Exercise coordinator Charles Braxton, seated left, organizes the operations while Tyrus Guiliford, emergency preparedness IT, oversees technical aspects of the drill.

Are you ready to react to news of an approaching hurricane? The Georgia Emergency Management Agency's (GEMA) 2012 Hurrex simulated event is a method public health leaders hope will provide some answers to that question.

Over the course of a week, organizers set up the drill to help participants realize what should and should not be done during such an event. In this case, Tropical Storm Jerry was forecast to come ashore as a Category 3 hurricane in coastal Georgia. On Tuesday morning, the simulated situation involved a State of Emergency declaration for 11 counties projected to be hit hard by the advancing storm.

"[The exercise] provides an opportunity for different people within public health to get together and have a face-to-face that helps strengthen communications," said exercise coordinator Charles Braxton.
 

My vegetable garden soil is balanced, crumbly, rich in humus, earthworms and other wiggly creatures.

I enjoy digging in the dirt and watching things grow. For me, it is a form of meditation. Like yoga, a good way to de-stress. Tilling the soil is as physically demanding as an intense workout in the gym.

I have introduced our 2-year-old son to gardening and he is intrigued with gardening tools and planting. He has tried our fresh lettuce and spinach. As best he can, he helps me in the garden as I'm building structures, spreading mulch and planting flowers.

I planted my first garden when I was in graduate school and my roommate and I always grew the largest vegetable plants in the neighborhood. I find myself meditating often as I work in my garden year-round. This is my fourth year building my garden soil and it is just about where I want it.   

The essence of establishing a healthy, pest and disease-free, bountiful vegetable garden begins in the soil. Build the soil and you will reap your rewards for yourself and your family for years to come. Most of us have less than perfect soil to begin with. If your soil is too clayey, too sandy, too stony or too acidic, don't despair. Turning poor soil into plant-friendly soil is not difficult to do once you understand the components of healthy soil.

Soil is composed of weathered rock and organic matter, water and air. But the magic in healthy soil is the organisms-small animals, worms, insects and most importantly, microbes-that flourish when the other five important soil elements are in balance.

 

Chaiwon Kim, CEO, Center for Pan Asian Community Services

The Partner Up! for Public Health Campaign and the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) announced their newest Public Health Hero: a first generation Korean immigrant who, in two decades, led the transformation of a modest Korean social services call center into an organization that provides health and social services to more than 2,600 Asian immigrants each month.

Chaiwon Kim was selected for her 22 years of leadership in building the Center for Pan Asian Community Services (CPACS), which serves Asian-American and Asian immigrants throughout the southeast. Kim serves as the organization's chief executive officer.  

The joint DPH/Partner Up! for Public Health program is aimed at recognizing organizations and individuals throughout Georgia who make important contributions to the health of their communities.  
"Chaiwon Kim is emblematic of the kind of individual we had in mind when we conceived the idea for the Partner Up! for Public Health Heroes program," said Charles Hayslett, the program's spokesperson.  "She not only recognized the need to provide health and other services to a growing community in Atlanta and beyond, but she had the leadership and organizational skills needed to develop a sustained response to those needs. And she and her team have been making a real difference for a long time.  The Partner Up! campaign and the Department of Public Health are pleased to recognize her for her hard work and many contributions, and we hope her efforts inspire others."    

From left, 2012 Georgia Public Health Association President and Chatham County Environmental Health Manager Todd Jones; Georgia First Lady Sandra Deal; Environmental Health Manager for Chattooga and Dade Counties Shaun Brand and Georgia Department of Public Health Commissioner Brenda Fitzgerald, M.D.

Shaun Brand, environmental health manager for both the Chattooga and Dade county health departments in northwest Georgia, was honored at the recent 2012 Georgia Public Health Association annual meeting. Brand received the association's Environmentalist of the Year award in recognition of his work developing innovative training programs and materials to help the Georgia Department of Public Health's Environmental Health Office and environmental health staff in the state's county health departments transition from an old-fashioned, tedious, paper-based reporting system to a new, real-time, digital system designed to improve service and efficiency.  

For the public, the most visible and useful aspect of the new statewide data-collection system is the instantaneous posting on the internet of food-service inspection details and scores as inspections are made in the field. Staff now uses the same digital technology for all aspects of environmental health work, including everything from lodging-facility inspections, sewer-and-septic permits and pool inspections to rabies control and body-art facility inspections.