Enyonam Odoom, MPH '21

"In early April, I began working with the Rhode Island Department of Health’s new COVID-19 Epidemiological Operations Response Unit. When I first began working as a short-term epidemiologist, all of our work was done on paper forms and it was all hands on deck. Some days, I came to work and got straight to helping out with case investigation calls. Other days, I entered data from the forms into our spreadsheets and coordinated with other local departments of health to track case information. As our team grew, so did our ability to respond to the pandemic: we developed a Salesforce platform for quicker case investigations and contact tracing, built out a quarantine and isolation support response, created structures to support school and daycare openings, and more.

Our team learned as we grew, and I got to put lessons I learned in my epidemiology classes into practice. I developed guidelines for case investigations in special settings such as churches and beaches, worked with hospital infection control practitioners to assist with outbreak investigations, analyzed data to inform policy decisions, created outbreak diagrams to track clusters of cases, and learned a lot about how we can better support communities in the state that are most affected by this pandemic. I’ve gotten to work with an incredibly dedicated, equity-minded, and diverse team to serve our community at such an important time. I’m looking forward to seeing how the unit continues to pivot and grow as we support our state."