Chanel Drucker & Natalie Goetz

Professor Brown

HS 328

November 12, 2020

Community Health Professional Interview

- Introductions

1. What led to your desire to work in community health opposed to working in a more clinical
setting?

Diane stated she got her undergraduate degree in clinical nutrition and worked in a
hospital setting, but always knew she did not want to work in hospitals forever and just wanted to
do so as a good base and later wanted to reach people so she began working in prevention and
world nutrition.

2. What lead you to your job in public health in Alaska (see what I wrote above)

She went to school in Texas and California. She always had a desire to go north and
found a job in Alaska where she applied and got it. She stated "so few people get an opportunity
to have neat experiences and can go further in career than in the central states." She started
working in public health in Texas at the local department and then to Alaska where is has been
working for the past eighteen years.

3. Do you think there is value in obtaining a masters degree to do your job or furthering your
education?

She states that her two degrees in clinical nutrition and public health nutrition have been
rewarding and beneficial towards her job and states the importance of continuing education
especially now that there is a new requirement for dieticians to have their masters starting in
2024.

5. What experiences are important for an undergraduate student to find if they want to go into
public health (ask anything that helps inform you about your choices at the end)

Getting more public health nutrition experience is really good because nutrition is very clinical
and people tend to not learn more about the other aspects. It is important to understand health
and promotion, chronic disease prevention are important aspects in nutrition. Social ecological
models are also important. Can impact people if we focus on outer edges of society and culture
and work/school environment rather than 1 individual. So many jobs for people in public health.
Trying to get experience is als valuable and WIC is a great place to start and they take entry level
dieticians where you can directly work with the system and policy changes.

6. What might a typical day at work look like for you as I see that you work with early child
care programs?

"Ever changing." Diane works on several grant-funded projects. She manages contracts
with other agencies that actually do the outreach and education, writing and developing,
preceptor, request to help and participate in national professional organization

7. How has COVID impacted your outreach and you might add the life of the people you
serve?

She states the more technical complications that have occurred from not being able to
meet in person. In Alaska good internet connection can be hard to come by which makes things
like meetings via Zoom increasingly more difficult and there is also a lack of access to
computers in certain communities. For example, she was involved in a food conference that was
held virtually where many people could not attend due to lack of access to either a computer or
wifi,

8. What are the most important changes you have found that early childcare sights benefit
from making? Can you share a success story?

She has seen most benefits from trying to help providers understand national standards
and seeing how to best meet those standards. There is not a lot of one on one so their contracts
are with referral agencies that do the training and education.

So her job is training those trainers and how do you make a better environment for kids -
exciting, GO Nap Sac(online) , everyone has made some kind of change, family style meal
service, changes in schools, physical activity equipment, go outside in winter

9. What is your favorite program you run through NAPSACC – see above

Go Nap Sac is currently her favorite program and one aspect that she enjoys working
with is the breastfeeding aspect that helps support breast feeding families, but unfortunately due
to COVID there has been a decrease in participants.

11. Do you feel like a lot of people are aware & take advantage of the programs you offer- I’m
not sure who your mentor is off the top of my head- make sure they actually run a program if you
ask this- finding out how they reach out to people is really important and what they have learned
to attract people.

Contracts with child care providers. Trying to reach people that are not licensed.
family/child care homes as opposed to big centers. It can be difficult to reach. A lot of military
providers- hard to get into their system. A lot of head starts. Always trying ot reach out. Lot of
big presentations. Trying to partner with different people, news letters. Lot of writing. Ak so
small- need the right person with connections in child care world. No champion of nutrition and
physical activity is hard to get in. need outreach.

12. Is enrollment consistent and do families finish programs the program they start?

Quality initiative , 2 out of 7 modules in nap sacc , make a change then take assessment
again, they get incentive to keep finishing the program, they can always go back and do more so
it is up to them to do it on their own.

13. Are there any unique challenges or adaptations you have to make with your job working in
Alaska? (thinking daylight changes, low income communities, influence of weather on quality of
life)- good question, you can ask about serving Native communities- that would be good for you
to learn about

Winter can be heavy. Internet connectivity is hard, not all villages have reliable internet. Some
areas do not have food. Seasons influence food insecurity mostly during winter. More hunting,
fishing during summer.

14. What factors do you need to consider working in Alaska that might be different from the
rest of the states like are there any cultural or attitude differences?

There is a lot more work that needs to be done on your own. There are little road systems
which means you have to fly everywhere. It is also a big state and everyone is so different so
everyone has to be taught differently, no one size fits all. She loves her job, works with great
people, will be retiring in a few years and thinking of going back to international nutrition.