Economics and management majors don’t usually go to medical school – and senior Riley McKinney has no plans to do so. Thanks to a summer internship with the Kent County Health Department (KCHD), however, she is excited to see the impact that local government and local nonprofits can have on the health of, well, pretty much everybody.

“When people think about public health, they’re often just thinking about the Centers for Disease Control and things that affect the public on a large scale,” McKinney said. “I have become more well-versed in applying health care to needs on a more local scale.”

As part of the KCHD’s Center for Community Health Strategies (CCHS) team, McKinney is helping the county apply local scale to nearly 700,000 residents. To achieve this goal, the CCHS works with an increasing number of nonprofit organizations serving diverse sections of the community.

“I have worked with amazing people and community connecters that are a part of the Grand Rapids LGBT Healthcare Consortium, Disability Advocates of West Michigan, Hispanic Center of Grand Rapids, and A Glimpse of Africa,” McKinney said. “These organizations all utilize KCHD for resources such as brochures, testing kits, clinic services, and education. Working with them has opened my eyes and sparked my interest in non-profit organizations as well as providing care at much more than just a broad lens and calling it into the specific needs that certain groups are faced with.”

Using economics/management to advocate for the neglected populations

McKinney firmly believes that this nonprofit advocacy is crucial to the KCHD’s mission of service to the entire community. She said it’sbeen taxing “going through the data of Kent County itself and having to unpack all the disparities that occur within a community. It is always hard to see that some groups have been neglected and now as a community we must advocate and provide them with help as well as access to information and care.”

That’s an even bigger job than her internship.

“From my public health and health communication classes at Albion, I knew this would be the field I wanted to go into because my main goal is to help and advocate for those who may not have been advocated for in the past,” McKinney explained. “I decided on my major because I was interested in the business side of healthcare, possibly local government, medicinal companies, or communication and promotion of health and wellness. The Wilson Institute has really helped open my eyes to how much I can do in healthcare, even if it is not frontline work.”

She continued, “I am so excited to further my career in the realm of public health and continue to learn every day. I am truly lucky to be able to utilize Albion and their staff to help me pave the way for my future.”

— Riley McKinney is majoring in economics and management with a concentration in public health and is a member of the Prentiss M. Brown Honors Program and the Lisa and James Wilson Institute for Medicine. A member of the women’s golf team and Alpha Xi Delta McKinney, she also serves on Albion’s Panhellenic Council. She is the daughter of Nicole and Travis McKinney of Watervliet and is a graduate of Watervliet High School.