If she’s not on a phone call, Dr. Mimi McDonell is running out the door to administer a COVID-19 test, or virtually providing an update to elected officials and the public about local response to the pandemic.
McDonell, the health officer for North Central Public Health District, is, in the words of Wasco County Commissioner Kathy Schwartz, “clearly in charge of this pandemic locally. She is leading the response in every way.
“She is really the epicenter of all the information, the guidance, the planning. She’s the conduit with the state and the feds,” Schwartz said. “I think I can speak for the whole board, we are really looking to her to guide us.”
Indeed, after hearing a recent update from McDonell, Wasco County Commissioner Scott Hege said, “As always, an amazing job. We so appreciate your heart and dedication.”
McDonell — who is also humble, Schwartz noted — will only agree that she’s perhaps the person from the health district who people hear from the most, but she’s quick to note that many people are working hard behind the scenes.
The health district’s epidemiologist, Jeremy Hawkins, is leading the case investigation group, McDonell said, and others at the health district are leading up social services work.
Schwartz said the county commission looks forward to McDonell’s weekly reports at online meetings. “They’re candid, they’re informative; she is able to get the facts for us as we ask our millions of questions and at the same time respond to chat questions. She’s pretty amazing, let’s keep her.”
Schwartz added, “I don’t really think that all counties have such support and such competence in their health officer that we have. Mimi is incredibly intelligent, empathetic, sympathetic.”
As the health officer, McDonell understands the science and data, Schwartz said, “but I think Mimi has a unique ability to understand the human aspect, the behavior aspect of what we’re asking people to do.
“I think she has an amazing ability to recognize that her guidance does lead directly to economic hardship for people and businesses,” Schwartz said. She has sympathy for the stance she has to take, of putting the health of citizens first, “but also being concerned and recognizing that it comes at an economic cost to folks.”
McDonell deals with the firehose of information by focusing on what matters to her work. She might not read about intensive care treatment, “but I do read a lot of articles on viral transmission in populations.”
That dive into the weeds is the kind of thing she loves. “As I always say, public health is the intersection of social justice and nerdy science, and that’s why I love it.”
NCPHD Interim Director Shellie Campbell said McDonell “immediately took up the torch to make sure not only NCPHD but our community was ready for what came.”
McDonell helped to ensure a wide swath of groups were at the planning table, ranging from cherry growers to medical providers, schools, social services, elected officials and volunteers.
McDonell took the onslaught of state guidance and filtered it, Campbell said, “to get the medical perspective on what needed to be done to start working on this virus.”
McDonell also took the lead in researching what needed to be put in place in terms of isolation and quarantine, personal protective equipment, staffing, and staff training.
“And that meant she worked seven days a week many weeks, and continuing to be available by phone to everyone. And she does this because she has such a heart and a passion not only for public health but for the community,” Campbell said.
Campbell added, “She’s so easy to work with because she puts people at ease. I think it’s one of her gifts. She includes people, she respects people, she values everybody’s voice."
McDonell not only attends meetings, but she does outbreak investigations, case investigations and contact tracing. She’s administered at least 150 COVID tests and has driven people to hotels for isolation or quarantine, and brought them food.
McDonell also frequently fields questions. “I would say the number of decisions is similar to when I was a resident,” she said, when it wasn’t uncommon to work all day and all night, and then into the next evening. She worked as an obstetrician and gynecologist before her career in public health.
But the best thing about the pandemic response has been the “bright, selfless” people she gets to work with, she said, not only at the health district, but throughout the community. “It’s been phenomenal.
“This pandemic brings out the best in the majority of people, it really has.”
She’s been most surprised by how compliant the vast majority of people have been, at least in Oregon, about taking advice from public health.
She said the ability to quickly test people is “actually very complex,” hinging on a range of supplies, materials and equipment sourced all over the world. “No matter how hard our staff work here, we can’t make labs run faster.”
She feels if the U.S. had truly ramped up acquisition and production of the range of testing needs and personal protective equipment early in the pandemic, “we would be in a different position.”
Kristen Slatt works with McDonell at the health district, where she is a community health specialist. “She gives so much of herself to others,” Slatt said.
“It’s inspiring to watch her work. Her dedication to the health and wellness of our community is incredible,” Slatt said. “She’s here when I get here and she’s still here when I leave.”
Slatt added, “She cares deeply about our community and the people who live here. She works tirelessly on improving the health of residents from both a policy level, like her work with Blue Zones or applying for grant funding for programs to help keep kids active like Swim Rx or Youth Fit for Life. When not at work she is often fitting in time to volunteer in her community.”
McDonell has done dance choreography for high school plays and serves as a mentor for the high school’s ASPIRE program, which helps college-bound students.
Slatt hears McDonell on the phone a lot, and she’s always trying to understand others’ concerns. And on calls with people who have COVID, or their family members, “she knows that this is a scary and stressful time for people and speaks to them with such kindness and compassion.”
And, to boot, McDonell has “a great sense of humor,” Slatt said. “This is really hard work that we’re doing, she’s doing, and her sense of humor has helped us all through this, particularly during the really hard days.”
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