Department of Health and Human Services as the director for its Office of Military Liaison and Veterans Affairs. In that role, she was the emissary between the federal departments of Health and Human Services, Defense and Veterans Affairs. “You’d be surprised at the connections that have to be sorted out or set up between those,” she says. “They’re all in. They’re all huge, ridiculously loud.” In the Chattanooga Community Health office, her schedule is swelled to bursting with presentations to municipal and community groups, attending conferences and, obviously, dealing with COVID-19. Once the pandemic is under control, though, Community Health can turn its attention to the issues it was created to address, she says. “The focus will be health disparities in populations, to issues and concerns around the social determinants of health. How much people know about their health. What they need to do to remain healthy or regain their health. “There are so many places we can make a dent in this and improve the health. Because if we improve the health of the least healthy in our population, we improve the health and the economic welfare of the entire community, the entire city, the entire county.”
utc.edu/lambert
My mom and my siblings tell me I’m—quote— ‘tenderhearted.’ OK, I mean, if there’s something going on with somebody, I want to help fix it.” — Mary Lambert, Nursing, 1978
Fall 2021 | 11
