Government Healthcare Policy, Business and Technology

On the Front Lines with the Sioux Falls Public Health Director

Governing: “It already feels like a lifetime ago,” says Jill Franken. It’s late August and the public health director for Sioux Falls, S.D., takes a moment to reflect on how her city responded to a major coronavirus outbreak last spring. A ready reminder from that time is the director’s ever-present laptop, festooned with colorful stickers. A cluster of red and white irregular hexagons with the words “SO THIS IS PUBLIC HEALTH,” take up the most space, interlocked like so many cells. Each of the 11 stickers represents a week she and her team operated out of a temporary Emergency Operations Center (EOC). “We were in the police department,” she says, pointing out a large shield-shaped sticker in the corner. “So that's why this one's here.”

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