The role of public health professionals in an emergency is broad, encompassing on-scene response as well as off-scene coordination. When an event warrants the opening of an emergency operations center (EOC), officials might request a public health staffing presence in the EOC in order to facilitate information exchange and resource requests. This presentation will provide an overview of the roles and expectations for public health staff in an EOC activation as well as provide an introduction to Knowledge Center, an incident management software often used for interagency communication during EOC activations.
The Pennsylvania Public Health Training Center is collaborating with the Center for Public Health Readiness & Communication to offer a training series for the public health workforce on topics related to public health preparedness. The intended audience for these forums is public health agency staff from all public health programs across the department, who might be called upon to participate in their agency’s activities during a major event or public health crisis.
Trainings will be scheduled every other month, on the last Wednesday of that month, from 9:00 -10:00 am. Participation is possible in-person or virtually through videoconference, webinar, and archived links.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Staffing the “Health” Desk in the Emergency Operations Center – What Public Health Staff Need to Know
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Foodborne Pathogen Update
Thursday, September 27, 2012 (note change of day to Thursday for this month only)
Outbreak Investigations for the Non-Epidemiologist
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Environmental Health Consequences of Disasters
Dr. Esther Chernak was appointed Director of the Center of Public Health Readiness and Communication at Drexel University School of Public Health in October 2010. She is an Associate Research Professor in the Division of Environmental and Occupational Health. From 2007 through July 2009, she was the Medical Director for the Acute Communicable Disease Control Program for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health where she was responsible for communicable disease surveillance and outbreak investigations in the Health Department’s Division of Disease Control. From 1999 to 2008, she led the development of the Public Health Emergency Preparedness Program for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health and oversaw public health emergency preparedness planning, training, and exercises for the City. Under her leadership, the department initiated critical activities such as planning for pandemic influenza, mass prophylaxis, and outreach to community-based organizations that serve vulnerable populations. In that position, she played a central role in launching enhanced surveillance programs, a health alert network, a preparedness website for public health partners, and department-wide training in public health preparedness. She also chaired several multidisciplinary task forces to coordinate public health emergency preparedness planning and response in the Philadelphia metropolitan area that were comprised of public health, law enforcement, emergency management, healthcare, and other public safety officials.
Dr. Chernak has over 19 years of experience in public health practice. She was the Clinical Director of HIV Services for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health Division of Ambulatory Health Services, a system of primary healthcare centers that provide care to the city’s uninsured and underinsured population. She has also worked as a public health physician in acute communicable disease epidemiology, a clinician in HIV, Sexually Transmitted Disease and Tuberculosis Control programs, and served as the Medical Director for the Montgomery County Health Department in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.
Eleanor Lippmann, MPH
Program Manager
Center for Public Health Practice
Drexel University School of Public Health
The Friends Center
1501 Cherry Street, 2nd Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19102
(215) 571-4009
elippmann@drexel.edu
Drexel SPH is a member of asph.org
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Drexel SPH is fully accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH)
1505 Race Street, Bellet Building Philadelphia, PA 19102-1192 Phone: 215.762.4110 | Fax: 215.762.4088 E-mail: publichealthinfo@drexel.edu
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Drexel SPH is fully accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH)