Community Partner:
The Adams County Health Department serves a rural county of over 27,000 people, located along the southern Ohio border approximately 60 miles east of Cincinnati. Its mission is to provide leadership in public health by promoting healthy people, protecting the environment, and creating a safe community for all. The Health Department is governed by a five-member Board of Health and a Health Commissioner appointed by the board. There are five division of the Health Department: Nursing, Environmental Health, Behavioral Health, Community Health, and Vital Statistics.
The Health Department provides a variety of services to the community. For example, the Nursing division provides public school nurses, offers immunizations and health screenings, and runs a free medical clinic twice monthly for uninsured and underinsured residents. The Behavioral Health division offers medication assisted treatment for substance use disorder and brings psychiatry services to jail inmates. The Health Department also hosts a variety of health education courses and community outreach activities to improve the health and safety of Adams County.
About Tessa
Hello! I hail from the small town of Bluffton, Indiana, where I developed big dreams of becoming a doctor at a young age. I attended college at Washington and Lee University in the idyllic town of Lexington, Virginia, earning a degree in Environmental Studies. I then worked as a scribe for a year and married my high-school sweetheart prior to beginning medical school at University of Cincinnati.
I have always had a heart for service and a passion for making positive change in the world. I knew the Service and Advocacy Elective would be a great opportunity to grow my skills as an advocate and to use the experience and knowledge I have gained in medical school to give back to the community.
My future plans include completing Family Medicine residency and becoming a leader of public health initiatives in the rural community where I practice medicine someday.