Biography:

Sarah Jones is the Coordinator of Student Services for the Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health at Georgia Southern University. She is a native of southwest Georgia, originally from Moultrie. She received her Bachelor’s in Science in Community Health degree from Georgia Southern University in 2005. She received her Master’s in Public Health emphasis in Epidemiology degree from the Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health in 2008. While pursuing her MPH, she worked as a Graduate Assistant for the Center for Rural Health and Research, within JPHCOPH. Her areas of research included Urban and Rural Health Comparisons, Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Human Immunodeficiency Virus, Maternal and Child Health, and the College Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System.

Immediately following graduation she worked with the Coastal Health District 9-1, in Savannah, GA., as an Epidemiologist/ Emergency Preparedness Consultant. In addition to assisting with Notifiable Disease investigations, she helped update the Coastal Health District’s Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) Plan. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Strategic National Stockpile has large quantities of medicine and medical supplies to protect the American public if there is a public health emergency (terrorist attack, flu outbreak, natural disaster).

From there she went to work with the Division of Public Health in Atlanta, GA. She was an Epidemiologist for the Georgia Emerging Infections Program, FoodNet. The Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet) is the principal foodborne disease component of CDC's Emerging Infections Program (EIP). FoodNet is a collaborative project of the CDC with ten EIP sites, including Georgia. She was primarily responsible for monitoring the surveillance and investigation of Salmonella, Shigella, Cryptosporidium, Cyclospora, and Giardia cases within Georgia. She assisted with multiple outbreak investigations at local, state, and national levels. She assisted with the initial response of Novel H1N1 Influenza by Georgia Public Health Officials.

It is clear from Ms. Jones' recent training and broad public health practice experience that she is well equipped to be helpful to our students as Coordinator of Student Services.