Augustana’s public health program celebrated 10 years with a lecture and open house on Oct. 3. The talk was sponsored by Dr. John O’Connor, Augustana graduating class of ‘79, and was in honor of his older brother Dr. Richard O’Connor, Augustana graduating class of ‘72. 

The lecture, discussing the botulism outbreak in Peoria and the COVID-19 pandemic, was presented by Dr. Alan Bridges, Augustana graduating class of ‘79. Bridges has worked in public health for many years, now serving as a distinguished professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. 

Both Bridges and O’Connor worked together alongside the Public Health Department and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on the botulism outbreak in Peoria. They helped identify the root cause of the problem and worked alongside patients to get them back to health.

“Dr. Rick O’Connor was a graduate of 1973 [from] Augustana. His brother John and I went to Augustana and med school with him,” Bridges said. “Dr. Richard O’Connor passed away in 2022, so tonight’s presentation was in honor of him. I worked with him in the botulism outbreak in Peoria in 1983.” 

Bridges worked as a Medical Incident Commander for the VA Great Lakes during COVID-19. Bridges said he had to stop elective procedures in hospitals, convert prep/recovery rooms into intensive care unit rooms, separate COVID positive patients and COVID negative patients, set up testing for the Midwest and know how much space was available in the hospital as well as the medical status of employees. 

“I’ve never worked harder in my life, so it was a lot of work. It was 14 hours a day, seven days a week…but I just felt like I was helping people,” Bridges said. “I was never tired, never said ‘I don’t want to do this anymore.’ It gave me the energy to do it, appreciating the rewards.” 

Bridges also authored the Moving Forward plan that allowed hospitals to open up again. 

Professor Dara Wegman-Geedey was able to highlight the accomplishments that the public health program has had over the past 10 years at the event. Wegman-Geedey and Carrie Hough, a previous Augustana professor of sociology and anthropology, made the public health major possible. 

In 2014, the major was made official. Within those 10 years, the Augustana public health program has been able to open the Augustana Care Clinic, have many successful students, help Augustana navigate COVID-19 and have students participate in the day of learning. 

“Public health really kind of touches on everything in our lives, whether it’s seatbelts, that’s a public health initiative. Firearm safety, which we are not doing incredibly well on, is another whole initiative,” Wegeman-Geedey said. “Flouride in the water, sewage treatment plants, safety in water and safety in food like Bridges was talking about, but also mental health is public health. There are so many places it touches that you don’t see because it works.” 

The celebration ended with an open house where people could stop by various public health students’ tables and hear about their talks. Senior Silvana Leguizamo is majoring in public health, Spanish for professionalism and sociology and anthropology. Leguizamo talked about the struggles and barriers people may face when accessing health care. 

“When it comes to accessing health care even when there are resources available, that doesn’t automatically mean people are going to go and utilize them,” Leguizamo said. “It also depends on where they are coming from and if they’re a part of the immigrant population or if they are living in a community that’s under-resourced.” 

The public health department hopes to bring in alumni and other distinguished individuals to hold lectures every year.