Stokes Family Health Center 

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Stokes Family Health Center Welcomes New Health Director

 

           This fall Stokes Family Health Center welcomed its new health director

Josh Swift. 

Josh is 31-years old and is a native of Surry County and grew up on a farm in Elkin. He completed his undergraduate degree at Appalachian State University and received his master’s in public health from the University of South Carolina in 2004.  Josh and his wife of six years, Amanda, have a 16-month old daughter named Sophia. 

Stokes Family Health Center isn’t the first health department Josh has worked in.  He has also worked in Virginia as YMCA sports director for a year and health departments in Wilkes and Iredell counties.  Being a health director has always been his dream job, but he has also had experience in other areas of public health such as: policies, emergency preparedness, health promotion and environmental health. 

Josh’s vision for Stokes County Health Department is to be the best rural health department in the state.  Josh wants the health department to do more clinics and screenings by reaching out into the community.  Some key issues the health department will be focusing on to improve health in our county are obesity and smoking during pregnancy.  These issues were identified by the Community Health Assessment that was conducted in August from survey results.  He plans to work on these issues in the future as the health director and hopes that other professionals from other health departments in the state and region will call and ask about the different programs Stokes Family Health Center offers.