Justin Lee, New County Health Director Begins Duties

Justin & Charlene Lee

Justin Lee, the new Health and Environment Director for Prowers County, held an informal meet and greet breakfast with department members and Prowers County Commissioners, Friday, October 12 at the County Annex.   

Lee was hired by the county earlier this month, to replace Jackie Brown who retired from the director position after 22 years at her post.  Brown will remain active in the local health community at the Southeast Behavioral Health Group. 

Lee comes to Prowers County by way of Fresno, California and Erie, Colorado.  He and his wife, Charlene, will make their home in the county with October 22 scheduled as his first official day on the job.  Lee said he plans to assess the current situations within the county health department, hear from the senior staff and look at the health issues being faced by the community and review the current goals of the health departments.  His past professional health experiences include working as a director for clinical research for a group of medical doctors in Denver and prior to that in California as a community assessment director.  Lee has a Masters degree in the Public Health field. 

The new director reviewed some of his prior medical work, explaining, “We worked with Hispanic and Asian residents in the community, especially those considered, ‘hard to reach’ and had fallen through the cracks.  We developed a plan on how to reach and engage those people and bring them into an active part of the community.”  Lee said he is very community event oriented, working with health related groups such as Relay for Life, various sports activities and events, plus annual cultural events.  As in the past, Lee said he’d be in touch with the sheriff and police departments as well as parks and recreation and local elected officials to get an assessment of the community and then start to work on formulating some health oriented goals following his orientation.

By Russ Baldwin