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Ingrid R. Maurice Knowles, M.P.H. ’16

Ingrid R. Maurice Knowles, M.P.H. ’16

Ingrid R. Maurice Knowles, M.P.H. ’16

 

As the intra-agency liaison and interim director of the NYC Department of Health’s Emergency Response Group Development Unit—one of the largest municipal response units in the U.S. – Ingrid Maurice, M.P.H.’ 16, is responsible for ensuring that all 20 of the NYC Department of Health’s Emergency Response Groups (ERG) are fully prepared to complete their emergency function when the time comes. To make sure each ERG is properly prepared for an emergency, Ms. Maurice Knowles ensures each group has adequate staffing, training and leadership; she must also ensure each group collaborates with the other ERGs on preparedness projects, developing yearly goals which address the agency's preparedness capabilities.

 “I have to keep abreast of changing priorities across the agency and share with my leadership how these changes can and should impact our emergency preparedness work,” she explains. “For example, we are working hard to make equity an even stronger part of our response processes so that every single person in New York City has access to the right resources during and after a public health emergency.” It’s an enormous undertaking—but it has been a role she’s dreamed of holding since she first set her sights on becoming a public health policy professional.

Here Ms. Maurice Knowles shares her favorite memories as a student at New York Medical College (NYMC) her proudest professional accomplishments and her best advice for today’s public health students:

What first inspired you to pursue a career in emergency management? 

My journey to earning my Master of Public Health (M.P.H.) degree at NYMC was an indirect one. After studying pre-med in college, I chose post-graduation experiences that would expose me to research, non-profit/NGO, and clinical fields (in that order). It turns out that when I reached a more clinical experience, I realized I didn’t enjoy working within the health care system as much as trying to understand the surrounding factors that led to morbidity in the first place. Coincidentally, I was working right across the campus in the Westchester Medical Center Emergency Room when I started the application process in the NYMC School of Health Sciences and Practice.

What is your proudest professional accomplishment?

My proudest professional accomplishment, to date, is my deployment to the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI), in January 2018, to support recovery efforts following Hurricanes Irma and Maria. In my role as intra-agency liaison, I was selected to be a part of a five-person strategy team who traveled to the U.S. Virgin Islands for about one month to work with their health commissioner and their Department of Health leadership. We provided guidance and supported the implementation and socialization of response and recovery policies. We also drafted a recovery response plan for the territory that included short-, mid- and long-term recovery goals. I think it’s critical that jurisdictions connect with and learn from one another, so I was proud and humbled to have had the opportunity to connect with new colleagues in the USVI. 

Any advice for today’s M.P.H. students as they set their sights on building a career in health care?

My advice to students is to consistently work on refining the lens through which they look at public health and develop a strong sense of collaboration that allows them to understand others’ public health lens. For example, in my current role, I use an emergency preparedness and response lens to promote optimal and equitable health outcomes in New York City. Others in my agency achieve this goal though other lenses: environmental, mental health, epidemiological, health equity/community engagement and more. In coming together, we can holistically look at the health outcomes and work to improve them. Although your specific passion in public health may not match someone else’s, you have to be able to collaborate strategically together.