Workforce Development and Careers in Public Health
Sarah Kemble, MD, MPH
Primary care internist and founder, Medical Director, then Executive Director of the Community Health Center of Franklin County
I am a primary care internistand founder, Medical Director, then Executive Director of the Community Health Center of Franklin County. Now I am a staff physician and provide primary and preventive primary care to adolescents and adults at one of the health center's four sites. I work at the Pioneer Valley Regional School site which is a 7th-12th grade public school in Northfield, MA. I work there with one teammate, a nurse named Judy Titus. Judy and I were both founders of the health center in 1994.
In addition to providing direct medical care, I also serve on the health center's Quality Improvement Committee, which brainstorms ways of measuring and improving processes and outcomes within the organization. I also serve as Vice President of the medical staff at Baystate Franklin Medical Center. I was Chair of the Department of Medicine for the last 6 years and started an inpatient medicine ("hospitalist") service, where I also do some moonlighting admitting and caring for inpatients.
I received my MPH from the University of Massachusetts in 1999. The program really helped to deepen my understanding of many health policy and management issues that were directly relevant to starting a federally funded community health center aimed at caring for the medically underserved population in Franklin County. Drs. David Buchanan, Schlomo Barnoon and Kathryn Tracy were my mentors and generous supporters of my work. I also studied and wrote about the charity care model which was quite in vogue during the 1990s as a way to provide health access to the medically underserved. I studied one local project and tried to show in my analysis that resources going into charity care be much better spent on primary care infrastructure.
My MPH work was part of my residency in preventive medicine at UMass Medical School (1995-97). I also did a residency in internal medicine at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield (1992-95). I graduated from Albany Medical College in 1992, and from Smith College in 1980. I am board certified in internal medicine. I am a member of the Medical Care Section of American Public Health Association, where I find professional common ground with colleagues. I also belong to the Physicians for a National Health Program and have worked ever since I was a medical student advocating for a single payer health care financing system.
On the personal side, I'm 50 years old. I grew up in Glastonbury, Connecticut, and have lived in Franklin County since 1984. My family has lived in Leyden, MA since 1995. Family is my husband Jerry, seventh grade son Jeremy, eleventh grade daughter Katie, three horses, a dog and a cat. For fun I like to ride horses, bike, ski, and play the violin. I also read a lot. My future plans are to remain active in meeting the health needs of my community and advocating for peace and social justice throughout the world. In my opinion and experience, public health is all about peace and social justice!
