Baylor MPH Students Present at Texas Environmental Health Association Conference

On October 20, 2022 two of our MPH students, Alicia Fontenot and Megan O’Brien had the honor of presenting at the Texas Environmental Health Associate (TEHA) 2022 Annual Educational Conference (AEC).

Alicia Fontenot presented “Emergency Preparedness and Response – Systematically identifying and evaluating strategies for strengthening community and public health resilience”. Her presentation focused on improving public health system resilience. The Public Health System Resilience Scorecard (Scorecard) was applied to facilitate workshops and develop strategies for transforming public health systems to become more adaptive, flexible, and focused on enabling societies to function at their highest possible level when responding to a disaster or pandemic. Workshop recommendations focused on addressing non-medical needs, coordinating mental health care services, managing ecosystems affecting the public health system, involving local communities in public health activities, and providing health care for patients with chronic diseases.

Megan O’Brien presented “Long-term SARS-CoV-2 Wastewater Surveillance for Two Locations in Texas, USA, Compared to COVID-19 Epidemiology Data.” Her project investigated the utilization of wastewater surveillance during periods of high and low testing rates. They found increased surges in SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the wastewater even when clinically reported cases were low in the community, indicating that there is still COVID-19 spread within the community.

Also, huge congratulations for Alicia Fontenot who was also awarded the People’s Choice Award in the TEHA Student Poster Contest.

“It was an honor to participate in TEHA’s inaugural student poster competition. It was refreshing to speak with so many environmental health professionals about my research with respect to real-time projects and events. This unique opportunity also allowed me to explore a wide range of career paths by discussing my research and career interests with prospective employers. We all received a warm welcome from the executive director of NEHA, former and present president of TEHA”

-Alicia Fontenot

“It was an honor to be selected as a participant in TEHA’s first student research competition. What I enjoy most about poster presentations is the dialogue that is not typically present in platform presentations. I enjoy hearing others’ backgrounds and stories, and then relating it back to the research I’ve been working on. I had many wonderful conversations with EH professionals ranging from COVID-19 surveillance to food safety specialists to on-site septic systems experts, from all of whom I learned something new. This was also a great opportunity to network and explore various careers within the EH profession.”

-Megan O’Brien

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