Member Spotlight

 

MHOA Member Spotlight – Jennifer Tsoi
03/25/2022

MHOA Member Spotlight – Jennifer Tsoi

By Yashashree Marne and Liliana Torres

During the 2021 MHOA Annual Conference, I met Jennifer Tsoi, the Program Specialist at MHOA. This new role is responsible for the design, marketing, coordination, delivery, and evaluation of MHOA programs for local public health

MHOA Member Spotlight – Matthew Brennan
01/21/2022

MHOA Member Spotlight – Matthew Brennan

By Caitlin Carro

Matthew Brennan currently serves as the Director of Public Health for the Town of Foxborough’s Health Department. He began the position in January of 202l. Before he started his position in Foxborough, he served as the assistant director in the the Weymouth Health Department for eight years.

MHOA Member Spotlight – Kristin Black
12/21/2021

MHOA Member Spotlight – Kristin Black

By Mingrui Wei

Kristin Black currently serves as the Health Agent for the Northborough Health Department. She is in charge of overseeing the various Health Department tasks including COVID-19 clinics. She is also the grant administrator and project coordinator for the for the Greater Boroughs Partnership for Health which provides shared public health services for Boylston, Northborough, Southborough and Westborough.

MHOA Topic Spotlight – MHOA Guide for Local Public Health in Massachusetts
10/26/2021

MHOA Topic Spotlight – MHOA Guide for Local Public Health in Massachusetts

By Yashashree Marne

For many entering the field of local public health, the transition can be overwhelming. To alleviate provisional hardships and ensure success, the Massachusetts Health Officers Association (MHOA), along with several associated partners, have developed an “Orientation and Resource Guide for Local Public Health Officials in Massachusetts”.

MHOA Member Spotlight – Ivan Kwagala
09/02/2021

MHOA Member Spotlight – Ivan Kwagala

By Mingrui Wei

Ivan Kwagala currently serves as a health inspector at the Melrose Health Department and is a graduate student enrolled in the Master of Public Health program at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, expecting to graduate in December 2021. As he is nearing the end of the program, Ivan is working on finishing up his practicum experience — the designing of two communication products, one for risk communication, and the other for regular communication.

MHOA Member Spotlight – Jessica Tracy
08/18/2021

MHOA Member Spotlight – Jessica Tracy

By Mingrui Wei

Jessica Tracy is a public health nurse of the Dedham Health Department and has over ten years of experience in the field of public health.

MHOA Member Spotlight – Timothy Muir McDonald
08/05/2021

MHOA Member Spotlight – Timothy Muir McDonald

By Abby Faria

Timothy Muir McDonald currently serves as the Director of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Assistant Emergency Management Director for Needham, MA. This role encompasses many responsibilities including a Public Health Division, a youth mental health counseling service, a Senior Center and Aging Services Division, and a Veterans Agent.

MHOA Spotlight – Claude Jacob
07/01/2021

MHOA Spotlight – Claude Jacob

By Mingrui Wei

Claude Jacob currently serves as the Chief Public Health Officer at the Cambridge Public Health Department (CPHD). His responsibilities include overseeing population health initiatives, as well as emergency preparedness and response. The department also runs a number of regulatory functions that support the city’s tuberculosis clinic, the school health nurses, and communicates health-related issues to residents of Cambridge.

MHOA Spotlight – Jeffrey Stephens
02/19/2021

MHOA Spotlight – Jeffrey Stephens

By Abby Faria

Jeff Stephens currently serves as the Health Director for the Westford Health Department. While Dir. Stephens has extensive experience in local public health spanning back many years in both Westford and Fitchburg, no event altered the duties of his career as much as the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

MHOA Spotlight – Amy-Donovan Palmer
01/21/2021

MHOA Spotlight – Amy-Donovan Palmer

By Abby Faria

Jeff Stephens currently serves as the Health Director for the Westford Health Department. While Dir. Stephens has extensive experience in local public health spanning back many years in both Westford and Fitchburg, no event altered the duties of his career as much as the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

MHOA Spotlight – Rae Dick
12/04/2020

MHOA Spotlight – Rae Dick

By Abby Faria

Rae Dick serves as the Director of Environmental Services in the Westford Health Department. In this role, she manages several key areas and roles including health agents, inspections, grants, septic plans, regulation updates, community education, and emergency preparedness. Once the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the health department’s list of daily responsibilities became even longer. “It’s been all hands on deck,” she says.

MHOA Spotlight – Jayne Smith
11/21/2020

MHOA Spotlight – Jayne Smith

By Rana Rahmat

Life has been chaotic and overwhelming for the last several months, particularly for those who work in our local boards of health. I recently had a great conversation with one of these individuals in the field: Jayne Smith, a health agent working for both the Alford and Dalton boards of health.

MHOA Spotlight – David Naparstek
11/11/2020

MHOA Spotlight – David Naparstek

By Abby Faria

This past week, I had the pleasure of sitting down for a phone call with David Naparstek, the former Health and Human Services Commissioner for the city of Newton, MA. Although Mr. Naparstek retired over ten years ago, he still had plenty of insight on working in local public health, including his current experiences in volunteer-based work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mr. Naparstek is motivated to volunteer because he wants to “help out the communities” during this time.

MHOA Spotlight – Derek Fullerton
10/29/2020

MHOA Spotlight – Derek Fullerton

By Abby Faria

Derek Fullerton has many responsibilities. Not only is he a father of two, but he serves as both the Director of Public Health and Chief Health Strategist for the Town of Middleton. Unsurprisingly, his day-to-day schedule has become even busier since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Managing the health department has always been a major task prior to the pandemic,” he says.

MHOA Spotlight – Aimee Petrosky
10/24/2020

MHOA Spotlight – Aimee Petrosky

By Abby Faria

East Longmeadow Health Department Director and MHOA member Aimee Petrosky has been particularly busy helping with COVID-19 containment efforts in her community. I spoke on the phone with her as she discussed her experiences working through the current pandemic and other public health initiatives throughout her career.

MHOA Spotlight – Mark Carleo
10/08/2020

MHOA Spotlight – Mark Carleo

By Rana Rahmat

Each person that ends up in the world of public health takes their own path to get there. I recently had a chance to sit down (virtually, of course) and chat with one of these individuals with a unique history: Mark Carleo, the Director of Public Health for the Town of Danvers.

MHOA Spotlight – Teresa Wood Kett
09/10/2020

MHOA Spotlight – Teresa Wood Kett

By Abby Faria

Teresa Wood Kett is a Public Health Program Specialist in the Newton Health and Human Services Department and MHOA member. She oversees a number of programs within the department including emergency preparedness, Medical Reserve Corps, tobacco, flu, communication and more. This role provides her with the flexibility to focus on different emerging needs. One such need is the COVID-19 pandemic. I had the pleasure to get to interview Teresa Kett on her career and experiences in the public health field and as a MHOA member.

MHOA Spotlight – Sigalle Reiss
09/03/2020

MHOA Spotlight – Sigalle Reiss

By Abby Faria

MHOA President Sigalle Reiss is also the Public Health Director for Norwood, MA. I was fortunate to get to interview her on a number of topics. In our discussion, we talked about how she originally got involved in the field of public health, her responsibilities throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and her current roles as the president of the MHOA and Public Health Director for Norwood, MA.

MHOA Spotlight – Erin Egan
09/03/2020

MHOA Spotlight – Erin Egan

By Rana Rahmat

Welcome to the new normal of life. The last four months of the pandemic have made 2020 feel like an eternity and it is easy to think about all the things that have been cancelled or postponed and despair. Even several phases into the reopening, life is so different it seems like we can never go back.

MHOA Spotlight – Thomas Carbone
09/03/2020

MHOA Spotlight – Thomas Carbone

By Abby Faria

Over the past several months, the COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally changed MHOA member (and Past President) Thomas Carbone’s already-busy role as the Andover Health Division’s Director of Public Health. I was fortunate to have a conversation with the Director as he reflected on his career in public health, the importance of local public health, as well as being an MHOA member.