Jessica Miller Shelly

Supervisor

Building Operations and Food Services

Cincinnati Public Schools

Cincinnati, OH  45206

Biography

Jessica Miller Shelly, RS, REHS, MBA, is a Supervisor of Building Operations and Food Services for Cincinnati Public Schools. She is responsible for overseeing the daily operations at 79 schools along with serving as a core member of the Incident Management Team.

Before joining the school district, Jessica worked in local health department jurisdictions for ten years. Most recently, she was a Senior Registered Environmental Health Specialist for the Cincinnati Health Department. Jessica was responsible for a myriad of tasks including: serving on the Bioterrorism Public Health Response Team; teaching ServSafe® to foodservice operators; conducting internal audits of state and local mandated programs; developing inspection methodology for sanitarians; presenting environmental health issues to companies and community groups; and composing and submitting grants, position papers, and publications.

Jessica has received many accolades for her dedication and work in environmental health. She has received three City of Cincinnati Outstanding Customer Service Awards, The Educational and Career Development Award from the City of Cincinnati, and she was a City of Cincinnati Seasongood Award winner for her ServSafe® program which helped demonstrate that food safety education lead to a dramatic decease of critical violations in food establishment inspections.

She was chosen to participate in the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's 1st Annual Emerging Leaders Workshop in Atlanta in December 2003. Jessica was also selected to be part of the 2003-2004 Ohio Public Health Leadership Institute for her  "Clean Streets, Safe City" agenda.

Jessica has been a speaker at several conferences including the Ohio Environmental Health Association Southwest Conference, the Ellenbee Leggett Food Show, and most recently she was the spotlight speaker at the School Nutrition Association's national conference in Baltimore, Maryland, in July 2005.

She is a member of various professional organizations including Junior League of Cincinnati, National Environmental Health Association, International Food Safety Council, Professional Association of Code Enforcement, and National Association of Female Executives.

Jessica's undergraduate degree in Zoology is from Miami University. She graduated summa cum laude with her MBA in Management, International Business, and Marketing from the University of Cincinnati and was honored as the 2002 Outstanding Graduate Student of the Year.

What I Learned at EPHLI

EPHLI has provided me with a valuable opportunity to take on new challenges in my career. It has strengthened my dedication to making a difference in Environmental Health.

The participation in the Environmental Public Health Leadership Institute has been a phenomenal growth experience for me. One of the greatest advantages I have gained is the ability to meet peers and mentors. It has been a great honor to collaborate with other fellows who face similar problems and issues in Environmental Health. Mentors laid the groundwork for future collaboration prospects and provided excellent leadership. The instructors through their various activities, assignments, exercises, and lectures helped all the fellows become self-motivated to apply the new techniques they were learning and begin to make a difference immediately at their work place.

Another advantage was that EPHLI gave me the chance to gain more context knowledge and help me immediately apply new ideas and concepts to my normal day-to-day tasks. I have been able to incorporate many of the new methods, such as critical thinking and systems modeling to name a few, into daily operations and large projects.

I believe my participation in EPHLI shows that there is no boundary for Environmental Health. I work for a school district and under the normal umbrella of Environmental Health; I would not be invited to the table as a player. It is a common mistake to not consider schools and private companies as groups who are stakeholders in Environmental Health and can make a positive contribution to Environmental Health advancements. Environmental Health reaches into all aspects of our world and efforts like EPHLI will be what helps bring the importance of Environmental Health into the national spotlight where it belongs.