Workers picture by Fritz Busch Brown County Public Well being Director Karen Moritz works with vaccines on the Public Well being Workplace in New Ulm.
NEW ULM — The Brown County Public Well being Director was lately honored on the Preparedness Summit conference in Atlanta.
Karen Moritz was named certainly one of 40 Public Well being Emergency Preparedness Trailblazers from the USA honored for making lasting contributions to the sector of public well being emergency preparedness over the previous 20 years.
Marking the twentieth anniversary of the PHEP program, the Facilities for Illness Management (CDC) acknowledged state, native and territorial public well being preparedness personnel and their contributions to this system over the previous 20 years.
The one different Minnesotan to obtain the award was Minnesota Division of Well being (MDH) Emergency Preparedness and Response Director Cheryl Petersen-Kroeber.
“I imagine I used to be nominated for the award due to my ardour and expertise in public well being programming,” stated Moritz who has been the county’s public well being director since October 2008. Previous to that she was the Emmet County (Iowa) public well being director for greater than 5 years.
Moritz was credited with creating the general public well being emergency preparedness program in Emmet County. She was a part of a Florida hurricane response workforce in Iowa in 2004 and helped with flooding and twister public well being response in affected counties.
Moritz has continued her energetic involvement in public well being in Minnesota regionally, regionally and on the state degree.
Main Brown County Public Well being emergency preparedness workers, she helped create a strong public well being preparedness response to illness outbreaks, together with the COVID-19 pandemic and to pure disasters and different emergencies.
Moritz represented the area on a number of committees, together with a PHEP Oversight Committee and COVID-19 Response and Restoration Advisory Group, which advises the MDH on strategic planning for native public well being preparedness actions.
“She has supplied inspiration and management over the course of her profession to the sector of public well being emergency preparedness,” learn Moritz’ award nomination from the MDH.
“I’ve an excellent workforce. They make me look good,” Moritz stated about her nationwide recognition.
“I get pleasure from working with neighborhood companions to advertise well being and forestall well being points,” she added. “I like serving to shield individuals from issues that may hurt them.”
A public well being workers nurse in Des Moines, Iowa, for almost 10 years, Moritz, a Nebraska native with a nursing diploma from the College of Nebraska Medical Middle, stated she loved working as a registered nurse in a hospital however stated she actually discovered her area of interest working in public well being.
Moritz stated she continues to plan and carry out public well being coaching and precise occasions for the COVID-19 pandemic and in mass casualty drills.
“COVID-19 has slowed down a bit currently, however we’re all the time making ready for emergencies,” she added.
Presently, the Brown County Public Well being Workplace affords a COVID-19 second booster shot clinic on Tuesdays.
For extra data, go to co.brown.mn.us and click on on “public well being.”
(Fritz Busch might be emailed at fbusch@nujournal.com.)
