Administrative Support Staff Award

Jimmie Cecil, BS
Assistant Public Health Director
Pike County Health Department

This individual’s involvement during the statewide transition to the Workday accounting and reporting system has been valuable. He worked closely with fellow finance administrators and state partners to evaluate, identify issues, share solutions, and advocate for improvements that benefited local health departments across Kentucky.

Beyond this work, he has devoted countless hours to assisting health departments one on one. He routinely helps staff troubleshoot coding issues, correct balance sheets, navigate payroll discrepancies, and complete fiscal closeouts. His willingness to sit with teams, walk through reports in detail, and explain each step clearly has helped many finance administrators grow in confidence and competence. His commitment to training newly hired finance staff has further strengthened the overall financial stability of Kentucky’s public health network. In addition, he leads an Eastern Kentucky workgroup of local health department finance administrators, creating a space for shared learning, peer support, and collective problem solving.

Known for his steady optimism and encouraging presence, he is always willing to help—after work, on weekends, snow days, and even holidays. One coworker shared, “Quite simply, he is a unicorn—rare, magical, and somehow able to solve issues the rest of us were convinced required a sacrifice and a full moon.” A supervisor added, “His support doesn’t just fix problems—it builds capacity, confidence, and trust across every department he touches.”

He has served the Pike County Health Department since 2002, beginning as Director of Administrative Services before being promoted to Assistant Public Health Director in September 2024—advancements that reflect his professionalism, expertise, and deep institutional knowledge. Just as notable as his experience is his warm, enthusiastic demeanor. His trademark response of “Fantastic!” when asked how he is doing embodies the optimism and passion he brings to public service every day.

Congratulations to Jim Cecil, 2026 Administrative Support Staff Award Winner!

Lisa Cornett Pollock, BSA, BBA
Chief Financial Officer
Lincoln Trail District Health Department

The 2025 awardee is described by her peers as “welcoming”, “smart”, “kind”, “reliable”, “trustworthy”, “hard-working”, “committed” and the list goes on. Lisa Pollock has been an indispensable member of the public health community for 25 years, contributing significantly to both the Lincoln Trail District Health Department as CFO and the broader public health system in Kentucky. She has also been an active member and Treasurer of the Kentucky Public Health Association (KPHA) for over 15 years, where her financial expertise and collaborative spirit have earned her widespread respect. Beyond her professional skills, Lisa's positive attitude, kindness, and willingness to help others have made her a trusted mentor and resource to her coworkers and colleagues.

Lisa’s impact extends beyond her local health department, as she has influenced statewide public health initiatives, including Public Health Transformation and the modernization of financial and personnel systems with Workday. Her ability to tackle complex challenges while remaining composed and professional has been vital to the success of these projects. Lisa is known for her generosity in sharing her knowledge and supporting her peers, which has made her a highly valued figure across public health in Kentucky. Her commitment, combined with her warm and welcoming nature, makes her more than deserving of the 2025 KPHA Administrative Support Staff Award.

America Wayne
Clinic Support Staff/Interpreter
North Central District Health Department in Shelby County

America Wayne is described as the epitome of the person you want to meet when you walk into a local health department… energetic, supportive, empathetic, caring, knowledgeable. As a bilingual member of the Shelby County Health Department clinic support staff, she is said to be vital to the efforts to reach the growing Latinx population. Her supportive, empathetic, and caring demeanor puts patients at ease as she ensures they receive not only the care they need but any additional information to support them in the community.

While she is always ready to help and willing to take on new tasks to support clinic services and help patients, her efforts to support North Central District Health Department endeavors and programs do not stop at the end of the workday. Armed with her knowledge of the programs and opportunities at the health department, she is quick to engage in her vast network outside of work to ensure that Spanish-speaking residents are receiving information needed to take full advantage of the services provided by the health department. During the Shelbyville Pop-Up Farmers’ Market this past summer, she spent countless hours at the markets providing interpretation services to ensure that Spanish-speaking customers not only received vouchers for free local fruits and vegetables, but she also made sure they received information about all health department services.

Her direct supervisor shared, “She is truly a joy to work with in the health department. America’s level of administrative support is one that we should all strive to meet, far outpacing what is expected.”

Kenneth Fiser

Naseera Lewis
WIC Medical Assistant
Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness

The 2022 awardee is described as one who exudes positive energy and is an inspiration to staff. She has taken on a leadership role on committees, learned new skills, and led a number of initiatives. She was a critical force in rebuilding the Employee Engagement Committee after a 1 ½ year hiatus due to the pandemic, volunteering to chair it. This was her first leadership role in her organization. In this role, she led the planning and preparations for the annual holiday party, organized two charity drives, co-organized a blood drive, and most recently, planned a staff appreciation event for National Public Health Week.

Her passion for supporting and uplifting her coworkers, and her organization, is said to have been a massive boost to morale at a time when a boost is sorely needed. The pandemic robbed us all of so many things, and she has been a catalyst for rebuilding some of the human touches into our work life.

Gregory Ramey, BBA
Information Technology Manager
Franklin Co Health Dept

This year’s awardee has provided exceptional service to both public health professionals as well as to local community members for over 15 years in the position of Information Technology Manager. He has provided administrative support to KPHA, KHDA and NALBOH state associations. He has ensured an organized online platform for statewide meetings, continually monitors and alerts the state of potential or imminent security threats to various systems and coordinates public health education commercials.

A colleague says this about him, “he is constantly bailing out someone from their speakers not working, telling someone for the 6th time to see if it is plugged in, throwing together a quality improvement project from scratch because EVERYTHING includes IT, and checking to see if he can hack a website to determine if its security is up to par. He is willing to help his fellow co-worker no matter what time of day or night.”

Not only is he described as a wealth of knowledge but described as a fun person to work with, and also an excellent problem solver. He takes on challenges with an attitude of determination and persistence. You can depend on him to be responsive, creative, and effective when something goes wrong, or an update is needed.

With the onset of the COVID pandemic, he has been managing the IT aspect of two health departments, which encompasses 4 counties. His IT know-how has allowed his HD to efficiently schedule testing and vaccination appointments for thousands of residents, provide them with their test results via text message, and enter their vaccination data into the state immunization registry within 24 hours of administration. He has offered to work with numerous health departments across the state to help streamline and automate KYIR entries - freeing up their staff to focus on the vaccination efforts, contact tracing, other job duties.

He assisted another HD in entering up to 1,300 vaccinations (in one day) into the Kentucky Immunization registry in 24 hours. In a time where time was of the essence and manpower was limited his contribution was priceless.

His nomination letter included this statement, “to even consider not having him [on staff] gives me heart palpitations.” As one of his colleges put it, “his fan club keeps growing - and that is a testament to his expertise”.

Amanda Clark, PsyM
Administrative Coordinator
Louisville Metro Department of Public Health & Wellness

The Administrative Support Staff position is crucial because it touches everything in an agency. The position demands efficiency, organization, interpersonal skills, leadership abilities, coordination, support, navigation skills, patience and the list go on. This year’s recipient encompasses all the necessary skills to be dynamite in this role. She is described as being adept at completing tasks quickly, creating work products on very short notice and has become the go-to support staff person when the team is on a deadline. After seeing her incredibly detailed minutes, several meeting facilitators have asked her to support their meetings. She has also been enlisted in helping with project management, interviewing prospective administrative employees, and contributing to research projects because of her exceptional organizational skills and valuable insights.

Originally hired as her Public Health Director’s Executive Assistant, she now supports the entire Senior Directors Team to varying degrees. She has volunteered to participate in additional trainings, which have increased her ability to contribute to the organization. Most importantly, she believes in the mission and vision of LMPHW to achieve health equity and it shines through in everything she does.

This year, the Administrative Support Staff Award recipient is Amanda Clark, Administrative Coordinator for Louisville Metro Public Health and Wellness.

• 2019: Carolyn Young
• 2018: Melinda Carey
• 2017: Angel Thompson
• 2016: Becki Casey
• 2015: Rachel Dermon
• 2014: Carol Huckelby
• 2013: Barbara Casey
• 2012: Heather L. Anderson
• 2011: Anna Graves
• 2010: Susan Landers
• 2009: Patricia Porter
• 2008: Cathy Meredith Roby
• 2007: Rosalie Wright
• 2006: Suzie Hamm
• 2005: Thelma Streetman
• 2004: Janet Overstreet
• 2003: Terri Cox
• 2002: Paula Taylor
• 2001: Vera Campbell
• 2000: Robin Finzer
• 1999: Pat Kees
• 1998: Vivian Gaines
• 1997: Jenny Thomas
• 1996: Paula Vincent
• 1995: Libby Sammons, ART
• 1994: Linda Kirtley & Marietta Ricketts
• 1993: Jena Hill
• 1992: Carolyn Moulder
• 1991: Flo Pittmam, RS RHIA