Kayla Torres Tackles COVID-19 Health Disparities in Underserved and Rural Populations in Alabama

Kayla Torres was pursuing a Master’s in Public Health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham when she served as a Region IV Public Health Training Center (PHTC) Pathways to Practice Scholar in the spring of 2022. She chose to intern with the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH), specifically in the Office of Health Equity and Minority Health (OHEMH) to assist staff in addressing COVID-19 health disparities among underserved, racial, ethnic, minority, and rural populations.

During her field placement, Kayla assisted ADPH staff with several projects, particularly the Unincorporated Community and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) initiatives. She worked to translate documents from English to Spanish, designed communication strategies for various audiences, built partnerships, created questionnaires, and provided recommendations for public health strategies to employ in the community.

According to Kayla, her time with OHEMH was a “prodigious experience” that reinforced her knowledge of public health strategies.

“There were many lessons learned, especially the importance of teamwork and building partnerships. Through this internship, I was able to experience hands-on communications and alliances to decrease COVID-19 by increasing vaccination rates in the State of Alabama.

Having the opportunity to recognize the influence of policies and interventions that partake in the community was a remarkable experience. The OHEMH staff provided me with the tools to expand my skills and encouragement to continue assisting the public.

I aim to work as a health policy analyst to update and implement effective strategies. Having built new relationships and improved my ability in communication has solidified my desire to work with the underserved community and minority health. Learning how to conduct quantitative and qualitative data has made me feel prepared to work in the public health field.”