Denison interns helping Columbus Public Health look at racism issues

Just a few weeks into his internship with Columbus Public Health, Denison University junior Jaleel Poole spoke about his work for the health department’s Food Action Division with equal parts enthusiasm and anger.

“Racism in food distribution created food deserts,” Poole said, “and if that’s not a front-line issue, it should be. Because access to healthy food should be a basic human right, and it’s a right not everybody has in a country that is so rich and technologically advanced.”

Poole is one of three Denison students interning with Columbus Public Health as part of a new partnership between the institutions. 

It began earlier this year, after the city health department created the Center for Public Health Innovation in April to address racism as a public health issue.

Terrance Dean, Denison assistant professor of Black Studies, who had recently founded the William Payne Innovation Lab as a think-tank, reached out to Columbus health officials about how they could partner.

Two results came out of that: One was a commitment by Dean and several Denison professors to help the health department study the issue of racism in public health and to better understand the history of systemic racism.

The other was the internships. The health department has also had internship arrangements with Ohio State University and Otterbein University, and might set up a program with Wittenberg University, as well, according to Suellen Bennett, an epidemiologist with Columbus Public Health.

“The students are passionate and interesting, and we are benefiting from their passion and energy and work,” said Bennett, executive officer of the department’s innovation center.

The other two Denison interns are Jackie Figueroa, a senior from Columbus and a Columbus Alternative High School graduate, and Smelanda Jean-Baptiste, a senior from Stamford, Connecticut.

Figueroa just started her work with the department’s Racial Equity Landscape Assessment Project. She will be studying best practices in other cities that are working toward racial equity. Jean-Baptiste is still awaiting a placement.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, all interns are working remotely.

Poole applied for the internship after interning with a hospital in his hometown of Chicago earlier this summer. He created a virtual-reality product that examined the structural issues that created food deserts or food insecurity in some of the city’s west-side neighborhoods.

“The hyper-presence of fast-food restaurants is one sign of a food desert,” Poole explained. “It shows there are not enough fresh-food grocers.”

Dean said one benefit of the partnership is preparing students for possible careers in public health.

“This allows them to see additional career opportunities for people of color,” Dean said. “They may have aspirations to go into the medical field, and this gives them exposure to epidemiology and public health careers. Not everyone is going to pursue being a doctor or nurse.”

Poole could be an example of that. He said he is interested in global health issues.

“I’d like to have a career in the infectious disease or chronic disease fields,” he said. “So this internship could be a gateway, because many chronic diseases stem from people not having proper food sources in their community.”

kgordon@dispatch.com

@kgdispatch