Introduction to Public Health

I know why you may have come to my website. Who is this person, who talks funny, and thinks that she can create a business dedicated to health education and health promotion? Well, she is me. My name is Kia, MPH, CHES, and yes I am including letters behind my name because it was a nice and easy journey to obtain and use those letters. I have always been in the health field but I started my public health journey while pursuing my Bachelor of Science in health sciences, with a concentration in health promotion from Indiana University. During that time I interned with the St. Joseph Health Department, which was focused on health education. I helped the health promotion specialist create health education materials for high school students and I bagged Narcan to distribute to the emergency service personnel. I knew that I didn’t want to do that, but I didn’t have to. During the last semester of my undergrad, there was suddenly a mysterious virus in Wuhan, China.

I didn’t walk the stage because everything was shut down. I did get a job offer during the same month of graduation. I did not believe the job offer was real. There was no interview and suddenly, I was a lead contract tracer for COVID-19. We built the plane as we flew. There was no script at first but eventually, that came. I worked from home, but it was a call center environment. I informed people that they were exposed to the COVID-19 virus and I notified people that they had tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. I was hung up on, cursed at, and told awful stories of discrimination because people tested positive. I get it, people were scared, but I was over the environment within 2 months.

I never heard of the CDC Foundation until joined I a public health group on Facebook. The CDC Foundation often acts as a third party, providing local and state health departments with personnel to support them in their public health efforts. I applied for a Communicable Disease Investigator position and got it. I was in disbelief. I knew that this would open up so many doors for me. CDC Foundation on my resume would be amazing! I was even willing to take the pay cut because of the opportunities this provided. So I started my work supporting the Indiana Department of Health in August 2020. As a communicable disease investigator, I cleaned, validated, and managed COVID-19 case data in Indiana. Then in October 2020, I passed the CHES exam and officially added CHES after my name, becoming Kia, CHES.