{"id":128750,"date":"2020-12-08T16:21:56","date_gmt":"2020-12-08T23:21:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=128750"},"modified":"2022-09-22T09:31:14","modified_gmt":"2022-09-22T15:31:14","slug":"pandemic-shines-new-light-on-the-importance-of-health-promotion-jennifer-best","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=128750","title":{"rendered":"Pandemic shines new light on the importance of Health Promotion | Jennifer Best \u201911"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Jennifer Best ’11 has always cared about health. Her dedication to the field drew her interest in the UCCS Master of Science in Health Promotion program, and now, less than ten years later, the global COVID-19 pandemic shines new importance on her health-related role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best may always have been destined for a career in the health, knowing she had been drawn to the field dating back to her involvement in high school athletics. Athletics drew her to a Bachelor\u2019s degree in health promotion as she continued her athletic career at her undergraduate school. Upon graduating, she quickly found a career as a personal trainer to help improve overall wellness among athletes and non-athletes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI knew I wanted to help other people succeed, and really see the importance of how eating healthy and exercising impacts every aspect of their lives,\u201d Best said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Best, this degree program proved the perfect choice for elevating her expertise, for the focus on research-based theories and applications as well as leadership skills added to her repertoire during her studies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best\u2019s passion grew over time and led to her interest in promoting health on a larger scale. Best became compelled to advance her career to the next level by earning a graduate degree. After her husband Brian earned his Bachelor of Geography from UCCS, Best knew the value of a University of Colorado degree. The respected Master of Health Promotion program soon had another student.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right away, the program helped Best prepare for a more rewarding career in Health Promotion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI really just wanted to advance myself personally and my education by getting a Master\u2019s degree,\u201d Best explained. \u201cI think it\u2019s given me confidence in myself \u2014 that I know what I\u2019m talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With reinforced confidence in herself, Best applied for a position leading the El Paso County Corporate Wellness Center and eventually managed it for five years, overseeing programs and facilities from the fitness room, nutrition programs, fitness classes and one-on-one training. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through career connections, Best transitioned to a role in the El Paso County Health Department in 2017 as a Prevention and Policy Specialist within the Tobacco Education and Prevention Partnership. Using her graduate skills, she applied her skills in the fight against teen tobacco use in local schools by gathering and presenting eye-opening information. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvidence-based information is so important and should be driving our work,\u201d Best says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best said one monumental challenge is \u201cout-of-control vaping\u201d among teens. According to Healthy Kids Colorado Survey data collected between 2017-2018, 44 percent of youths in El Paso County had tried an e-cigarette device and 27 percent of all youths in Colorado, nearly twice the national average, stated they used vapes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To Best, this type of dramatic data makes a deeper impact on young audiences and helps promote better health knowledge. Best recalls one presentation where she and her team used data that immediately had a beneficial effect on at-risk students. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe students came up and said, \u2018I think I want to quit right now. I learned so much information yesterday that I didn\u2019t know. I want quitting resources,\u2019\u201d Best said. “It feels good to affect someone\u2019s life by sharing the correct information with them.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best is grateful that her Master\u2019s degree gave her invaluable research capabilities. Since the start of COVID-19, Best has been unable to present in schools and has instead been tasked in El Paso County with assisting in tracking the virus through dedicated outreach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are trying to stop the spread of the virus in our community by connecting with each individual that tests positive and reaching out to their contacts, as well,\u201d Best explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best\u2019s education has helped with this challenging process by giving her the ability to build quick rapport with research subjects and draw out useful information. As a health professional, she thinks that the best way to counter the virus is by following facts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI hope people continue to listen to the Centers for Disease Control and make sure they are not just believing anything they read, but are looking at medically-based research,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the challenges the county is facing, Best said her Master in Health Promotion has allowed her to seamlessly transition from one health challenge to another, and she\u2019s thrilled to be working towards solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn order to succeed in a career, you really have to have a love for what you\u2019re doing,\u201d Best said. \u201cFor me, that aspect of helping people improve their lives \u2014 that\u2019s what drove me towards Health Promotion.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jennifer Best ’11 has always cared about health. Her dedication to the field drew her interest in the UCCS Master of Science in Health Promotion program, and now, less than ten years later, the global COVID-19 pandemic shines new importance on her health-related role. (More)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":128751,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,427],"tags":[370,369,105],"class_list":["post-128750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","category-alumni-stories","tag-alumni","tag-alumni-success","tag-helen-and-arthur-e-johnson-beth-el-college-of-nursing-and-health-sciences"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/jenny-best-gog.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1mBpJ-xuC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=128750"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":142800,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128750\/revisions\/142800"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/128751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=128750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=128750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=128750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}