THE PUBLIC HEALTH GURU
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Dr. Sherri Young
Cabinet Secretary, West Virginia Department of Health
SUPERPOWER: Kindness
Sherri Young has lived in West Virginia her entire life. In her current post as cabinet secretary of the West Virginia Department of Health—and her previous role as director of the Kanawha–Charleston Health Department—she is making her mark on the communities that made her. Young knew she wanted to be a physician from the time she was 5 years old. The inspiration? Her grandfather. “He had been quadriplegic from a tumor that occurred on his spinal cord,” she says. “They told him that he may live six months, but because family banded together and we were there to help, he lived 24 more years.”
Especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which she led the Kanawha–Charleston Health Department through the thick of, she is more prepared than ever to spearhead community health initiatives. “Every job that I’ve had, I’ve taken a little piece of that with me,” she says. “I’ve learned as much as I’ve contributed to it. I’ve had jobs within academics, inpatient, direct patient care, and now population health. It’s all kind of come together to bring me to a point where I hope I can contribute to the state.” Population health is a huge part of what she’s thought about recently, and she says projects she’s excited about include mitigating the effects of food deserts, making diabetic eye exams more accessible, and increasing preventive care.
“I think this is an opportunity to highlight the great state of West Virginia,” Young says. “To not only address public health, the things we learned from COVID, and the things we’ve learned over the last few years, but even taking that and shifting the conversation a little bit more about prevention and keeping people healthy in their communities.”
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