“It’s about maintaining this ongoing discussion among agencies.” “This is not a project that is funded to produce specific outcomes,” Garcia said. Health Matters! included the formation of a coalition of community agencies under the direction of Asomugha to discuss New Haven health issues such as how to promote disease prevention, Garcia said. In 2010, Asomugha launched a public health campaign called Health Matters! as requested by the HEA to continue promoting its mission long-term. Physical activity among New Haven children was “declining” and availability of health care services to uninsured residents remained a “concern.” The privately funded Health Equity Alliance had just been started to investigate over a two-year period the underlying causes of city health disparities and train people who work in public health to incorporate the findings into their jobs, said Mario Garcia SPH ’02, director of the New Haven Health Department. When Asomugha took office at the helm of the CSA, health problems abounded in the city, according to a 2009 door-to-door survey conducted by the Community Alliance for Research and Engagement. The CSA oversees the city’s elderly services, youth and health departments, and is responsible for administering federal, state and local funds among social service needs. In 2007, Asomugha moved to New Haven to begin courses for a master’s of health science degree at the Yale School of Medicine, where she then served as an adjunct clinical instructor.Īsomugha did not respond to several requests for comment. In her role as community services administrator, Asomugha brought her experience with public health to confront disease and health problems within the city.Īsomugha arrived at the CSA “particularly well-suited toward public health work,” said City Hall spokeswoman Elizabeth Benton ’04, thanks to her role as a pediatrician.Īsomugha earned a master’s degree in public health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2002 while working toward an MD from Duke Univeristy, which she received in 2004. “She’s been in charge of bringing us through this hard time for community services,” Ward 7 Alderman Douglas Hausladen ’04 said. Half a million dollars in human services budget cuts were made since the 2008-’09 fiscal year, and CSA staff, public servants and Yale students credit Asomugha with shepherding the CSA through years of drastically decreased funding. Three years later, Asomugha left the trimmer CSA last month with several key accomplishments under her belt, especially in the fields of public health and women’s issues. The CSA, which oversees city’s social service agencies, witnessed significant layoffs in February 2009: five of the nine CSA staff and 12 employees from health and elderly services were laid off, according to the New Haven Independent. When Chisara Asomugha MED ’09 stepped into her new office on the second floor of City Hall in late August 2009, the Community Services Administration was undergoing a transformation.Īsomugha assumed the reins of the New Haven’s CSA amid a series of spending cuts in the department triggered by drying federal and state funds.
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