Rebecca Hollenbach, MPH, CHES
After Rebecca Hollenbach graduated from Emory University with her MPH in 2016, it only took a couple of months for the Louisville Metro Government to hire her as an Analyst for the Center for Health Equity. Rebecca got her start with the Louisville Metro the previous summer, when she was placed at their Public Health and Wellness Department (LMPHW) by the Region IV Public Health Training Center as a Pathways to Practice scholar.
As a project management intern at LMPHW, Rebecca helped improve data collection and reporting processes for Healthy Start, a federally-funded program aimed at reducing infant mortality. She was also involved with developing a volunteer engagement plan for Louisville’s Medical Reserve Corps and writing a five-year impact report of the Healthy Start Program.
At the end of her 2015 field placement, Rebecca reflected:
As an MPH student, it’s often easy to be immersed in an academic or theoretical perspective of public health without understanding what practical application might look like, especially in regards to cultural competency. I initially started the summer thinking that I would be doing more of my own data analysis and gaining practice with that when completing the impact report. However, I realized that it’s just as important to be able to contextualize and appropriately communicate data that has been collected and analyzed.
I spent a good amount of time building relationships and learning about organizational history to get a better understanding of what has been done (both successfully and unsuccessfully) before. Establishing a rapport and understanding the particular dynamics of Louisville and LMPHW was a priority because I wanted my deliverables and work to be relevant and useful even beyond my time there. Being able to practice cultural competency in a real-world setting was extremely useful because there are only so many things you can learn in a classroom and some you have to learn through experience.
The strongest measure of Rebecca’s success at relationship-building came in the form of a job offer from Louisville Metro Government, where she has now been employed for two years. She recently co-wrote the 2017 Louisville Metro Health Equity Report. Rebecca’s work as a Certified Health Education Specialist in the public sector has been recognized by the National Committee for Health Education Credentialing, Inc.. Congratulations, Rebecca!