Details

Blaney: 2020 Delta Omega Initiate

image

Kayleigh Blaney attended the University of Pittsburgh, graduating in 2013 with a BS in biology and history and in 2014 with a Master of Public Health in epidemiology. She is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Public Health at the University of South Florida. After working with the University of Pittsburgh Long Life Family study, Blaney became an epidemiologist for the Oakland County Health Division (Michigan) in 2016. 

Her expertise includes surveillance, management, and data analysis of communicable diseases. Blaney is the current Chair of the Michigan Public Health Association-Epidemiology Section. In 2019, Kayleigh accepted a position as a lecturer in Epidemiology in the Oakland University Master of Public Health program. She is a frequently invited to guest lecture in public health courses and lecturer on wide-ranging communicable disease topics at the local, regional, and national levels. 

About her time at Pitt Public Health, Blaney says, "Pitt Public Health significantly influenced my career choice. The opportunities available to students to gain experience in many aspects of public health provided the opportunity to test out many different career paths. The career path I choose, local applied public health, was not the field I intended to enter when I started my MPH. But through the MPH program and with the guidance and expertise of the faculty, I was able to try different things. I am grateful for that opportunity because I could not imagine enjoying another career path as much as I enjoy what I am doing currently." 

On her job, "the most exciting part of my job is the ability to work at a level that can affect significant change. Working at a local health department, we have significant ability to evaluate community needs and respond to those needs, as we serve a smaller group of people than a state health department would, for example. Working in either prevention or outbreak settings where I can get to know people from different communities is rewarding and helps to bridge the gap between local communities and public health."



11/17/2020
print

Search for an Article