.jpg "Rachel E. Swafford, MPH, CPH photo")
Regional Substance Misuse Response Coordinator
Tennessee Department of Health
Chattanooga, Tennessee
Rachel Swafford, MPH, CPH grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee and was a Presidential Scholar at Radford University, earning a B.A. in Dance. After years working in bookstores and public libraries, she went on to become a Graduate Assistant in Biostatistics & Epidemiology at East Tennessee State University, completing a M.P.H. in Epidemiology in 2010. She was a Research Associate for the University of Tennessee College of Medicine Chattanooga for over seven years, where she coordinated numerous clinical research studies, and co-authored 11 peer-reviewed journal publications in the field of orthopaedic surgery.
Rachel joined Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) in 2019 as a Healthy Development Coordinator for planning healthy, built environments in the community. She has served as a Public Health Program Director II and is the region’s first Substance Misuse Response Coordinator. She has worked in Emergency Preparedness since mid-2020, covering 10 counties of the Southeast Tennessee High-Impact Area (HIA) program supported by TDH’s Overdose Response Coordination Office (ORCO). Rachel initiated a multi-county, multi-sector Regional Substance Misuse Task Force and leads the HIA’s STEPS Project (Southeast TN Emergency Department Protocols for Substance Use Disorder). She established a Harm Reduction Navigator position serving three county Health Departments, provides community outreach and prevention education, and conducts overdose surveillance and response activities for her region.
Disclosure information not submitted.
Wednesday, April 20, 2022
4:30 PM – 5:45 PM ET