ALUMNI PROFILES

Irena McClain  MPH (Graduated in May 2005)

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Associate Director & Diabetes/Health Educator at the
Diabetes Foundation of Mississippi

I am the Associate Director and diabetes/health educator at the Diabetes Foundation of Mississippi, a position that I’ve had for fourteen years. I also fund-raise for the DFM and am responsible for Mississippi’s Walk for Diabetes statewide. I received my A.B. in Biology from Smith College in 1980 and my MPH through the distance-learning program at University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 2005.


Irena Mcclain and honorary chairs from Mississippi Walk for Diabetes

I decided to work toward an MPH because I wanted to learn more about health promotion, developing and assessing programs and knew the MPH was the route that I needed to take for my work. We (the Diabetes Foundation of Mississippi) had disaffiliated from a national organization in 1998 and finally had the freedom to immediately address the health concerns of our state as they pertained to diabetes management and prevention.  The MPH coursework was directly applicable to the programs that we were developing for the people of our state.


Mississippi Walk for Diabetes -Jackson 2008

The classes from my MPH program are vitally important to my work at the Diabetes Foundation of Mississippi. As a non-profit organization, we do much more than fund-raising-we actually teach people how to take care of themselves or a family member, student or colleague with diabetes. We train teachers, parents and people with diabetes to recognize and respond appropriately to the “highs and lows” of the disease. We also focus on primary prevention of type 2 diabetes and work to raise public awareness to reduce the risks for developing the disease.  The classes in community health education-particularly in program development, and assessing effectiveness have enhanced the programs that we’ve developed and have opened the door for additional collaborations. 

Sweet Subject school program to a school in South Jackson

Currently, I’m working on designing a faith-based program in minority churches to reach people at risk for developing diabetes. Our “Train the Trainer” health minister education will be piloted later this Fall. I am currently working with a group of health ministers around the state to tweak this program to fit the needs of their respective churches.

Mississippi Walk for Diabetes - 2008

On another note, coursework from the class in Public Health Emergency Preparedness was extremely valuable for me (and indeed, all of our office staff) during the days following Hurricane Katrina. Pharmaceutical companies sent pallets of blood glucose meters and strips, cases of insulin and items to treat low blood glucose to our office shortly after the storm hit the Mississippi Gulf Coast and we had to quickly determine the most efficient way to get these supplies into the hands of the patients and health practitioners long before the roads leading to the coast were cleared of debris. We worked to let people all over Mississippi know about our emergency assistance program to ensure that people with diabetes had the important testing equipment and medicines that they needed to care for themselves.

The Diabetes Foundation of Mississippi deals with populations who either have or are at risk for developing diabetes. The MPH program gave me the background to evaluate our existing programs, refine them and assess their effectiveness as well as design new programs to meet the needs of the people that we serve.

Diabetes screenings

My goal is to see Mississippi drop from the heaviest state in the nation with the highest prevalence of diabetes to somewhere in the middle. I also want to see a more proactive approach to preventing type 2 diabetes both in schools and in the workplace. I think those quests will keep all of us at the DFM very busy!

Mississippi Walk for Diabetes - 2007

This was an overwhelmingly positive experience and I thoroughly enjoyed the online-MPH program. As a single mom who needed to work full-time, the online coursework allowed me to fit this into my schedule. It would have been impossible for me otherwise. I welcome the opportunity to discuss the online MPH program to any prospective student.

I want to thank my sons Will, Mike and Jim for their patience and good humor when I was enrolled in the MPH program. The staff of the DFM and members of the Board of Directors were also very supportive and really enjoyed hearing about the latest classes and classroom discussions.