COVID-19 Resources

Olivia Algiers, an MPH alum of the Zilber College of Public Health in the Public Health Policy track, worked with the Medical College of Wisconsin on a COVID-19 community support project called 1000 Hometown Heroes. Through online communities on their Facebook, Instagram, and website, 1000 Hometown Heroes provides Wisconsinites with information on Milwaukee-area resources for things like food, housing, and mental health services, accurate and up-to-date public health messaging surrounding COVID-19 news and best practices, and local hero features — interviews and stories of people doing great things for their Wisconsin communities.

During the summer of 2020, UWM undergraduate public health student, Ashley Gerarden, worked as a certified nursing assistant at a nursing home in her hometown of Janesville, Wisconsin. During the months of June through August, Ashley worked in the COVID-19 lockdown unit. She wore an N95 mask with a disposable mask on top and a face shield daily. Whenever Ashley entered a COVID-positive resident’s room, she needed to wear full personal protective equipment. Ashley performed her normal duties such as bathing, toileting, feeding and other basic care, along with compassion and love for the residents.

Ashley said, “I made sure to spend time with residents as they were in lockdown and unable to see their family members in person for that entire time. It was difficult for me to accept my assignment as I was scared of contracting or spreading the disease to my family. But I knew I needed to step up and be there for the residents when others could not. This journey taught me that being faced with challenges that scare me help me to become a stronger person.”

Dr. Lorraine Halinka Malcoe volunteered her expertise in epidemiology and data analysis to the City of Milwaukee Health Department’s efforts to address COVID-19.

Kyla Quigley, an MPH student in the Epidemiology track, has worked with the Milwaukee Health Department as part of her field experience, and assisting in emergency response planning for COVID-19.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, many Zilber College of Public Health students gained real world public health experience as COVID-19 contact tracers and case managers for local and state health departments, including the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Greenfield Health Department, Washington/Ozaukee County Health Department, Greendale Health Department, Oak Creek Health Department, and City of Milwaukee Health Department. One student is working as a contact tracer in Michigan as she takes her classes at UWM virtually this semester.

Zilber College students who have worked in the field as contact tracers and supporting health department efforts to address the pandemic include Immaculate Apchemengich, Aaron Camacho, Brianna Campbell, Emily Deal, Lindsay Fuss, Jacob Greenberg, Maren Hawkins, Haley Joyce, Tessa Kohler, Meghan Majors, Kinsey Mannebach, Heather Tolbert, Shoua Vang, Meng Xiong, and Michelle Zeratsky.

Zilber College students and alumni put their data skills to work during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sarah Laurent volunteered with the Milwaukee Health Department creating daily COVID maps.

Emiya Peer works for the Oak Creek Health Department. Their work there involves developing in-depth weekly data reports for the Oak Creek, Cudahy and South Milwaukee/St. Francis communities. Emiya is also conducting deeper data analyses (such as asymptomatic vs. symptomatic cases or how many contacts each positive case identifies) to help the Health Department with its decision-making.

Katelyn DeGroot has worked as a COVID epidemiologist for the Department of Health and Human Services within the Bureau of Communicable Disease for the State of Wisconsin. In this role, Katelyn is working with COVID data and answering questions for local health departments. Katelyn says, “I am using surveillance and outbreak skills and really enjoy my new role!“

Amanda Her, an MPH student in the Epidemiology track, is working with the North Shore Health Department to assist with contact tracing and analyze death certificate data to assess increases in deaths due to other causes before and during the pandemic.

Dr. Lorraine Halinka Malcoe served as an outside expert for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Wisconsin in April, 2020. Dr. Halinka Malcoe provided an affidavit for ACLU in support of the need for decarceration as a means to enable social distancing in Wisconsin prisons and jails.