Jayde Rankin

Passionate about serving others and making a difference to the health of my community. With a BA in Healthcare Leadership, I was given a foundation in public health and working with a team. I served as an AmeriCorps VISTA for the Pierce County MRC which is housed in partner to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department. My time there taught me empathy and compassion from working with volunteers in a non-profit setting. I also assisted in setting up clinics for those experiencing homelessness. 

I am a quick learner and show humility and ownership for my actions. I love communicating and working with people whether it's within a work team or public community members. I am creative in my approaches and ideas, which adds new perspectives to projects. 

Working in public health during the COVID-19 crisis has taught me adaptability in a way that I could have never learned from a textbook. I'm currently with the Washington State Department of Health as an Outreach Coordinator in the Office of Communicable Disease Epidemiology providing operational support to other teams and coordinating engagement efforts. Which include but aren't limited to hosting and coordinating trainings and meetings for external partners, assisting in outbreak response and building trustworthy relationships both internally and externally with local health jurisdictions, tribal health professionals, interagency partners, and out-of-state professionals. I have since been a crucial part of the 2020-2023 COVID-19 Response, 2022 Mpox Response, and 2023 Listeriosis Outbreak.

My most current role at Washington State Department of Health I started in the PHOCIS office supporting targeted work groups, operational capacity and resiliency regarding outward facing COVID-19 response. I was activated under the IMT to support Washington schools with immunization reporting to CDC. I was a part of the CICT Rapid Hiring Sprint, where we hired 145 investigators in 3 weeks to support CICT work for the fall 2020 surge. I interviewed DOH staff in other teams and assisted in writing an article about their work for our agency newsletter. I have also been a part of our agencies’ efforts in both the 2022 Monkey Pox Response and the 2022 Tuberculosis Outbreak in Correctional Facilities. 

In March 2022 we went through a re-org and transferred to the Office of Communicable Disease Epidemiology. Many of my roles stayed the same with focus shifting from COVID to all communicable diseases. I align engagement efforts across the agency and connect equity issues at the operational level. Connect external stakeholders with appropriate subject matter experts. Find communication gaps and barriers and develop solutions for improvement through an equity lens. Design tools and perform data collection for internal and external purposes, develop and manage the Partners Directory, create platform comparison documents and technical guides for meeting and survey platforms, send Health Advisory messages and assisted updating the Emergency Biologics Directory. I support engagement efforts to local health jurisdictions, tribes, universities, colleges and schools regarding COVID-19 and other emerging diseases through support and sharing knowledge of tools and resources. I also assist in hosting and putting together many large external meetings and trainings for partners which includes; finding presenters, meeting facilitation, monitoring chat boxes, managing calendar invites, taking and distributing notes. I have also been apart of the creation and management of an external SharePoint portal which includes resources regarding CD Epi.

When working with the Pierce County Medical Reserve Corps through the VISTA program I increased organizational capacity to serve vulnerable populations in emergency response through community outreach and activities to improve community resilience. Worked alongside leadership, including the immunization team and assisted in the beginning stages of creating a behavioral health team. Assisted in staffing for Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department's COVID-19 response. Supported communications and outreach through emails, newsletters, and social media. 

I managed roughly 600 volunteers, this includes onboarding new volunteers, background checks and inputting information into our database. Set up vaccine clinics and recruited volunteers to help support clinics and other events. Tabled at community events. 
 

I helped create a new website from scratch for the organization, using WordPress. Created a communication plan and managed social media accounts. Input and tracked data using Excel and SharePoint. 

During the beginning stages of the COVID-19 response I was activated by the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department under IMT assisting with volunteer recruitment and management and tracking data regarding volunteer hours.

I graduated from the University of Washington Tacoma campus with a Bachelor's in Healthcare Leadership, I was on the Dean's List every quarter during my time attending this school. My courses included health informatics, business of healthcare, healthcare accreditation and legal issues, ethics in healthcare, introduction to research in nursing and healthcare, healthcare budgetary analysis and financial decision making, personnel management in healthcare and promoting health through social marketing. Prior to my BA I got an associates degree un general studies from Pierce Community College. In my career I have continued my education through various trainings, seminars and certifications including FEMA certifications.