Butler Magazine Winter 2021

Page 23

ALUMNI PROFILES Thank you to our credit union partner, Elements Financial, for their support.

KEEPING UP WITH “ Kids need THE DATA: so much more than academic content.”

BUTLER GRAD SERVES ON CDC’S GLOBAL PANDEMIC RESPONSE By Kamy Mitchell ’21

“I have always known that I wanted to be in a position where I could serve people,” says Kelsey Coy ’13.

When starting her Butler University career as a Secondary Education major, Coy never dreamed of becoming a social epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—or of serving on an international task force during a global pandemic. In her current role as a research fellow and epidemiologist of Maternal Health with the CDC, she typically focuses on studying substance use and mental health before, during, and after pregnancy. She has also served on the emergency response for the lung injury epidemic associated with e-cigarette or vaping product use. That is, until she was deployed to the international task force for the CDC’s COVID-19 emergency response.

Coy discovered the field of epidemiology after reading Mountains Beyond Mountains, a biography about physician Paul Farmer’s work fighting tuberculosis, in her First-Year Seminar class at Butler.

Now, Coy studies the ways stay-at-home orders and other mitigation measures impact case counts. Using data from countries all over the world, she and her colleagues are able to provide insight into the unique ways this virus has impacted specific countries or general regions. Their work provides decision-makers with the information they need to fight the pandemic.

“When I first learned what epidemiology was, it honestly felt like I had found my home,” Coy says. So, she changed her major to Biology and started finding opportunities to work on epidemiology research.

“The CDC works from the data, so the information released is based on the data available,” Coy says. “As data changes, and as knowledge expands, the CDC’s advice might change. But for now, it’s pretty simple: Wear your mask, wash your hands, and stay at home if you can.”

“Butler set me up very, very well to question some of the things in our world.”

Coy says her liberal arts education from Butler has been valuable to her current position, as she thinks critically about the health data she approaches each day.

Note: The statements made in this interview are those of the interviewee and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

WINTER 2021

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