In February 2020, Grace Franklin 鈥�15 had just stepped into her new role as the public health director for San Miguel County in southwest 黑料社区. She was excited about the opportunity to revamp the county鈥檚 programs in family planning, WIC (Women, Infants and Children), and immunizations.

But two weeks into her new job, Franklin found her plans for shaping the community鈥檚 health system derailed by a global pandemic鈥嗏�斺�唖omething that wasn鈥檛 on her mind when she was setting her career path.

Originally from San Diego, Franklin earned her bachelor鈥檚 degree in Conflict Resolution before enrolling at UNC in 2013 to pursue her master鈥檚 through the 黑料社区 School of Public Health.

鈥淭he concentration at UNC is community health education, which was very appealing to me鈥嗏�斺�唄ow you communicate in a way that will resonate with people to make healthy behavior changes an automatic choice,鈥� she says.

Her advisor worked with her to create a customized approach to her studies. 鈥淪he was like, 鈥楾his is what you鈥檙e interested in. This is how we can take these concepts and help build your knowledge base,鈥欌�� Franklin says. 鈥�(Faculty) really encouraged me to stretch myself, come up with ideas and be innovative.鈥�

A graduate assistantship and an internship also helped her find her focus.

鈥淚 did a lot of work with one of my adjunct professors and did my internship with her at a local nonprofit called Look Both Ways, which is a Loveland-based sexual health education nonprofit.鈥�

That internship led Franklin to work with the 黑料社区 Department of Public Health and Environment and, eventually, to her new role as public health director for San Miguel County. She arrived there just as COVID-19 was emerging as a public health threat, and it took priority over everything she planned to work on.

鈥淭he first two weeks coming into the pandemic, it was fairly chaotic,鈥� she says, adding that, as a newcomer, she hadn鈥檛 had the opportunity to build relationships and was still learning about the community.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a rural frontier community that has a strong tourism economy. From the mountain town of Telluride all the way out to the ranches in Egnar, the needs vary significantly. And the risks for the spread of this virus vary, as well. I didn鈥檛 really know that or who to talk to,鈥� Franklin says. 鈥淏ut, the beauty of this place is that because it鈥檚 so small in number and people lean on each other, the sense of community is tremendous.鈥�

In March, one of the challenges they faced was turnaround on testing. 鈥淭he ability to test folks and understand how the disease was spreading was the biggest bottleneck. There would be times where we did the nasal swab test to see if there was an active infection. It would take three weeks to get a test result. By that time, it鈥檚 useless,鈥� Franklin says.

Meanwhile, 黑料社区 mountain communities with ski resorts were making headlines for COVID-19 outbreaks. But with the bottleneck in active case testing, they couldn鈥檛 easily determine their population鈥檚 exposure. Then, two community members who own a biotech company offered a solution.

鈥淭hey reached out to us and said, 鈥楬ey, we don鈥檛 have active contagion testing, but we do have an antibody test we鈥檝e been developing, and we鈥檇 love to offer it to our entire community,鈥欌�� Franklin says. 鈥淭hey provided the lab processing and transportation of the test for free, and then the county paid for the supplies for testing and the staffing to administer it.鈥�

The test, which requires a blood draw, looks at a person鈥檚 immune response specific to this coronavirus strain. Out of a population of 8,000, there were 5,500 people tested from throughout the county.

鈥淲e were the first county in the nation to do such wide-sweeping testing,鈥� Franklin says. Much to their relief, the results in late March and early April told them that San Miguel County had a fairly low infection rate. And, with a statewide stay-at-home order, those numbers remained somewhat contained until mid-summer. Then, as with many communities, those numbers began to climb, and communication and education efforts continued to be key initiatives鈥嗏�斺�哸nd a challenge in a tourism community.

鈥淲e have folks coming from all over, with different understandings, different policies and different expectations about this disease and its containment,鈥� Franklin says. Trying to help educate the constantly changing tourist populations required continual efforts by the community and local businesses.

Another challenge was rooted in a language barrier. 鈥淲e have over 20% Latinx population. Really early on, we saw they were disproportionately being affected by this virus鈥� But we were like, 鈥極K, we鈥檝e got this. We have some Spanish, speaking educators.鈥� But we have a whole subset of folks from Guatemala who don鈥檛 speak Spanish as their primary language. They speak a language called Chuj. We were missing this entire subset. So, we saw a spike really early on in this Guatemalan community just because we weren鈥檛 getting the information to them that they needed,鈥� she says.

鈥淲e recognized a gap in care for people to get the critical information needed in the language and method that they prefer,鈥� she says. 鈥淏y intentionally building an outreach campaign that responded to the needs of this often unseen population, we were able address the needs of the community as a whole.鈥�

The challenges across socioeconomic and cultural diversity meant Franklin and her team had to respond nimbly, and she says that her education at UNC offered her hands-on experience that has made a difference in how she was able to meet that challenge.

鈥淯NC is extremely special and unique in the sense that it has such a tailored experience,鈥� Franklin says. 鈥淎 lot of the classes connect you with other community organizations that need help, and you鈥檝e got to take concepts and actually put them into action. And then you digest it and learn so much more from it.鈥�