Leah Elliott

Disease Investigation, Outbreak Mitigation and Infection Control and Response

• Initiate and direct investigations for Ohio’s Class A and Class B diseases for Butler County. Notable examples include Meningococcal disease, Measles, Candida auris, and Carbapenem Producing Organisms (CPO).
• Investigate and mitigate Ohio’s Class C diseases such as foodborne, waterborne, institutional, and hospital-acquired outbreaks. Recent examples include Norovirus, Legionella, and COVID-19.
• Maintain working relationships and communications with infection control practitioners of southwest Ohio hospitals, Butler County long-term care/nursing homes, surrounding county’s Epidemiologists and Disease Investigators, Miami University, Butler County schools and child care programs.
• Serves as infection control focal point for Butler County skilled nursing facilities for Candida auris and CPO outbreaks. Provides evidence-based infection control measures and facilitates point prevalence screenings for specific organisms.

Data Analysis

• Compiles, analyzes, interprets and reports public health-related data, policies and metrics to Medical Director, Health Commissioner, Senior Epidemiologist, and Director of Nursing.
• Experience and proven capabilities in analytic and descriptive data analysis utilizing Excel, SPSS and R. Completed graduate-level course "Applied R for Epidemiologists" in February of 2024.
• Performs continuous public health surveillance, including active surveillance detecting reportable diseases increasing above expected thresholds.
• Authors the following reports for Butler County: Monthly Communicable Disease Report, Influenza-Associated Hospitalizations Report, COVID-19 Vaccination Report and COVID-19 Weekly Report.
• Respond to data requests from the public in a timely manner.

Miscellaneous

• Current co-chair for southwest Ohio's Regional Epidemiologists and Disease Investigators (REDI) workgroup Steering Committee.
• Committee leader for REDI's response to Mpox outbreak in August of 2022. Facilitated weekly meetings until October of 2022.
• Served as Interim Maternal and Child Health Epidemiologist for approximately one month. Identified priority service areas for the Maternal and Child Health Outreach team using key metrics, such as; infant mortality rate, preterm birth rate, and low birth weight rate.
• Train and oversaw new employees, specifically an Infection Control Educator and Disease Investigator.
• Highly proficient in the Ohio Revised Code as it relates to infectious diseases and the rights of Public Health and individuals.
• HIPPA compliant at all times.
• Excellent conflict management skills as it specifically relates to infectious diseases.
• Constantly staying up-to-date in the infectious disease field locally, regionally, and nationally.

Contact Tracing Supervisor

• Key leader and developer of Wright State's Supplemental Contact Tracing Team in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Managed 25 COVID-19 contact tracers for Butler, Preble, Champaign, Warren, and Miami counties in Ohio.
• Conducted, directed, and supervised training of new team members for COVID-19 contact tracing and instructed them on specific processes and flow for their respective health jurisdictions.

Graduate Assistant

• Provided WSU Department of Population and Public Health Sciences with administrative, research, and course assistance.
• Participated in lesson planning and curriculum implementation to promote quicker rollout and delivery.
• Graded assignments according to university standards.