Yesenia Merino used Twitter and Facebook to connect people interested in DeKalb's 'Weight of the Nation' community event and health information, held on July 9.

Yesenia Merino arrived at the DeKalb County Board of Health's Health Assessment & Promotion Division as an intern with an arsenal of social media strategies.

She hit the ground running, as plans were underway to host a July 9 screening of "The Weight of the Nation," an HBO documentary about the nation's obesity epidemic. Merino helped promote the DeKalb Board of Health event to raise awareness at the community level.

In her first year at Emory's Rollins School of Public Health, Yesenia Merino (bottom-right) helped organize "World Day of Social Justice," using Twitter to disseminate messages to address child abuse, hatred, disability rights and human rights.

"I essentially used Twitter and Facebook to spread the word to the community and organize information to share with attendees about BOH and the Live Healthy DeKalb Coalition," said Merino. "Most things I've done in public health both at DPH and elsewhere have boiled down to those essential things. I organize (and analyze) information and share it as far as I can. I did all of the posts and almost all of them linked back to the coalition's current work plan."

Merino is one of the 100 or more students enrolled in the Rollins School of Public Health certificate program in the socio-contextual determinants of health, led by behavioral scientist Dr. Hannah Cooper. Merino is learning how policies affect public health and how to intervene to affect change.

"Every generation has its cause that changes status quo. I think our current generation of public health professionals is tasked with moving the field away from individual level interventions to ones that look at socio-contextual determinants of health," Merino said. "As we move toward more interdisciplinary collaboration, it will be on us to be better versed in a multitude of areas so that we can address overarching themes [and policies] that directly impact health such as transportation, economic opportunity, and social justice."

Merino has already gained invaluable insight through many years in public health.

"Like a lot of people in public health, I originally went into school thinking I wanted to go into medicine," said Yesenia. "Quickly, I realized that my interest lied in community level health and Public Health was a better fit for me. Throughout the years, I've worked primarily in sexual health making my way toward Public Health evaluation and research."

She's been involved in community outreach, health education, case management, HIV counseling and testing, clinical trials recruitment, health communications and socio-behavioral and clinical research.

"Common through them all has been continual lessons in patience, flexibility and resourcefulness," Merino said.

In DeKalb, she's picking up more knowledge.

"I've had the opportunity to learn more about the institutional parts of Public Health while at the health department in DeKalb County, including the centering around the essential public health services, interactions between government and funding agencies and the ebb and flow of grants within the agency," Merino said.

Merino's prior experiences have surely helped her make a good impression during her time in DeKalb.

"Yesenia has been a great, great asset to our department in working with the Live Healthy DeKalb Coalition," said Alicia Cardwell-Brown, community liaison for DeKalb County Board of Health's Health Assessment & Promotion Division. "She has completed data analyses (MAPP assessment and Go Green initiative), reports and set up Twitter and Faceboook pages for the coalition. She is going to be dearly missed as an intern. In her short time with us, she is making an impact with the coalition and our division."

Today's generation of public health workers continue to speak out about health disparities and how best to address the socio-contextual determinants of health.

"We must first admit that current health disparities in Georgia and the US in general are the result of structural inequities--access to fresh and quality foods, well-maintained and safe sidewalks and parks, and economic freedom to seek health," Merino said. "Until we admit to and address the biases in our current system, we will continue to see only minimal improvements in the health of our communities."

She is on schedule to graduate with a Master of Public Health in May 2013 in behavioral science and health education. She has high expectations on what will happen next in her professional development.

"In the next five years, I hope to have almost completed a doctorate through research on the role of communication in the social construction of health. I have particular interest in the socio-politics around health marketing and scientific inquiry. In the next 10 years, I hope that my research will help shape structural changes to public health policy and practice by taking a social justice framed approach to community-level and institutional interventions to improve health."

-Story by Connie F. Smith, DPH Communications