Thank you so much Dr. Schenk. I absolutely love you saying what has been on my mind for years like you ALWAYS do. I see so many LLCs in the author list - this is a side effect of people leaving the profession to freelance (like me) because we were driven out. I always thought it was ironic that we would study and promote workplace wellness, yet our public health workplaces were absolutely toxic - "trauma inducing" rather than "trauma-informed". I especially agree with your point about outdated technology - I set up an online mentoring program just to "retool" public health practitioners (e.g., statisticians!) into "data scientists" so they can have more opportunity. And I mean opportunity outside (or adjacent to) public health, so again, it's a workaround rather than a strategy to solve the problem. I agree so much with you about the abusive hiring process - many of my customers have suffered this. I hate to say it, but I am so mad at APHA because I feel like they "let this happen" through their lack of strategic advocacy and bias toward industry, but of course, it's not only their fault. Obviously, they have failed in their advocacy for adequate funding. So it's ironic you are presenting there remotely by video. You are very brave and courageous. Thank you for speaking truth to power so eloquently.
Thank you Monika for your encouragement and support. There is much that we agree upon, but my big question is WHAT NEXT? How do we make the case for public health leadership and funding to invest in the workforce, to move forward in creative and innovative ways?
My opinion is we have to vote out the corporatocracy. I hate to get political, but our politicians are owned by industry - all of them - ever since Citizens United. We need to vote for the candidates that corporate media is not covering because those are the ones that threaten this corporatocracy. I'm talking especially about local officials - the ones that control state public health. We need to find a way to take our public health services out of the hands of industry (e.g., the big name epi/biostat consulting firms) and put it back in the state health departments. We need real government scientists in the government like their used to be, and the only way to do that is to vote out the corporatocracy. I can only hope people realize this and do it since it is not a popular topic in our overwhelming corporate media.
Thank you so much Dr. Schenk. I absolutely love you saying what has been on my mind for years like you ALWAYS do. I see so many LLCs in the author list - this is a side effect of people leaving the profession to freelance (like me) because we were driven out. I always thought it was ironic that we would study and promote workplace wellness, yet our public health workplaces were absolutely toxic - "trauma inducing" rather than "trauma-informed". I especially agree with your point about outdated technology - I set up an online mentoring program just to "retool" public health practitioners (e.g., statisticians!) into "data scientists" so they can have more opportunity. And I mean opportunity outside (or adjacent to) public health, so again, it's a workaround rather than a strategy to solve the problem. I agree so much with you about the abusive hiring process - many of my customers have suffered this. I hate to say it, but I am so mad at APHA because I feel like they "let this happen" through their lack of strategic advocacy and bias toward industry, but of course, it's not only their fault. Obviously, they have failed in their advocacy for adequate funding. So it's ironic you are presenting there remotely by video. You are very brave and courageous. Thank you for speaking truth to power so eloquently.
Thank you Monika for your encouragement and support. There is much that we agree upon, but my big question is WHAT NEXT? How do we make the case for public health leadership and funding to invest in the workforce, to move forward in creative and innovative ways?
And yes, the irony is not lost 😉
My opinion is we have to vote out the corporatocracy. I hate to get political, but our politicians are owned by industry - all of them - ever since Citizens United. We need to vote for the candidates that corporate media is not covering because those are the ones that threaten this corporatocracy. I'm talking especially about local officials - the ones that control state public health. We need to find a way to take our public health services out of the hands of industry (e.g., the big name epi/biostat consulting firms) and put it back in the state health departments. We need real government scientists in the government like their used to be, and the only way to do that is to vote out the corporatocracy. I can only hope people realize this and do it since it is not a popular topic in our overwhelming corporate media.