CHEER Champion of the WEek: Kerry Pride!

​Kerry Pride, DVM, MPH, DACVPM is the Local and Tribal Support Coordinator and Public Health Veterinarian for the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, Public Health and Safety Division (MT DPHHS/PHSD). Kerry has been wonderful to work with as CHEER’s contact at the state as we have assisted the Blackfeet, Northern Cheyenne, and Rocky Boy Tribes with their Community Health Assessments (CHAs) and Blackfeet with their Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP).
 
“I love working with people to help them make their communities a better place to live,” Kerry shares. “By providing funding, training, and technical assistance to health departments for community health planning, I am able to do a small part in helping communities understand and address health problems.”
 
Kerry’s job at MT DPHHS/PHSD has two parts. First, she works with all the local and Tribal health departments in Montana on community health planning activities. Her office provides grants and technical support to help complete CHAs, CHIPs, and organizational strategic plans. She travels around the state working with health department staff, community coalitions, and local boards of health. Second, she works with Montana’s department of livestock and other partners on zoonotic disease issues.
 
Kerry’s office has supplied funding, training opportunities and technical assistance for the Blackfeet, Northern Cheyenne, and Rocky Boy CHAs and for the Blackfeet CHIP. CHEER coordinated these projects alongside each Tribe, and they are in various stages of completion. The CHAs are comprehensive summaries of health priorities, data and resources for each Tribe. The CHIP addresses top health priority issues based on the CHA. For more information, please visit our website.
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“CHAs and CHIPs are important because community health planning allows communities to engage partners to understand the health concerns and develop a plan to address these issues,” Kerry says. “Resources and funding are always in short supply, so completing community health planning allows funding and resource to be applied where they are most needed.”
 
What does Kerry enjoy most about her job?
 
“I love traveling and working with the local and Tribal health departments and their community coalitions. I love seeing all the great work done in these communities to address health concerns,” she says.
 
Congratulations, Kerry, and thank you for all you do to make Montana a healthier state!

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