As deputy commissioner for the Georgia Division of Public Well being, Chris Rustin, DrPH, has helped Georgia reply to the COVID-19 pandemic and the present monkeypox outbreak. These points are part of the previous, current and way forward for public well being in Georgia, which he’ll focus on on Oct. 17 at 7 p.m., within the Performing Arts Middle on Georgia Southern College’s Statesboro Campus.
Rustin is the featured speaker within the 2022 Norman Fries Distinguished Lectureship Collection, hosted this 12 months by the Jiann-Ping Hsu School of Public Well being (JPHCOPH). The occasion is free and open to the general public.
Rustin’s public well being profession spans greater than twenty years, starting from working in rural and concrete well being departments, the state well being division, to a stint in academia. He splits his time between Atlanta and Savannah serving in a twin function as deputy commissioner for the Georgia Division of Public Well being (DPH) and the general public well being administrator for the Chatham County Well being Division.
Because the deputy commissioner, he assists the commissioner of public well being with oversight of statewide public well being packages, 159 county well being departments and greater than 6,000 workers statewide. For the previous two years, he has served because the incident supervisor coordinating DPH’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and is presently aiding with coordination of the monkeypox response. Because the Chatham County public well being administrator, he directs one of many largest well being departments within the state, guaranteeing native public well being companies are supplied to the Savannah-Chatham group and area.
Rustin started his profession as an intern with the Chatham County Mosquito Management Fee, resulting in his first public well being place as an environmental well being specialist with the Evans County Well being Division. From there, he managed and directed environmental well being packages for Effingham and Chatham County well being departments. In 2009, he transferred to DPH headquarters in Atlanta to imagine management positions in environmental well being and was promoted to the director of well being safety overseeing DPH’s largest division. He holds adjunct college appointments at a number of universities and taught environmental well being science on the JPHCOPH.
An alumnus of the JPHCOPH, he acquired his Physician of Public Well being with an emphasis on group well being. Moreover, he’s a registered environmental well being specialist with the Georgia Board of Registered Environmental Well being Professionals, a fellow of the CDC Environmental Public Well being Management Institute and the speedy previous president of the Georgia Public Well being Affiliation.
The annual Norman Fries Distinguished Lectureship Collection is sponsored by an endowment established to honor the late Norman Fries, the founding father of Claxton Poultry and former senior statesman of the poultry trade in Georgia. His firm continues its custom as a privately held household enterprise with the Fries youngsters and grandchildren.
Georgia Southern College, a public Carnegie Doctoral/R2 establishment based in 1906, gives roughly 140 totally different diploma packages serving practically 26,000 college students by means of 10 schools on three campuses in Statesboro, Savannah, Hinesville and on-line instruction. A pacesetter in larger schooling in southeast Georgia, the College supplies a various scholar inhabitants with knowledgeable college, world-class scholarship and hands-on studying alternatives. Georgia Southern creates lifelong learners who function accountable students, leaders and stewards of their communities. Go to GeorgiaSouthern.edu.
