The Mary Christie Quarterly FRONTLINES column features an interview on preparing for and responding to public health challenges on college campuses advanced by COVID. Gerri Taylor, co-Chair of the COVID-19 Task Force at the American College Health Association (ACHA), interviews Dr. Sarah Van Orman, MD, MMM, FACHA, a key member of the COVID-19 Task Force and the Reopening Guidelines’ writing team. Dr. Orman is the Associate Vice Provost, Chief Health Officer of the University of Southern California Student Health, and Division Chief of College Health at the Keck School of Medicine.
Highlights from the conversation include the role leadership plays in public health infrastructure and how college health professionals are managing supporting students, given the past two years: “There was not enough recognition of how grueling this has been for the last year and a half on our college health professionals, because in some ways they almost did it too well.”