Dr. Rachel Wood moves on from Thurston County -- and The Olympian
Dr. Rachel Wood, who has served as Thurston County’s health officer since 2013, is moving on from her role here in Thurston — and as a columnist at The Olympian — this week.
During her tenure, Wood helped to lead the county’s response to public health threats ranging from measles to neurotoxins in drinking water.
Wood grew up in New Mexico and pursued her undergraduate studies at Colorado College, she told The Olympian. That’s when she had her first brush with public health: as a volunteer testing prairie dog burrows for fleas carrying bubonic plague.
After earning her masters in public health, she went to medical school at the University of Colorado then got a job as an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at the Minnesota Department of Health.
Family ultimately drew Wood and her husband, who’s a family physician, to Washington in 1995. Wood first worked as a physician for students at The Evergreen State College and got the job as Lewis County’s health officer in 2007. She’s been working there since, and added Thurston County to her workload six years ago.
At a celebration Monday and in conversations with The Olympian, colleagues and county officials focused on Wood’s compassion and empathetic approach to public health.
“I think people are really going to miss Dr. Wood because she is so full of compassion and kindness, and that really shows up in her work as Health Officer in this community,” Public Health and Social Services Director Schelli Slaughter said in an interview Tuesday.
Slaughter told The Olympian a national search is on for the health officer who will fill Wood’s role, and the department is accepting applications via the county’s human resources website: https://www.thurstoncountywa.gov/hr.
A draft version of the job description includes that the health officer enforces particular state laws, is the chief medical officer for the county, and provides policy guidance and recommendations to the Board of Health to prevent and control disease, protect the environment, and respond to public health emergencies.
Over the course of her time at Thurston County, Wood helped Thurston face the threat of Ebola; she helped the county deal with a Hepatitis A outbreak in the homeless population.; and she was involved in the response when someone brought ricin, a poison that can be made from castor beans, into Providence St. Peter Hospital earlier this year.
Perhaps the clearest way to understand the broad work a health officer does is to look at Wood’s calendar. Over the course of two days in October, Wood told The Olympian, she:
had breakfast with someone from a faith-based organization, in part to talk about distributing Naloxone — a medication that counters an opioid overdose;
made a presentation to Lewis County’s Board of Health about vaping;
directly observed therapy for someone with tuberculosis;
met with communications staff to draft Health Matters columns for The Olympian; and
had a call with an emergency room doctor to discuss the process to follow if a doctor suspects a communicable disease.
She also was on-call nights and weekends, as usual, in case of a public health emergency: At mile 10 of the Capital City Marathon, once, she was paged. A child had meningococcus, which causes bacterial meningitis. So, she took a pencil and paper out of her pouch and sat to the side of the race to respond while people ran past her.
“I was tired, but I ran the last three miles and then limped to my car,” Wood told The Olympian.
Art Starry, Environmental Health Division Director, remembers one moment as particularly symbolic of Wood’s care for the community.
In 2017, blue-green algae growing in Summit Lake produced a neurotoxin. The lake provided drinking water to several hundred homes, Starry said, and the department had to break the news just before Mother’s Day weekend that people living in those homes shouldn’t shower, drink, or really do anything with their water.
The way Starry tells it, Wood combined empathy with explaining the situation in a way that made sense to people at a community meeting.
“She’s known for her empathy and kindness,” Starry said. And, he added, her exceptionally sharp memory.
Director Slaughter pointed to Wood’s dedication “to advancing the field of public health” through her work statewide. Wood served as an alternate health officer for other counties and was involved with the Washington State Association of Local Public Health Officials.
Wood was hesitant to claim any real “wins” as health officer in an interview with The Olympian, but she said she particularly enjoyed when medical students would spend time with her and see what a doctor does while working in public health. One of those students, she said, became a health officer.
She attributes most specific successes to the work of the many teams and people she coordinates and works with.
“I don’t think people know how dedicated Public Health and Social Services staff are,” Wood said while tears welled in her eyes. “They’re amazing, they really believe in what they’re doing, and I get to work with really good staff in both Thurston and Lewis counties.”
Throughout an hour-long interview, Wood repeatedly returned to a few concepts important to her role: to treat people with respect, form partnerships, communicate, and educate.
“For anyone reading this: Please be aware that we all want the best for our families, for our children, for our lives,” Wood said. “We have to try to promote caring and respect.”
Wood will stay on as Lewis County’s health officer and will continue her work with state committees and with the hospital, she said. And she plans to spend much of her free time hiking.
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