Jessica Goodell

Jessica C. Goodell

Q: This is Sam Robson on the phone with Jessica Goodell. Today's date is July 6th, 2018. I'm in the audio recording studio at CDC's [United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] Roybal Campus in Atlanta, Georgia, and Jessica is on the line from Baltimore, Maryland. This is my second interview with Jessica as part of the CDC Ebola Response Oral History Project. Jessica, thanks for joining me again.

GOODELL: No problem.

Q: In our last interview, we did a brief review of your career up through your time in Port Loko [District]. I just had a few questions on the tail end of that. You and I were matched together, I was talking with Dan [Daniel W.] Martin about people he had worked with out in the field in Sierra Leone who he was really impressed by or he had some story about. One of the people was you, and he talked about you and Anna [Anna-Lena Arnold] from, I think, WHO [World Health Organization]. I was wondering if you could tell me a little bit about how you 00:01:00met Dan.

GOODELL: Sure. Dan was my first team lead in Port Loko, so I met him pretty immediately within a couple days of getting to Sierra Leone. We hit it off from the beginning. I think we both come from a very relationship-driven approach. He was my team lead, so he was very supportive of my work in the field specifically, and then coming back and debriefing with me. I can share a couple memories of my time with Dan. I remember maybe a week into my time there, if you remember, we just had to jump into it. There was a very steep learning curve. I 00:02:00remember one of my very first field investigations where I'm talking with a family, and when you first get to a site and you have to start these investigations, there's a lot of people around and so you kind of have to control the environment. There's a lot of people around, you're trying to do these investigations, and sometimes you end up just being watched. This one got a little uncomfortable because you're trying to have this very personal conversation with the family that's been affected, or may have some sort of risk or exposure. I remember specifically starting to feel that we were getting a crowd around us, and asking everyone to step back. I very specifically remember Dan helping to orchestrate the privacy for this one specific interview, and working through that together. I think that was one of our first bonding 00:03:00experiences in the field.

The days are really long, especially when you're in the field. I was one of the field epis [epidemiologists]. You start at 7:00 am or something like that, you meet with your team, you figure out where you're going to go, where you need to do some follow-up contact tracing, and then you're gone all day. You heard me talk about these remote villages that we were traveling to. You get back in time for maybe the debrief meetings, but definitely just in time for dinner. A lot of times, our team meetings would be at the very end of the day at the MJ [Motel]--thank you for reminding me of the MJ--and we would have our debriefings around dinner, which is a whole other story. I very vividly remember the dinner 00:04:00situation. Again, you've probably not had any real meal for the entire day except for maybe some protein bars or trail mix or whatever you've been able to bring with you in the car. I remember Dan and I usually, even after the team meetings, would sit and debrief more about our experiences. Dan had been there at least once or twice before, so he was there during the thick of the outbreak. I was there more towards the tail end. I remember he would share a lot of his experiences of what it was like in the beginning and the recovery that had happened since. We talked a lot about family and why we were in the field we were in. That was our relationship building. But since then, he's continued to be so amazing and supportive. We've stayed in contact. Whenever I come to 00:05:00Atlanta, we try to have coffee or lunch or dinner if it allows. We haven't been able to do either of those yet, but we've talked about it. He has recommended me to stay on surge team rosters before the Global Rapid Response Team was stood up. He continues to advocate for me to be on these surge teams, which has been really amazing, and he's also been a recommendation for my current doctoral program. So yeah, it's amazing how an experience like that can build relationships along the way.

Q: What was Dan like as a team lead?

GOODELL: He was, again, very supportive and collaborative. He wanted to hear what everyone's thoughts were. He made sure we had check-ins. I know he did a 00:06:00lot of work on the Sierra Leonean side and incident command side also to advocate for what we were saying we needed in meetings. I felt like he was very good at listening and then working on the relationship to get to what we needed to do in the field.

Q: You mentioned you had to eat very Spartan meals before dinner, just protein bars and stuff. What kind of food were you getting for dinner?

GOODELL: I remember a lot of--oh my gosh--jollof. It's delicious. It's rice and beans, which I loved. Sometimes you could get chicken. The chicken was really good but sometimes it would be out by the time I got home. French fries. I particularly liked the rice and beans, and it's not a little meager helping of 00:07:00rice and beans, it's a huge plate. Then there's this curry vegetable side dish that was extremely spicy that I also really loved, which was very reflective of the local food. People were a little nervous to eat vegetables, but if it was cooked, it was fine, I went for it. Sometimes there was fried fish. Basically, the kitchen--there's a little, small kitchen in the back of the MJ Motel, and it's literally a grill or a stovetop in the back underneath a hooded roof. You try and order before you leave for the day what you want, and hope you get back in time for having it still available. When they see you come through the door 00:08:00at the end of the day, they start cooking it. Then you sit and have your team briefing, and when the food comes, the food comes. That was always the end-of-the-night process.

Q: What do you remember from the staff of the MJ?

GOODELL: The staff was awesome. I can't remember his name, but there was the main desk clerk, and we would chat every morning. He would try and teach me a Krio saying before I left every day, and then he would test me on it. I'm clearly not very good at languages, so I haven't retained any of it except for "how di bodi." Or "otonoton," which was slow-slow. I remember that one, after I looked it up, because I had to say that a lot. [laughter]

Q: When did you have to say it, in interviews?

GOODELL: I wouldn't say he had a lead foot, but you drive a little faster in 00:09:00these areas. Or not even if you're in a car, if you're using it metaphorically. And just like "otonoton," you want people to slow down if they're talking or something like that. Or you'll see an okada whiz by us, so that was the joke. Lots of different ways to use it.

Q: Can you tell me about wrapping up, I guess it was in July 2015, and what that was like and coming back?

GOODELL: Sure. I was there towards the end, and I remember in the last couple of weeks--so I extended. I was only supposed to be there through the end of June, but I extended through July. We were hoping that we would all be there for the 00:10:00last case to be announced and case investigations to be finalized. I remember feeling like, what if we were able to be here to be part of the end of this? But there continued to be a couple more cases that would arise. I remember a feeling of, okay, have we done all we can right now, and how do we move into recovery, and what does that look like in this environment? I remember that. I remember on one of my last days, for the first time, I was able to go to a village market, which was fun. I just remember a sense of being on the edge of our seats, of, are there going to be any more cases? And how much longer are we going to need 00:11:00to stay in the field? And what are our transition steps?

Q: What goes on from that?

GOODELL: I come back home--you mean after Port Loko?

Q: Yeah.

GOODELL: Yeah, okay. It was interesting because as I was finishing, I had to make a decision as to whether or not I could go because I was finishing up my fellowship. As I came home, maybe within--well, first I'll pause and say that as I came home, I went under the monitoring for twenty-one days, and that was an interesting experience also, coming through to the airport and having to answer questions about my level of exposure. Having been a field epi, it was pretty high, and sometimes having to be on the periphery of an ETC [Ebola treatment 00:12:00center] to help bring some families or follow up on any cases. I was still able to just call in. I didn't have to do any kind of active, direct monitoring. But that was an interesting experience having been on the front end of standing up a call center in New York, and then being on the other end of being someone who then calls into it. That was an interesting experience.

Q: You didn't happen to know who you were talking to when you called in, did you?

GOODELL: No, I didn't. [laughter] It was interesting though because I had to call into New York and I had to call into headquarters. I basically had double duty, calling to report my temperature and my symptoms.

Q: How did people react to you, in the airport, for example?

GOODELL: I don't think anyone--I mean, there were no reactions in the airport. At that time, it was more towards the end, so I remember waiting in the--what is 00:13:00it--DRMU [Deployment Risk Mitigation Unit] had set up waiting areas for if you're coming from an Ebola infected area, that you have to wait and go through the questions and receive the cell phone if you don't have one to do the follow-up calls. You have to receive all these just-in-case materials in a kit, which was funny because I also remember helping to put them together. But there was no reaction in the airport for me. There was maybe some reaction in my environment when I went back to work and among my friends, also when I had deployed even to the New York City health department, even though I didn't even have any contact with Dr. Spencer, of just like, oh, Ebola.

Q: Can you tell me more about that, the reactions you got from your friends or peers?

GOODELL: I think, again, it was just a scary time. A lot of people only knew what they heard in the media, and so there were a lot of jokes. You know, maybe don't come to a party. But none of it was--I think it was not serious joking, but a lot of underlying fear about Ebola and my closeness to it.

Q: When you eventually were finished with the monitoring, did you miss it when it went away? [laughs]

GOODELL: That's funny. That's a good question. I did not miss it, [laughs] because I travel a lot, and so you don't always remember to call in at the exact same time. You always had to keep a thermometer with you. Sometimes, I would 00:15:00remember to call into New York, but I wouldn't remember to call into headquarters. I was sometimes in this situation as well where if you haven't heard from somebody for a day, you start to worry. I remember that had happened with headquarters. So I did not miss it. [laughs]

Q: Can you take me up to now and what you're up to these days?

GOODELL: Sure. Now I am a Career Epidemiology Field Officer, and my path to that was for me tied to my response in Sierra Leone because as I came back, I reflected on my time in the field. Similar to some of Dan's reflections, it made me realize that there's a certain skill set you can apply in these situations 00:16:00that maybe is more unique than in other fields of public health. It helped me find my niche within public health and translate those skills into preparedness.

Q: Which skills are you talking about?

GOODELL: Being able to work in austere conditions, being able to be under high stress situations and make decisions, being able to apply cultural competency in an area that you're a white woman in an area surrounded by no other folks who look like you or talk like you, and what you can do to address those and create trust and rapport and relationship building in order to connect with that community anyway. Does that answer your question?

Q: It does, yeah.

GOODELL: For me, I came back and realized that maybe I should explore public health preparedness and response more closely. That was when we started hearing about this Temporary Epidemiology Field Assignee program, and that's the program I was in that led me to meeting Victor [M.] Caceres. He was my supervisor for that, and is still now. Temporary epidemiology field assignees were in the field through the Division of State and Local Readiness and through public health emergency preparedness programs, so that's how I came to be here in Maryland. I've stayed in Maryland, I finished the TEFA [Temporary Epidemiology Field Assignee] program, and then I moved into the Career Epidemiology Field Officer program.

Q: What do you do in the Career Epidemiology Field Officer program?

GOODELL: This program is still within public health preparedness, but it's kind 00:18:00of a graduation of the TEFA program, since that program no longer exists. My role and everyone's role, we have maybe thirty or a little more than thirty CEFOs [Career Epidemiology Field Officers] across the US and in some territories. Everyone's role is a little different because preparedness is defined differently within each of the states, but for me specifically, what I do is I bridge planning and policy with data. "Epidemiologist" is my title, but really what I do is I use data to interpret findings in order to build plans and policy decisions. That's really what my role has developed into.

Q: You said you're also going for your doctorate right now. Can you talk a bit about that?

GOODELL: Yes. I just started a doctorate program at [Johns] Hopkins [University], and it's similar to my role--it's within health policy and 00:19:00management, and the focus is within epidemiology and informatics. Again, it's looking at data and being able to leverage health information systems to better inform policies and programs. Being that translator among the data folks and the information technology platforms in order to improve upon programs. That's where I've found myself, and within that, using it to apply to a preparedness systematic approach. That's where I've found myself, and I tie that to not only Sierra Leone, but to Peace Corps, and as I've gone along in my career, understanding that along this path, I can deploy and apply those skills in a situation that could be really beneficial.

Q: One of my last questions is often, what effects did the Ebola epidemic have on your overall career? I think you just put it really nicely within the context of your overall journey.

GOODELL: I love public health. I could probably focus anywhere in public health, but I feel like for me, it was, where am I most unique within public health? And I feel like that's what led me to preparedness and response.

Q: Is there anything when you were reviewing through our first interview or today that you've thought of, that maybe I haven't prompted for, that you want to share before we end the interview?

GOODELL: The one thing I would say is, in reading over the transcript, I think I talked a lot about myself and Anna, and I really didn't really--and you probably don't need this because you've done a lot of these interviews for the oral history project.

Q: No, it's good.

GOODELL: But it was really multidisciplinary. It wasn't just me and Anna in the 00:21:00field. Obviously, I've talked about the number of partners that were there, but when I'm talking about doing these investigations and me standing there, it's really not just me. We had the contact tracers, the lead contact tracers, we had the disease surveillance officers, and we had the local community--I can't remember the official term, but there was a local community person. They were all integral to us conducting these investigations. Because for me, it was a lot about the relationship, and how we were able to conduct the investigations in a way that they trusted us and felt like they could really tell us what was going on in the community. I felt like I really wanted to reiterate that.

Q: Is there an individual you can point to among some of those groups, like the community health advisors, etcetera, that you could describe a little bit?

GOODELL: I remember Hannah Sheriff, and we called him Timmy, but I think it's Temitayo Labor. They were the lead contact tracers on the Sierra Leonean side, and Hannah specifically, we wouldn't go anywhere without her. Going back to our stories about quarantine practices and having enough food and showing up and being asked for supplies, she was one of the most generous people that I've ever met. We basically wouldn't go if we hadn't stopped along the road to get some biscuits or pick up a clock that maybe somebody asked for in quarantine, but they couldn't go and get. Those are just two quick examples. There's not a lot of money in Sierra Leone, but she was never hesitant to use her own funds to give those little extras, and we always had a little honey pot, but she 00:23:00specifically comes to my mind. She was one of the medical students that I had talked about in my notes.

Q: Well, thank you so much for telling me about your experiences. It's been really cool sitting here and listening to you reminisce.

GOODELL: It's been fun, you've made me jog all my memories, it's been really interesting. I'm like, oh, remember that? And come back to that. [laughter]

Q: Exactly. So thank you.

GOODELL: Thank you.

END