GREAT FALLS — The Cascade City-County Health Department in Great Falls recently announced that Abigail Hill is the new health officer for the agency. As Hill transitions into her new role, she says bouncing back from pandemic remains one of her top priorities.
Hill originally served as the Health Department's public health nurse for five years, and said she is ready to transition into a more difficult role.
"It is a different role, being a health officer," Hill stated. "I've been a public health nurse at the health department for five years, working in family health services. It was actually my dream nursing job, was to be here at the health department. Public health has really been a passion of mine since I was a kid ... I talked to the previous person in that position, Trisha Gardner, and we talked about what that would look like, and it was something I was interested in."
Hill said, "The main thing I want to focus on, that I've prepped my staff to is rebuilding that foundation from Covid ... I think that starts from leadership, just making sure that everyone has clear expectations on what their job responsibilities are, and that they have the support they need to carry those out.
She added, "We have a responsibility to operate keep our community safe and healthy in a fiscally responsible way and so I want to make sure as a team, we have the skills to do that, but everyone was pulled in different directions during the pandemic, and so we really need to touch base, make sure we're on the same page, and what supports that people might need and build from there."
Hill says she is also looking forward to different collaborations with other community organizations.
Hill said, "I've been working with family services, and so I'm looking forward to diving deeper into environmental health and prevention services, learning more about their programs and ways that we can support that at the health department, so I'm excited about that knowledge I get to gain within the department and have that broader perspective ... One of my favorite aspects of Great Falls is that network and building community partners, and we have some incredible partners here. I've been a part of the community health assessment, and improvement plan, and I'm really excited to just take that from different perspectives, and work with new partners and build up the health department and the community too ... I'm also looking forward to inner-department collaboration too."
Hill takes over from former health officer Trisha Gardner, who left the job several months ago to begin a new role with the Montana Department of Public Health & Human Services.
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