photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

Health department Director of Informatics Sonia Jordan addresses her peers shortly after being named this year's Kay Kent Excellence Award winner.

Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health spent an hour Wednesday afternoon looking back on the past year, honoring a health department employee and a group of community members for efforts largely related to the coronavirus pandemic.

During a lunch for LDCPH employees, health department Director of Informatics Sonia Jordan was named the recipient of the Kay Kent Excellence Award; Jordan’s fellow nominees were Alex Kimball-Williams, a community health equity specialist for the health department, and certified medical assistant Ange Ericksen. The award was established in 2008 in honor of longtime health department director W. Kay Kent, who served in the role for 33 years before retiring in 2006.

“As we kind of emerge from two years of heavy lifting around COVID, the capacity that you saw the state of Kansas exhibit was, in part, led by the vision and leadership that Kay exhibited not just here but across the state of Kansas,” health department Director Dan Partridge said in his opening remarks to the group. “I’m always going to be appreciative of her desire and drive for excellence; it has continued to serve us well.”

Kent was in attendance Wednesday afternoon and took a moment to say how proud she was of the health department’s work during the pandemic. With no road map for how things ought to have been done, she said she thought the staff performed “admirably.”

A group of 10 peers nominated Jordan, who was named the award winner a few minutes later. That group said they thought Jordan deserved the honor because she “lives out the values of the health department every day” as exemplified by how she runs the informatics program.

Jordan was recognized last September as one of the de Beaumont Foundation’s “40 Under 40 in Public Health.” Her department was responsible for all disease investigation, contact tracing, isolation/quarantine and outbreak management, and coordinating vaccine distribution during the pandemic.

An emotional Jordan was initially at a loss for words, but eventually voiced gratitude for her colleagues for their work during the pandemic and for her family, job and circumstances.

“It’s been a really challenging two to almost three years now, and I think if there’s anything that I feel like I’ve learned from this, it’s that at the end of the day, there’s only some really select things in life that matter,” Jordan said. “If you’re lucky enough, like I am, to have those things, then ending the day with gratitude is important.”

photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

Health department Director of Informatics Sonia Jordan voices her appreciation toward her public health co-workers Wednesday afternoon.

The health department also recognized two Health Champions: Brian Bradfield, the vice president of auxiliary and support services at LMH Health, and Allen Press sales executive Elizabeth Stephens. Bradfield was recognized for his role in working with the health department to roll out COVID testing and vaccinations. Stephens was honored for her participation as an equity impact adviser with Douglas County Unified Command, in which she aimed to formulate a more equitable pandemic response for underserved community members.

The University of Kansas School of Pharmacy was another honoree, receiving the Healthier Together Award. Students and faculty in the department were recognized for their assistance at mass vaccination clinics.

Though Wednesday was largely about looking back on the past year, County Health Officer Dr. Jennifer Schrimsher spoke with the Journal-World prior to the awards ceremony about how Douglas County is shaping up in the wake of the omicron surge and what direction public health will go from here. At the moment, Schrimsher said she’s focused on working toward getting back to her normal scope of work in her role as an infectious disease physician at LMH Health.

Schrimsher said she has also been trying to encourage folks who may have been putting off non-COVID care to get back into the habit of visiting their doctor regularly. That’s a challenge she’s mentioned to the Journal-World before as one that should be a point of emphasis at this stage of the pandemic.

It’s also vital, she said, because putting off such care likely leaves people with conditions such as diabetes feeling worse and vulnerable to more severe effects for not seeking care when they first needed it.