COVID-19 Response

Infectious Disease

As COVID-19 cases and stay-at-home orders, travel restrictions, and rigid behavioral modifications grew, I decided to bring in the Delaware National Guardsmen (DNG). I led a 15-person incident management assistance team of multidisciplinary responders from the CDC and 105 DNG staff to be a leading force in Delaware. I encourage team members to respond with reasons why they chose civil service or military professions and to identify a colleague in the cohort they appreciated or who inspired them in their work and careers. This approach allowed me to connect with staff, observe their good work, and encourage buy-in to succeed as a unit. After I built a culture of collaboration, I instructed the CDC team to develop a data management platform to identify COVID clusters and track surges of cases. I led efforts to create guidance on infection control practices in shared housing and independent living centers, transportation systems, and mass gatherings that Delaware could post on its website. In a few months, their website started receiving 100K+ visitors, representing a 20% increase in website views. I then had the team create social media products for distribution to public health professionals, clinicians, community organizations, businesses, and the public to have a unified message supporting the recommended restrictions for congregate settings and public spaces. Delaware had the tools to respond to scientific inquiries for effective community risk mitigation strategies, such as behavioral actions, which helped improve customer service. The guardsmen conducted contract tracing callbacks, which resulted in over 120+ inquiries from the public, clinicians, and stakeholders.

My efforts helped ensure that Delaware had a uniform government response and the autonomy to manage the details.