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Description
Meet Nick Kelley, Bloomington’s Public Health Administrator. Nick shares how his passion for public health started at a young age and his thoughts on guiding the Division out of the pandemic.
B
A
I
was
appointed
the
acting
public
health
administrator
in
october
of
last
year
and
had
been
heavily
involved
in
a
lot
of
our
leadership
work
as
the
assistant
public
health
administrator
for
the
last
over
five
years.
At
that
point,
it's
a
bit
of
a
transition
dropping
the
acting
a
lot
of
doing
the
same
work
that
I
have
been
doing
and
then
getting
the
opportunity
to
help
lead
our
division
out
of
this
pandemic
and
into
what
the
future
of
public
health
looks.
A
Like
I
kind
of
grew
up
in
a
family
that
always
knew
I
was
going
to
have
a
little
bit
more
of
that
service
structure.
My
my
brother
he's
a
lieutenant
and
a
fire
service
out
in
colorado.
He's
a
third
generation
firefighter.
My
grandfather
was
a
fire
chief.
My
mom's
was
a
special
ed
school
teacher,
so
going
into
some
sort
of
service.
A
Taking
care
of
your
community
was
something
that
I
kind
of
grew
up
anticipating
I
discovered
sinclair
lewis's
aerosmith
as
a
young
kid
and
just
fascinated
by
particle
x
and
the
ability
for
it
to
treat
infections
and
just
been
fascinated
by
how
infectious
diseases
changed.
History,
the
way
society
adapted
to
plague
and
other
infectious
diseases
we
saw
dramatic
shifts
in
how
society
was
structured.
A
Buildings
were
modified
and
done
to
allow
for
that
open
air
after
1918,
when
we
had
what
was
commonly
called
the
spanish
influenza
here
in
the
u.s
and
globally,
this
was
a
tie
that
I
got
in
grad
school.
I
did
a
lot
of
my
work
on
influenza,
so
it's
actually
electron
micrograph
of
influenza,
the
actual
what
the
virus
looks
like.
I
wore
this
a
lot.
It's
a
great
opportunity
to
talk
about
the
benefits
of
flu
vaccines
and
the
impact
of
influenza
has
in
the
community.
A
I
went
to
the
university
of
minnesota
school
of
public
health,
got
my
master
of
science
and
then
a
phd
in
environmental
health,
with
an
emphasis
in
infectious
disease
working
with
dr
michael
ostrom.
We
did
a
lot
of
different
work
on
pandemic
preparedness,
infectious
disease
threats,
and
that
allowed
me
to
understand
the
role
of
local
government,
because
you
can
do
things
at
the
national
or
international
level,
but
the
implementation
is
at
the
local
level
july.
A
C
A
Pandemic
is
really
showing
a
spotlight
on
public
health
and
public
health.
We've
been
there
all
along.
We
often
operate
in
those
shadows,
doing
things
behind
the
scenes
and
would
talk
about
we're
the
best
kept
secret,
because
you
don't
know
about
public
health
until
something
bad
happens
or
you
needed
our
services,
and
so
we've
been
that
safety
net
that
that
structure
behind
the
scenes
helping
people
live
safe
and
healthy
lives.
A
For
a
long
time,
we've
been
doing
that
here
in
bloomington,
since
the
city
was
incorporated,
there
was
a
whole
lot
of
things
that
shifted,
and
it
was
that
scary.
Personally
and
professional
of
I
don't
know
what
this
is
going
to
do.
How's
this
going
to
impact
the
world,
my
family,
my
community,
how
do
you
do
your
best
job
to
keep
the
180
000
people
we're
responsible
for
healthy
and
safe?
A
So
I
think
one
of
the
biggest
challenges
public
health
has
in
the
next
six
months
is
going
to
be
this
transition
and
adjusting
to
what
do
we
do
as
covid
becomes
more
of
an
endemic
disease,
something
that's
a
steady
baseline
in
our
community
versus
this
pandemic,
where
we
see
waves
of
infection
and
dealing
with
those
inequalities.
So
one
of
the
things
that
was
front
and
center
with
kovid
is,
we
saw
some
populations
and
some
communities
disproportionately
impacted
consistently,
especially
our
bipod
community,
and
we
also
saw
it
with
our
older
adults.
A
These
are
things
that
we
talked
about
a
lot
before
the
pandemic
occurred,
they're
both
impacted
by
what
we
look
at
as
social
determinants
of
health.
The
the
factors
that
impact,
how
you
live,
work
and
play
in
the
community
vaccines
are
our
exit
strategy.
That's
how
we're
going
to
get
out
of
this
pandemic
and
to
see
we're
approaching
18
000
doses.
Our
staff
have
done
in
the
community.
A
Most
of
those
are
incredibly
targeted
to
certain
jobs
or
workplaces
or
or
our
bipot
community,
and
knowing
that
we've
been
part
of
that
turning
the
tide,
many
parts
of
bloomington
are
well
over
70
of
the
eligible
population
with
their
first
dose
and
there's
parts
that
we're
working
really
really
hard
with
community
partners
and
our
staff
to
get
them
to
that
70
threshold.
It
really
just
makes
you
incredibly
proud
that
we're
we're
helping
accelerate
that
path
to
that
light
at
the
end
of
the
tunnel
and
getting
us
back
to
something.
That's
more.