Shasta County is fortunate to have many exemplary employees. On a daily basis, their dedication, integrity, creativity, and professionalism are called upon to maintain the high quality of local public services enjoyed by the citizens of Shasta County. Their jobs are becoming more challenging as public expectations of service and demands for increased efficiency escalate. In this environment, it is important that we recognize those employees who set the standard of excellence and dedication for the entire organization. Their contribution deserves the thanks and appreciation of the entire County family and the citizens of the community.
In this spirit, the Board is being asked to recognize the Employee of the Month, who has been nominated by the Employee Recognition Committee. This nomination is based on a review of all nominations using the selection criteria provided for in the Employee Recognition Policy. It is the recommendation of the Employee Recognition Committee that Amy Pendergast, Public Health Program and Policy Analyst, of the Health and Human Services Agency, Public Health Department be recognized as the April 2017 Employee of the Month.
Healthy Shasta partners and other community groups such as Shasta Regional Transportation Agency (SRTA), the City of Redding, the City of Shasta Lake, the City of Anderson, various community recreational bicycle and walking groups, and the Bike Month Committee all look to Ms. Pendergast for her expertise. Ms. Pendergast worked with the City of Shasta Lake to build health components into their General Plan. She reviewed the plan and demonstrated her skills and expertise by providing options of quality policies, strategies, and metrics for the plan. She consistently represents the County as a respected professional, partner, and expert.
Ms. Pendergast has taken the lead in conducting focus groups, performing a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis, guiding the work of Component A for the Public Health Lifetime of Wellness Communities in Action (LWCA) grant focused on reducing diabetes and hypertension in Shasta County through policy and environmental change and many other areas of building a healthy community.
Ms. Pendergast worked with Shasta County Public Works (SCPW) to write and submit an Active Transportation Planning proposal to implement the plan developed to make improvements at Shasta College. She was responsible for writing the narrative for the infrastructure grant, collecting and tabulating the data, and coordinating conversations and decisions with other partners involved. Because of her strong relationship building, her proven expertise, and the respect given to her because of her professionalism, SCPW included innovative infrastructure into the design. Ultimately the proposal was recommended for funding.
Ms. Pendergast is always thinking of ways to improve the health of the community and prevent obesity and chronic diseases. Such as working with cities and the County by providing health language in the general plans to improve infrastructure to make it easier for people to walk or bike. This work addresses environmental and policy change that has a lasting effect on improving the health of the community.