Jessica Fibbe

I've been in my current position as a health educator for a year and in public health for about two years. My interest in public health started during my undergrad when I was a communications student and took a course on communications for healthcare. Getting my foot in the door in public health was difficult, so I started with a front office position at a local health department and worked my way up from there. Today, I focus primarily on injury prevention for youth and tobacco/vaping cessation and prevention. My day-to-day work is never standardized - one day I might be at the local radio station in the morning and then teaching a bullying class at an elementary school, and the next day I could be teaching a nutrition class in our office. One of my most notable achievements was securing a mini-grant for our health department despite having no prior grant writing experience or education in that area. My boss gave me the opportunity, and even though I was stressed at first, I made it happen. I'm also deeply committed to mental health advocacy and was able to start up a local mental health coalition for our community because we're very rural and the stigma around mental health is incredibly high. This work is personally very important to me, and I try to incorporate mental health into everything I do in my public health role.