ABOVE: From left, Caroline McCourt, Kaley Hernandez and Vlada Gladis have been recognized for their work with local public health.

FAIRMONT – Three public health officials who work in or with Martin-Faribault-Watowan Counties have been recognized with awards from the Minnesota Society of Public Health Education (MNSOPHE).

Caroline McCourt was selected for the Emergency Preparedness Powerhouse award. She won the award for her work as a Public Health Emergency Preparedness Coordinator for Martin and Faribault counties.

While she was on the board beforehand, she was promoted to coordinator at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. In this role, she organized drive-through testing clinics and vaccination clinics, seeking to bolster both counties during a public health emergency.

“My job focuses on planning to prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies or disasters that may impact our community,” McCourt said. “We’re doing this on the agency level, as our public health department and our human services agency, and also working throughout our community to increase community-level preparedness at your individual level.”

Recently, she has worked to reestablish the Preparedness Coalition between Faribault and Martin Counties.

“It includes different response partners like healthcare, law enforcement, schools, businesses, just many different stakeholders within our community,” McCourt said. “We’ve really worked to re-establish this coalition and define what this coalition could do so that everyone gets something out of it.”

In winning this award, McCourt said it also acknowledges all the people she has worked with to increase efficiency in public health for the counties and bring solutions to the people.

“It’s a great honor to have your work considered or be recognized for all the effort that goes into something like this, especially with our actions in the pandemic.”

Kaley Hernandez was chosen for a Prevention Professional award for her work as a Statewide Health Improvement Partnership Coordinator for Martin, Faribault and Watonwan counties.

Her work has included helping area food shelves provide healthy food options, adding a small grocery section to Butterfield Hardware, in a town with no grocery store, and a Power of Produce program dedicated to advocating for increased fruit and veggie consumption for children and the elderly.

“We work in four main areas,” Hernandez said. “We work with healthy eating and food access. We work to increase physical activity opportunities. We work to prevent tobacco use, and then we also work on mental well-being within the communities.”

By providing healthy food options for food shelves, which has been billed the Super Shelves program, Hernandez said they’re recognizing the need for food shelves in this current time.

“As we see more families and community members going to the food shelf, we want to break down all the barriers for them,” she said. “It’s about taking super shelves and transforming them into this welcoming space, making it feel more inclusive and bright. You can find the food that you need for your diet, so you can be healthy and make those good choices. I think that’s really powerful.”

In receiving her reward, Hernandez highlighted the partnerships that make her work possible.

“You have to think about all of the great partnerships, community support and grassroots work that led to me receiving this award,” she said. “I cannot take all the credit for sure, because we are always partnering with our community members to get the project done.”

While Vlada Gladis is based in the Faribault and Martin County system, her Pioneer Award win is for her work on a much larger scale.

She is the Collaboration Manager for Rural Public Health Initiative, a project which started in 2024 and includes 25 counties throughout Southwest and South Central MN from Big Stone County to Waseca County, as well as partnering with Minnesota State University- Mankato.

“What we are trying to do is support in helping meet the requirements of local public health,” Gladis said. “We have what are called foundational public health responsibilities, which are kind of a new way of looking at public health. We’re trying to make sure all communities across the state are able to have a set of services or framework in place so we can best serve all of the individuals in those counties.”

By having a collaboration between these 25 counties, Gladis said it helps reduce competition between them.

“One of the benefits is you have a lot more buy-in because you have support of other partners,” she said. “When we work together, we apply as a full region.”

To be recognized for her part in getting such a large collaborative together, Gladis said it is a testament to the amazing colleagues she has across the state.

“We have great partnerships and great communication,” she said. “I’m really glad to be able to have this award, because I truly feel like we all share it. We’re all the innovators and pioneers in public health.”