Valerie Mendralla

Valerie Mendralla is a tobacco control health educator with the Hamilton County General Health District in Cincinnati, Ohio. She works on tobacco policies for implementation at work sites, school campuses and apartment buildings. Mendralla also deals with tobacco control compliance rates in businesses.

Mendralla has an undergraduate degree in biological sciences from the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. In 2005, she earned an M.P.H. in public health administration and policy from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. She describes herself as determined, organized, creative, calm and a risk-taker.

How did you learn about the field of public health?
I served as a student trustee with a nonprofit on issues related to college health. That experience got me excited about prevention. I liked what I did and wanted to be able to do similar work professionally, but didn't know how I could do that without becoming a nurse or doctor. Then, some co-workers encouraged me to consider public health.

What attracted you to the field?
I was initially attracted to the depth of the field. When you work in public health, you can work with such a wide variety of issues, populations and professionals. Also, I really like public speaking and find it rewarding to communicate information that people can use to prevent a problem in the future.

In retrospect, what would you have done differently in your academic or professional pursuits?
I'm not sure I would do anything differently. I did the best I could with the amount of time and resources I had available.

You mentioned you would like to work for the CDC. Do you still want to?
Yes, I think there is a real appeal to work at the federal level where they are doing cutting edge public health. However, I have learned from my work with National Organizations for Youth Safety (NOYS) that it would be more rewarding and valuable if I gain experience at the local and state levels and then pursue work at the federal level.

If you had one piece of advice to share with someone thinking about a career in public health, what would it be?
I would encourage students in the School to take a variety of classes and get to know all facets of public health. A broad-based education can be useful in efforts to do analysis, research and community education.

What do you do now?
Currently, I work on tobacco prevention and policy implementation. I work on data analysis and community assessment. It is so important to gauge what the climate of the population is and then do the preparation before implementing a program. The real work isn't the program implementation; it's all the preparation, bringing together the committees and doing the surveys and assessments. I use everything I learned in the policy track at the University of Minnesota School of Public Heath. For example, when I started working in this job, I constructed a logic model to map out tobacco policy changes. I remembered doing that in a class.

What do you find most challenging in your work?
Working in policy is hard because I don't immediately know the effect I have on the community. For example, I won't know if smoking rates have dropped because of my policy change for at least a couple years. It's challenging because you do not know the value of your work up front.

Is there a particular health issue or community you enjoy working with?
I started working on issues concerning alcohol, tobacco and other drugs. I did my master's project on nutrition. Now, I'm working on tobacco issues. So, no there really isn't any one topic, but I do really like working with youth. They are impressionable. The information you give them can really influence the way they think about things in the future.

Is there anything you wish you had studied in school/done in school but didn't?
I'm satisfied with the courses I took. But if I had extra time I would have learned how to speak Spanish fluently. Speaking a second language is so important in this field.

What's the biggest lesson you learned during your time in school?
Get experience!. You need to find hands-on experiences. Join the student senate, get an internship, subscribe to journals--just get that first-hand experience and stay on top of research developments because public health changes and moves fast

If you could predict the future, what do you think is going to influence the public's health and why?
I think policy changes are going to have the greatest impact in the future. Things like obesity will be influenced by regulations on such things as commercials, food labels etc. The same is true for tobacco and smoking regulations.

If you could leave an indelible imprint on public health, what would it be?
I would make sure we have a universal healthcare system and a smoke-free world.