Shanell Brown, a public health nurse and Tacoma native, joined Clark County Public Health as its first racial equity director in May.
“Clark County Public Health was a place that expressed readiness to move from acknowledgement of inequities to actually taking action to address them,” Brown said. “That’s the exact kind of environment where I do my best work. I really want to help build the infrastructure and support that makes equity durable rather than dependent on just one sole person or moment.”
In June 2020, the Clark County Board of Health passed a resolution declaring racism as a public health crisis. Since then, Public Health has been steadily working behind the scenes to identify and address health inequalities…