Alumni in Action: Maddy Davies
by Susan Neale
The interim director of community health and public information officer at Erie County Health Department tells us how she found her dream career
Madeline (Maddy) Davies (’19) decided early in college that she wanted to focus on healthcare prevention. The College of Nursing’s Health and Wellness bachelor’s degree offered her a way to pursue that dream. “What caught my eye was the program planning classes,” she says, and lists evidence-based practice and wellness and chronic conditions courses as some of her favorites. She minored in Global Public Health and Human Development and Family Studies as well. The program, then known as Health and Wellness Innovation in Healthcare, was new – Davies was in its first graduating class.
After graduation, she worked with Azoti, a Columbus start-up that connects local farmers with larger industries like hospitals and restaurants. Next, she found her way to Erie County Health Department as a public health educator. The grant program she coordinated, “Create Healthy Communities,” promoted active living and healthy eating. She was in charge of many initiatives, including one called “produce prescriptions” and another to work with City of Sandusky planners to make roadways accessible to all users, including pedestrians and cyclists.
At Erie County Health Department, “we work on high-level changes – the policy, systems and environmental changes, where it’s going to affect the largest portion of the community,” Davies explains. Now in a supervisory position, she oversees several grant programs, including Creating Healthy Communities and grant programs for drug overdose prevention, tobacco cessation, maternal and child health, older adult falls and more. When the previous director left a few months ago, she was asked to become interim director in addition to her role as public information officer. Davies works closely with other directors and chiefs of the health department, creates marketing campaigns, writes press releases, consults the agency’s epidemiologists to keep the community informed about COVID-19, and is in charge of community health assessments. She has even made websites for the health department. “I love wearing many different hats,” she says.
Davies admits that growing up in a small town in Guernsey County, she didn’t know about urban public health departments and how much they could do. Now, “I feel so at home here,” she says. “There are so many different divisions that offer much-needed services and programs to our community.”
Watch the video below to hear Maddy share about her experience in the HW program.
