https://apnews.com/8887bb16c76d2c3b6ca991da3fcde2d3

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Maureen Lichtveld’s nearly 40 years in environmental public health — from her home country of Suriname, to the U.S. government, to the Hurricane Katrina-devastated Gulf Coast and, finally, to Pittsburgh this year — has focused on a central principle: how to prepare for the next big crisis.

Her “aha” moment came early, in her mid-20s as she worked to increase vaccination rates among children in the Amazon jungle. By training more health care workers and promoting vaccine effectiveness more widely, she helped send those rates from 5% to 95% in just three years, she said.