Nkechi Michel, MPH, CHES is a Public Health Advocate and Educator for the Obesity Prevention Program, SNAP-Ed in Sacramento, CA.  Working in community health, she loves helping people and being on the ground. Her biggest passions include nutrition and environmental racism. She is the Founder of @thatpublichealthchick, her Instagram platform where she loves to share public health messages and engage with people virtually. Queenivism is her website where she has a public health merchandise line of clothing and accessories that she designed to get people sharing, thinking about and promoting public health, health equity, and activism.  

In This Episode We Cover:

- Her decision to initially go into nursing and how she quickly decided to pivot into public health.

- Her experience starting out as a peer-health educator.

- Her current position at the CA Department of Health SNAP-Ed program and her focus on obesity prevention, increasing food access, and improving the food environment overall.

- How the pandemic has shifted her work to more virtual platforms.

- The different community partners she works with and the community’s receptiveness to her public health education.

- All about her Instagram platform @thatpublichealthchick, how and what she decides to post, and her engagement with the public health community.

- What she is doing to promote and work towards health equity.

- All about her merchandise line and how it is helping spread the message and increase awareness around public health, activism, and health equity.

Advice for Public Health Professionals:

Start by taking a class. Take public health 101 and see where it takes you. Reach out to people who are already doing the work. It’s a matter of doing research, exploring, reaching out to folks already doing it, asking questions, and volunteering. See what it is that can be done in public health. Feel it out and see what impact it can really make.

Connect:

- Instagram: @thatpublichealthchick

- Website: queenivism.com