Coshocton County Public Health District's new employees want greater community impact
COSHOCTON − The Coshocton County Public Health District recently welcomed two new employees who wanted to work closer to home and help the community at large.
Debra Eppley became the new commissioner for the health district at the first of the year. There were four candidates for the position. About a month ago, Olivia Elson was hired as the new health educator. Both live in Coshocton County.
Eppley replaces the retired Steve Lonsinger. He took the post in 2015 following the death of Robert Brems Jr. from a sudden illness. Lonsinger was with the health department for 28 years. He cited the combining of the city and county health departments in 2022 and getting a new facility in 2023 as recent major accomplishments.
"I have the most confidence that Debra will step right in and continue and improve our services," Lonsinger said.
Debra Eppley named Coshocton County health commissioner
Eppley of Coshocton has a background in nursing with the majority related to maternal child care. She has a master's degree in nursing and a black belt in Six Sigma, a business methodology for quality improvement that measures how many defects there are in a current process and seeks to systematically eliminate them.
She's worked in hospitals and the Holmes County Health Department and taught adult education. She's also helped hospitals across the country to improve their infection rates via a federal program. When that role was coming to a close, Eppley knew she wanted to do something that would have more of an impact on the local community.
"The work I was doing was getting me into hospitals, but on a much larger scale. I wanted to come back, once that job was over, and be a little bit more with things I could touch and affect personally in the county," Eppley said. "This allows me to come back a bit to that nurse clinical side and learn about the environmental side. I look forward to working with the team."
The health department has 17 employees. It offers services related to public health and environmental health. The Maternal and Child Health Center and Women, Infant and Children programs are under its umbrella. It's also where one goes for birth and death records.
Eppley said she doesn't look to make any major changes in the short term and just wants to do what she can so the staff can continue to do their jobs to the best of their abilities.
"My short term goals are to really just understand the department and the team, how I can advocate for them and what I can do for them. Then, broadly, start to figure out how we are going to work so they can continue what they're doing," Eppley said.
Olivia Elson is county's health educator
Elson, of Warsaw, also has a background in nursing and worked in the private sector. She's a 2013 graduate of Coshocton High School and 2017 graduate of Ohio University Zanesville with a bachelor's degree in health sciences.
She's looking forward to being involved in her own community and making a difference with health care, which she said is her passion.
As the health educator, Elson works with schools, businesses and community organizations to let them know what the health department offers while also getting answers to any general health related questions.
"When you're focused on the individual it's helping them get better. I thought working with public health, you're looking at the bigger picture, you're looking at it as a whole, and figuring out ways to prevent hospitalizations," Elson said. "I know it would be very special to me to work with people in my own community."
Leonard Hayhurst is a community content coordinator and general news reporter for the Coshocton Tribune with more than 15 years of local journalism experience and multiple awards from the Ohio Associated Press. He can be reached at 740-295-3417 or llhayhur@coshoctontribune.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @llhayhurst.
This article originally appeared on Coshocton Tribune: Coshocton health district has new health commissioner, health educator
