students and early career professionals.
Listen To This Episode Of The Public Health Epidemiology Conversations (PHEC) Podcast
Conversation Highlights
Public health works best when it is invisible.
When prevention is happening well, there are no dramatic headlines. The diseases that were stopped, the accidents that never happened, and the crises that never arrived are the quiet wins that most people never connect back to public health.
Stories are more powerful than definitions.
Seatbelt laws, sidewalk cones, and highway rumble strips are all public health initiatives, and sharing those kinds of tangible, relatable examples is what helps people outside the field truly understand the work.
Loneliness is a growing public health crisis that demands attention.
Senior isolation in particular carries serious consequences for both mental and physical health, and creating meaningful opportunities for connection and community contribution is an evidence-informed response.
The behavioral health workforce shortage requires proactive, creative solutions.
The US does not have enough therapists, social workers, or behavioral health providers to meet current need, and public health professionals are stepping in through workforce development, career pathway initiatives, and community-based recruitment.
Recruiting locally means serving locally.
When people from rural communities are encouraged to pursue behavioral health careers, they are the ones most likely to return to those communities to practice. Workforce development and health equity are directly connected.
Arming the people around you with accurate information multiplies your impact.
When friends, family members, and colleagues can explain public health well, the reach extends far beyond any one professional's network. Getting those closest to you talking accurately about the field is its own form of public health advocacy.
Public health is not just for emergencies.
The pandemic increased awareness of the field, but the work of addressing mental health, loneliness, workforce gaps, environmental conditions, and social determinants continues regardless of crisis. Public health matters all the time.
"It's not just important in an emergency. It's an important thing all the time, so we can be prepared for the next emergency and address all the other areas of public health that never go away." — Alexandra Piatkowski
"She said, if I make forty thousand dollars, I'll be doing great. And this person ended up making six figures. She knew what she was doing. That's public health. You're getting people back to work where they are. She was able to buy a home." — Michele Alexander
"You have so many students coming up saying, oh yeah, that is me. I am the person my friends come to to tell all their woos and their stories. And I'm just sitting there listening. And I actually enjoy it. That's a job. You can do that for a living." — Dr. Sarah Hartzell
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Public Health Consulting To Support You
DrCHHuntley LLC is a public health consulting firm that specializes in epidemiology consulting, supporting large nonprofit organizations in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, and Florida that serve Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). We also provide nationwide public health consulting and epidemiology consulting support to BIPOC organizations across the United States.
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