Imagine Magazine - Johns Hopkins - January/February 2016 - (Page 38)
exploring career options
Christine Scott-Waldron, M.S.P.H.
Public Health Epidemiologist
Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals
Christine Scott-Waldron's career has been shaped by disaster: She was a
freshman at Rutgers University in New Jersey on 9/11, and her first semester
of graduate school at Tulane University in New Orleans was postponed by
Hurricane Katrina. The aftermath of these disasters showed Scott-Waldron
different dimensions of public health and the range of expertise necessary
in responding to public health emergencies. A specialist in vector-borne and
zoonotic infectious diseases, Scott-Waldron explains how learning outside
the classroom led to a career that is equal parts careful surveillance and
rapid response.
Did you go to college intending to
study public health?
I intended to major in biology, but at that
time, biology majors at Rutgers had to
either double major or pursue a biology
major and a minor. I decided to minor in
public health and became very involved in
activities beyond my coursework. I volunteered as a grant writer with the New
Jersey Tobacco Cessation Program and
later worked as an assistant to the dean for
research in the graduate school of public
health. Eventually I became president of our
chapter of the Public Health Undergraduate
Association and attended the national meeting of the
American Public Health Association.
After 9/11, Rutgers was involved not only with
investigations and research in New York, but also with
the anthrax attacks in the New Jersey post offices. The
university had a lot of grant funding for bioterrorism and
preparedness, so as an undergraduate I was able to go
to meetings and trainings that otherwise might not have
been accessible to me.
Did you go straight to grad school after college?
Yes. I knew I wanted to work on a more specialized
graduate degree, and I was interested in vector-borne
diseases-those transmitted between humans or from
animals to humans by other organisms, such as insects.
I grew up in New Jersey, which has a large burden of
38
imagine
Interview by Melissa Hartman
Lyme disease, and had a lot of friends and family members who had struggled with tick-borne diseases.
I decided on Tulane, which offered a Master of Public
Health degree in parasitology and tropical medicine.
Louisiana is among the top five states in incidence of
mosquito-borne diseases, and Tulane has a long history of
studying these diseases.
My first semester at Tulane was postponed by Hurricane Katrina, which struck Louisiana in late August 2005.
When I returned to campus in January 2006, there were a
lot of opportunities for research, many involving mosquito
species and the standing water after Katrina. I worked with
Professor Dawn Wesson in the field collecting mosquitoes,
and, strangely, I liked it.
While I was working in Dr. Wesson's lab, a student
position opened up at the Louisiana Department of
Health and Hospitals (DHH) in New Orleans, just down
the street from Tulane. They needed students to assist
with surveillance of West Nile virus. It was great because
I was doing fieldwork with Tulane, and then at DHH I
could see how fieldwork translated to numbers and
surveillance. When I finished my degree, I was hired by
DHH to coordinate their surveillance of arboviral-or
arthropod-borne-diseases.
What does your work entail now?
From about July through the end of October, my primary
duties still entail surveillance of arboviruses. In Louisiana
we have four endemic arboviral diseases: West Nile, Saint
Louis encephalitis, La Crosse encephalitis, and Eastern
equine encephalitis. We also track some vector-borne
diseases brought to Louisiana by residents who travel
abroad, such as malaria, dengue, and chikungunya. Those
diseases follow the same seasonal pattern of transmission.
Throughout the year I also do quality control on the
reporting of other diseases. Louisiana is divided into nine
public health regions, each with an epidemiologist who
does surveillance by jurisdiction. These epidemiologists
are the first line of reporting; schools might contact them,
for example, if they suspect a local outbreak of some
kind of gastrointestinal illness.
They receive reports of infectious
diseases directly from hospitals
or providers. If the disease turns
out to be tick- or mosquito-borne,
Jan/Feb 2016
ISTOCK.COM/MARCHIA
Epidemiologist
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Imagine Magazine - Johns Hopkins - January/February 2016
Big Picture
In My Own Words CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H.
My Summer of Medicine Three ways of exploring healthcare
Teens Target: Public Health How high school students are solving real-world public health problems
Slowing the Race Addressing antibiotic resistance
For the Greater Good Majoring in public health
Epic Epidemics Studying History of Disease at CTY
Teen Health is Public Health Interview with Beth Marshall, Associate Director, Center for Adolescent Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Building Bridges Addressing health disparities through service
Becoming a Disease Detective Behind the scenes at the CDC
Finding Light in the Darkness Astrophysics at UCSC SIP
Girls Who Code Paving the way to careers in tech
Selected Opportunities and Resources
Off the Shelf Review of Iris Chang’s The Chinese in America
Word Wise
Exploring Career Options Interview with epidemiologist Christine Scott-Waldron, M.S.P.H.
One Step Ahead Summer in limbo
Planning Ahead for College Is medical school in your future?
Students Review: Tufts University
Creative Minds Imagine Essay contest winners
Mark Your Calendar
Knossos Games
Imagine Magazine - Johns Hopkins - January/February 2016
https://www.nxtbook.com/mercury/imagine/20160506_CTY
https://www.nxtbook.com/mercury/imagine/20160506
https://www.nxtbook.com/mercury/imagine/20160304
https://www.nxtbook.com/mercury/imagine/20160102
https://www.nxtbook.com/mercury/imagine/20151112
https://www.nxtbook.com/mercury/imagine/20150910
https://www.nxtbook.com/mercury/imagine/20150506
https://www.nxtbook.com/mercury/imagine/20150304
https://www.nxtbook.com/mercury/imagine/20150102
https://www.nxtbook.com/mercury/imagine/20141112
https://www.nxtbook.com/mercury/imagine/20140910
https://www.nxtbook.com/mercury/imagine/20140506
https://www.nxtbook.com/mercury/imagine/20140304
https://www.nxtbook.com/mercury/imagine/20140102
https://www.nxtbook.com/mercury/imagine/20131112
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20130910
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20130506
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20130304
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20130102
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20121112
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20120910
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20120506
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20120304
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20120102
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20111112
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20110910
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20110506
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20110304
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20110102
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20101112
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20100910
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20100506
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20100304
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20100102
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20091112
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20090910
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20090506
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20090304
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20090102
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20081112
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/imagine/20080910
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com