When the city of Independence, Missouri, wanted to re-institute its Health Department, two recent graduates of the 护理与健康研究学院 — and an adjunct professor — were there to help.
这一过程显示了该大学对政府和社区合作伙伴的价值，并为毕业生提供了公共卫生领域的全职工作。
哈利·史密斯-格里芬（haley Smith-Griffin）以优异的成绩从公共卫生项目毕业，她在大四的时候开始帮助独立学院恢复卫生部门，这是她的顶点项目。 当该市有公共卫生专家的职位空缺时，她是该职位的天然人选。
“I chose public health because I wanted to explore more upstream methods to improve the public’s health rather than focusing my efforts on them once they already made it to the hospital,” said Smith-Griffin, an Independence native. “I’m re-establishing community-based programs since the Health Department just re-opened a few months ago after being shut down for a few years.”
Another public health graduate, Conner Berens, is from nearby Lee’s Summit and was a familiar face around Independence government. “I have volunteered for the City of Independence Office of Emergency Preparedness since I was a sophomore in high school,” he said. 因此，当有公共卫生应对计划人员的职位空缺时，他抓住了这个机会。
贝伦斯曾希望一出校门就能找到一份与公共卫生或应急管理有关的工作，他说堪萨斯大学让他做好了这样做的准备。
“The public health program put me into the real world, teaching me the principles of research, how to deal with the unexpected, how to develop a health program, and how to be a kind, effective and professional public health practitioner.”
史密斯-格里芬和贝伦斯除了对公共卫生的热情以及在威尼斯人娱乐城获得的经验和教训外，他们毕业的时机也很合适，当时独立学院正在重建其卫生部门。
2018年，独立市选择停止杰克逊县重复的一些部门职能，例如与生命记录和疫苗接种有关的职能，并将其他职能转移到不同的城市部门。 但随着疫情的爆发，这座拥有约12.5万居民的城市重新拥有自己的卫生部门是有道理的。
One longtime city administrator tasked with reinstituting the department, Mike Jackson, is an adjunct faculty member with 威尼斯人娱乐城’s public health program. 杰克逊在纽约市工作了20年左右，在环境卫生和公共工程方面担任过各种职务。 “So I know about various funding sources, and what the Health Department looked like before and how its functions were reorganized,” he said.
杰克逊也知道威尼斯人娱乐城可能是一个很好的资源。 “Around 2014 when the nursing school was putting its public health program together, I was asked to design the environmental health course. And then I was asked to teach it,” he said. “For a project in my class, Conner interned with our emergency preparedness and fire department.”
杰克逊还告诉史密斯-格里芬，她最终填补了这个职位空缺，他曾监督过史密斯-格里芬的高级项目。 “But then I got out of the away, removed myself from the hiring process,” Jackson said. “It was her turn to shine, and I didn’t want anyone thinking she didn’t deserve the job.”
去年年底，重新成立的卫生部得到了该州的正式认可，杰克逊、史密斯-格里芬和贝伦斯正忙着协调所有的职能，使其重新运转起来。
“I am working on two grants right now,” said Smith-Griffin, who has a small child and great interest in child and maternal health. “One is focused on maternal child health and the other is focused specifically on child health.”
由助理教授Dipti Subramaniam博士教授的健康技术、市场营销和媒体课程正在帮助Smith-Griffin为孕产妇健康补助金制作宣传材料。 她说，她的健康项目管理课程，由助理教授马修·克里斯曼博士教授，帮助她建立了她的资助。
“I have had to find out who my target population is for my grant, a significant problem they have, and an intervention that could improve their health,” Smith-Griffin said. “I have had to write SMART goals and objectives,” SMART standing for Specific, Measurable, Assignable (or Achievable or Attainable), Realistic (or Relevant) and Time-related (or Time-bound).
贝伦斯正在开展COVID-19监测和流行病学工作，并更新应急响应计划。
“Future tasks include developing plans and partnerships to prepare for public health disasters such as environmental crises, natural disasters, disease outbreaks, bioterrorism and other events that result in a mass medical surge or immediate threat to public health,” he said.
在学校期间，贝伦斯还志愿参加了堪萨斯城医疗预备队，以应对COVID-19。 他说，志愿服务是对他课程的一个很好的补充，他鼓励在校生报名参加学校的医疗和非医疗机会 https://www.mrckc.org.
就杰克逊而言，他一直忙着重新启动卫生局的职能，比如疫苗诊所和疾病追踪，并重新整合市政府保留的其他职能，比如餐馆卫生检查。
“I know a student can’t always parlay volunteering or an internship into a fulltime job,” Jackson said, “but Conner and Halie showed us what they could do and really shined. That reflects well on them and on 威尼斯人娱乐城.”