# Jessica Miller Shelly

Supervisor

Building Operations and Food Services

Cincinnati Public Schools

Cincinnati, OH 45206

## Biography

Jessica Miller Shelly, RS, REHS, MBA, is a Supervisor of Building
Operations and Food Services for Cincinnati Public Schools. She is
responsible for overseeing the daily operations at 79 schools along with
serving as a core member of the Incident Management Team.

Before joining the school district, Jessica worked in local health
department jurisdictions for ten years. Most recently, she was a Senior
Registered Environmental Health Specialist for the Cincinnati Health
Department. Jessica was responsible for a myriad of tasks including:
serving on the Bioterrorism Public Health Response Team; teaching
ServSafe® to foodservice operators; conducting internal audits of state
and local mandated programs; developing inspection methodology for
sanitarians; presenting environmental health issues to companies and
community groups; and composing and submitting grants, position papers,
and publications.

Jessica has received many accolades for her dedication and work in
environmental health. She has received three City of Cincinnati
Outstanding Customer Service Awards, The Educational and Career
Development Award from the City of Cincinnati, and she was a City of
Cincinnati Seasongood Award winner for her ServSafe® program which
helped demonstrate that food safety education lead to a dramatic decease
of critical violations in food establishment inspections.

She was chosen to participate in the Center for Disease Control and
Prevention's 1st Annual Emerging Leaders Workshop in Atlanta in December
2003. Jessica was also selected to be part of the 2003-2004 Ohio Public
Health Leadership Institute for her "Clean Streets, Safe City" agenda.

Jessica has been a speaker at several conferences including the Ohio
Environmental Health Association Southwest Conference, the Ellenbee
Leggett Food Show, and most recently she was the spotlight speaker at
the School Nutrition Association's national conference in Baltimore,
Maryland, in July 2005.

She is a member of various professional organizations including Junior
League of Cincinnati, National Environmental Health Association,
International Food Safety Council, Professional Association of Code
Enforcement, and National Association of Female Executives.

Jessica's undergraduate degree in Zoology is from Miami University. She
graduated summa cum laude with her MBA in Management, International
Business, and Marketing from the University of Cincinnati and was
honored as the 2002 Outstanding Graduate Student of the Year.

## What I Learned at EPHLI 

EPHLI has provided me with a valuable opportunity to take on new
challenges in my career. It has strengthened my dedication to making a
difference in Environmental Health.

The participation in the Environmental Public Health Leadership
Institute has been a phenomenal growth experience for me. One of the
greatest advantages I have gained is the ability to meet peers and
mentors. It has been a great honor to collaborate with other fellows who
face similar problems and issues in Environmental Health. Mentors laid
the groundwork for future collaboration prospects and provided excellent
leadership. The instructors through their various activities,
assignments, exercises, and lectures helped all the fellows become
self-motivated to apply the new techniques they were learning and begin
to make a difference immediately at their work place.

Another advantage was that EPHLI gave me the chance to gain more context
knowledge and help me immediately apply new ideas and concepts to my
normal day-to-day tasks. I have been able to incorporate many of the new
methods, such as critical thinking and systems modeling to name a few,
into daily operations and large projects.

I believe my participation in EPHLI shows that there is no boundary for
Environmental Health. I work for a school district and under the normal
umbrella of Environmental Health; I would not be invited to the table as
a player. It is a common mistake to not consider schools and private
companies as groups who are stakeholders in Environmental Health and can
make a positive contribution to Environmental Health advancements.
Environmental Health reaches into all aspects of our world and efforts
like EPHLI will be what helps bring the importance of Environmental
Health into the national spotlight where it belongs.