PEOPLE Dr. Jennifer Shuford
BY HANNAH NORTON
New Texas Department of State Health Services commissioner named following stint as interim After being named interim commissioner on Oct. 1, Dr. Jennifer Shuford officially became commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services Dec. 27, replacing Dr. John Hellerstedt, who retired. Shuford previously served as the chief state epidemiologist for DSHS. Before Shuford took on the interim role, she spoke with Community Impact about her goals. This interview was edited for length and clarity.
COURTESY TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF STATE HEALTH SERVICES
PRIORITIZING PUBLIC HEALTH Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the Texas Department of State Health Services worked with other local, state and federal partners to respond through data tracking,
TELL ME ABOUT YOUR CAREER SO FAR. I went to medical school in Dallas at [The University of Texas] South- western Medical School and did my internal medicine residency in Dallas. At that point, I knew that I really loved infectious diseases. So I went up to Mayo Clinic to do my infectious disease clinical training there. During that training, I realized I was really passionate about what public health accomplishes in the United States. I had a chance to come back to Texas, and I spent a little time training with the state health department. [Then,] I went to Harvard [Univer- sity] to get my Master of Public Health to prepare myself to apply all of my medical training in a public health realm. I joined the Department of State Health Services in 2017 as their infectious disease medical officer, and I thought I had the best job on Earth. That was until I was asked to fill the role of chief state epidemiologist [in 2020], and then I knew for sure that I had the best job on Earth. I have loved working at the state health department. Medical practice is very rewarding, and patients are always so thankful. Yet you’re really impacting one patient’s life. When you can take that same training and apply it to a whole population, it’s even more rewarding. YOU HELPED LEAD TEXAS’ PUB- LIC HEALTH RESPONSE DURING THE HEIGHT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC. WHAT WAS THAT LIKE? It was all consuming. And yet it was exactly where I wanted to be. [We were] trying to make things happen on a very compressed time schedule. Every time there was any advance in the science, we were trying to push out that information as fast
as we could. We were responsible for the allocation of vaccines and thera- peutics, and we gained responsibilities that public health hadn’t had before. We were in this critical and fasci- nating place of being able to receive brand-new information, technology and intervention for a [previously] unknown disease and to be able to pass it along to Texans in a way that we hoped would improve their lives and in some cases save their lives. HAS THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC CHANGED HOW TEXAS RESPONDS TO FUTURE PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCIES? I absolutely think so. There were so many lessons that everybody learned during [the COVID-19 pandemic] that will directly impact how we handle a lot of aspects of public health in the future. One of the things that we did very differently during COVID-19 is the way that we presented data. Previously, when we would get data from around the state, we would take that data, make sure it was clean and complete, and finalize the data before we posted it on our website. During [the pandemic], we knew that we needed to get information out immediately so that the public and elected officials would be able to make really important decisions. Having made those changes and seeing the way they impacted the public and our elected leadership has helped us understand how we might make changes in the future to help Texans make decisions about diseases other than COVID-19. AS YOU STEP INTO THIS NEW ROLE, WHAT EXCITES OR WORRIES YOU ABOUT THE TRANSITION? The mission of public health really excites me. The idea of trying to
public education and testing, and vaccination rollout. Here are the department’s other responsibilities:
Vital statistics section: maintains birth, death, marriage and divorce records as well as adoption and parentage information
Consumer Protection Division: oversees health goods producers and service providers, including food safety and EMS regulation
Data and surveillance: monitors public health by tracking data on specific diseases
Laboratory services: runs one of the largest public health laboratories in the U.S., testing more than 1 million samples per year, conducting newborn screenings and testing drinking water Infectious disease control: tracks outbreaks and educates residents through investigating, testing and treating infections, such as COVID-19, HIV, sexually transmitted infections and tuberculosis Health and wellness: focuses on preventing chronic diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, diabetes and heart disease as well as other areas of health, including school health, tobacco prevention and control, immunizations, and maternal and child health Center for Health Emergency Preparedness & Response: promotes health and disease prevention and responds to health emergencies, including outbreaks, natural disasters and bioterrorism
SOURCE: TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF STATE HEALTH SERVICES/COMMUNITY IMPACT
improve the health and well-being of every Texan is what drives me, and that is the mission of the DSHS. I have the honor of being at the helm of this great agency that does really strong work and tries their hardest to fulfill that mission. [A lot] of what we deal with in public health is infectious diseases, and my experience helps prepare me for some of those activities. However, I am also excited about being able to impact all of these other areas of the health of Texans as well. Chronic diseases are a real drain on our society and around the world, and
being in a position where I can help impact the burden of chronic diseases on our population is really exciting to me as well. One thing that makes me nervous is that I’ve got big shoes to fill. Dr. Hellerstedt has been the commissioner of the DSHS for over six and a half years. He has led us with strength and integrity; he’s a really good man. He was able to lead us through the COVID- 19 pandemic, while many other state health commissioners weren’t able to lead for that entire time because it was so taxing on them, their families and their health. But Dr. Hellerstedt did. COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM
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