If Ebola, or any number of natural and manmade disasters, comes to Indiana, the state is prepared, thanks to SPEA alumnus Lee Christenson. Christenson, director of the Public Health Preparedness and Emergency Response Division at the Indiana State Department of Health, collaborated with partners throughout the state and country to prepare Indiana for Ebola when the outbreak began in early 2014.
Working with hospitals and local health departments, emergency management, law enforcement, environmental management, first response and federal partners, Christenson knows the job is never done.
“Our team spends about 95 percent of our time preparing for emergencies and about five percent actually responding to them,” Christenson says. “When it comes to disease, whether it was H1N1 or Ebola, the question is not if it will show up here, but when.” (more…)