SPONSORED BY UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY COLLEGE OF PUBLIC HEALTH Public Health Showcase 2024 March 25th, 10AM-4PM

Laura Eirich is the CHW Administrator of the Office of Community Health Workers (KOCHW) at the Kentucky Department for Public Health. In her role, she oversees a multitude of statewide efforts focused on supporting, strengthening and sustaining the CHW profession. This includes CHW certification, professional development, training organization approval, impact demonstration, promotion of best practices and integration, and technical assistance. Laura and the KOCHW team strive to ensure that all programs and policies related to CHWs are shaped by the voices of CHWs in Kentucky.

Within the Kentucky Department for Public Health Laura participates in a number of cross-department and cross-cabinet workgroups such as public health accreditation, quality improvement projects, and the state health improvement plan (SHIP). Laura was part of the NACDD Emerging Leaders Mentorship program, and was a 202-2021 Region IV Public Health Leadership Fellow. Prior to her work in Kentucky, Laura served as a community health worker within a federally qualified health center, and worked at a local health department in both health education and public health preparedness. Both her past and current experiences have significantly impacted Laura’s passion and dedication for public health and the Community Health Worker profession. Laura has a bachelor’s degree in public health and psychology from Carroll University and a master’s degree in public health from Rutgers University.

Outside of work, Laura enjoys spending time with her husband and cat, hiking/camping, reading, and watching “bad” horror movies.

SWANNIE JETT, DrPH, MSc, was selected as the new CEO of Park DuValle. Community Health Center in August 2021. Dr. Jett, most recent appointment was as Health Commissioner for the Brookline Department of Health in Brookline, MA in 2017. Dr. Jett was the Health Officer/Surgeon General for Seminole County, Florida from 2013-16, and the Health Officer of Bullitt County Health Department in Kentucky from 2009-to 2013.

Currently, Dr. Jett is Lieutenant Colonel in the Arkansas Air National Guard where his latest assignment was in Senegal, Africa assisting with the Ebola Virus Outbreak. Dr. Jett is a national leader in public health as the Past President of the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO).

In 2011, he completed the National Public Health Leadership Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He received the Bronze Star Medal for serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom from 2006 to 2008.

Dr. Jett holds a Doctor of Public Health with an emphasis in Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine from the University of Kentucky, a Master of Science degree from the University of Tennessee in Bio-Systems Engineering, a Master of Health Care Administration from Suffolk University, and a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Statistics from Tennessee State University.

Dr. White practiced OB/GYN in Frankfort, Kentucky, for over twenty years. She retired from clinical medicine and joined the Kentucky Department for Public Health (KDPH) as the Director, Division of Women’s Health, in 2009. She moved to the College of Public Health at the University of Kentucky (UK) in 2011 in the Department for Health Behavior and them back to KDPH as Deputy Commissioner of Clinical Affairs in 2011.

She has been Principal Investigator for multiple grants that included chronic diseases to substance use disorder. She is the medical advisor to the Kentucky Perinatal Quality Collaborative-a common table for providers, birthing hospitals, and insurers to improve the quality of maternal and newborn care in Kentucky.