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SPH Hosts Final Shelby County Health Department Speaker Series Event of the Semester

Friday, 17 April 2026

The last iteration of the School of Public Health and Shelby County Health Department speaker series was held on Friday, April 17, with speakers Elatris Estell, BA, MSL, MBA, Medical Reserve Corps Manager for Emergency Preparedness, and Julie Schuman, Regional Epidemiologist.

Ms. Estell informed SPH students, faculty and staff on the work of Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) - a national network of volunteers organized locally which supports public health, emergency preparedness, and response and operates under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The MRC supplements local health systems during crises, builds healthier communities year-round and bridges the gap between public health and the public. Anyone can join, including medical professionals, non-medical professionals, interns and students, retirees, homemakers or any resident of Shelby County who has the passion to serve.

Ms. Schuman shared insights about her role as a regional epidemiologist, who oversees reportable diseases investigations, outbreak investigations, syndromic surveillance, environmental epidemiology, HIV/STI/TB epidemiology, and emergency preparedness. She also shared examples of various tools used in reporting, such as the Shelby County Respiratory Viral Illness Dashboard. This dashboard shows data for common RVIs such as the flu, the common cold, RSV, Covid-19 and others. Further information was given about the Tennessee List of Reportable Diseases and Conditions that all healthcare providers are required to report to the department of health.

We are grateful to both SCHD speakers who presented and closed out our series, along with the large delegation of representation from the department who attended.

(L-R) Elatris Estell BA, MSL, MBA, Medical Reserve Corps Manager for Emergency Preparedness at SCHD; Julie Schuman, Regional Epidemiologist, SCHD; and Fedoria Rugless, PhD, CCRP, Senior Project Director, Center for PH-IDEAS, UofM SPH

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