William "Bill" Patton Environmental Service Award

Emily Covey, R.S.
Foodborne Outbreak and Recall Coordinator
Kentucky Department for Public Health

As the Food Safety Branch Foodborne Outbreak and Recall Coordinator at the Kentucky Department for Public Health, Emily Covey has proven to be a crucial member of the foodborne outbreak response team in the Commonwealth. This role promotes food safety practices and helps prevent additional foodborne illnesses when an outbreak is occurring. Emily triages all complaints received by members of the public through Kentucky’s Centralized Foodborne Complaint System. Before performing in this capacity, she served as an environmentalist at the Montgomery County Health Department.

During her tenure, Emily has conducted multiple after-action reviews and fostered communication and collaboration to improve response activities. In her role, Emily has operated as the longest-serving Rapid Response Team (RRT) Coordinator for Kentucky and has been pivotal in progressing activities for the RRTs. Notable achievements include assisting with planning a tabletop exercise for staff members who may be involved in foodborne outbreak responses; and coordinating a Train the Trainer style environmental assessment and sampling training for Kentucky environmental health staff to provide competency in these areas for local jurisdictions. Without her dedication to building these relationships and outbreak response capacity, crucial skill sets would be limited among key outbreak response team members.

Buddy Wilson
Environmental Manager
Montgomery County Health Department

Buddy Wilson is the Environmental Manager for Montgomery County Health Department. He has served his community for 26 years and is a wealth of knowledge for all things environmental. His colleagues describe him as a steady, hardworking, knowledgeable, and calm force at the agency. In addition to food managers and handlers classes, Buddy is one of the only environmentalists in the region that teaches annual septic installer classes which draws attendees from across the State. He serves on the Kentucky Onsite Wastewater Association and has assisted Bluegrass Green Source on the Hinkston Creek Watershed project which replaced or repaired homeowner’s septic systems.

Buddy has assisted with countless public health issues over the years ranging from inspecting our local facilities during outbreaks; assisting the investigation of Long Lane in Montgomery County, which was an area with high levels of arsenic caused by the improper disposal of wood at an old wood treatment plant; inspecting restaurants during the Hepatitis A outbreak; visiting businesses and distributing protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic; and doing thousands of septic and restaurant inspections over his career.

He takes calls seven days a week and at all hours, regarding issues ranging from septic and restaurant complaints, to dog bites, and to some things that are not even public health related – people just feel comfortable reaching out to him with issues, and he takes the calls no matter the hour..even if on vacation or in a fishing boat. It's hard to see what has been prevented, but Buddy has helped prevent a lot of pestilence, filth, and disease in the community.

Beyond his work accomplishments, Buddy is a family man, a Veteran, and an avid outdoorsman. When Buddy isn't at work he can be found on a boat, in a tree stand, flipping burgers at Erma’s Dairy Bar, his family-owned restaurant, telling tall tales, or impersonating Burt Reynolds. He has amassed a few septic-related nicknames over the years – we won’t mention them now since it is lunch time. He is also a good cook. He has been known to fry up fish from an expedition to share with co-workers and he won the most recent health department chili cookoff with his bear and venison chili.

Letters of support came from several colleagues across the department. One colleague said, “Buddy has worked tirelessly, enforcing and evaluating policies and legislation related to public health. He often quotes statutes, along with the numbers of those statutes. Buddy is passionate about what he does and cares about the community he serves. We have all benefited from his knowledge, steadfast work, and contagious humor.”

Rhiannon Simon

Jennifer K. Bardroff, RS
Environmentalist III/Public Health Preparedness Manager
Franklin County Health Department

Reading over comments from peers there was a common theme…a positive attitude and a smile always on her face. Her public health career spans over 20 years as a Registered Sanitarian/Environmentalist and Public Health Emergency Preparedness Manager, serving in every area of Environmental Health.

She is very focused on community collaboration and maximizing resources for the health, safety, and well-being of the residents of her community. This has been evident in her work during COVID-19. In addition to her environmental tasks, she has organized drive-thru COVID-19 testing and vaccination clinics, helped Kroger set up their first drive-thru testing event, worked with local health facilities and medical offices to ensure they had needed personal protective equipment (PPE), developed traffic plans and staffing schedules and these are just a few of the areas under her responsibility. She has worked alongside community partners to provide services to some of the most vulnerable residents by taking both COVID testing and vaccinations to neighborhoods, assisted living facilities and residential facilities for adults with intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, taking these services to where these individuals reside. She is always friendly, reassuring, knowledgeable, professional, and highly competent.

She has been described as that employee that is always first to volunteer for projects or lend a hand to assist another staff member in need. Her care and concern don’t stop there; she is always ready and willing to work with others for the greater good.

Stuart Spillman, RS, REHS
Environmental Director
Lake Cumberland District Health Department

This year’s recipient received two nominations and several support letters from within his local health department but also from other health departments across Kentucky. This is due to his leadership at both the local and state level in environmental health. He has been a dedicated public health employee in both the environmental health and public health preparedness for many years. His approachability combined with his experience and reliability leads to his sound advice being sought by his peers and public health leadership. These attributes make him not only an asset to his local health department but to public health. While he may not have been formally assigned to the position of mentor, he has happily assisted many in the environmental profession in his role as attested in the many letters of support.

He has actively participated in the Kentucky Environmental Leadership Group, assisted with the review of Kentucky’s environmental health regulations, and has been integral in local and state policy development around environmental health issues. Most recently, he led an effort to increase efficiencies and decrease barriers for obtaining Person in Charge (PIC) Food Safety Training. Kentucky adopted the 2013 Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Food Code in July of 2019. Many local health departments had required PIC training prior to the 2013 Code adoption to improve sanitation and safety practices of those working in the food service industry. Such training and certification are designed to improve health and safety, improve the scores of local food establishments, decrease liabilities of those establishments, and decrease the number of follow up inspections performed for non-compliance. With the passing of the 2013 FDA Food Code, training became required for all food service managers across Kentucky. Also, during this same period, local health departments (LHDs) were actively evaluating staffing needs and in many cases downsizing to align with public health transformation as well as to deal with increased pension costs. He led an effort to design an online option for LHDs across Kentucky for both Food Manager level training as well as food handler training. The Lake Cumberland District Health Department built capacity to provide the administration and management of these courses and then he began meeting with local health department directors and leadership in their environmental health programs to offer their assistance. He also presented this option at the Kentucky Health Departments Association (KHDA) to ensure he made this available to each and every local health department throughout Kentucky.

Another important contribution to local health departments and the environmental health programs made by our recipient was his participation on a KHDA subcommittee that was tasked with assessing the cost of providing environmental services. This is crucial to local health departments and sustainment of the environmental health programs. This work was requested by the sponsor of House Bill 129, the Public Health Transformation Bill, Representative Kimberly Moser. As a result of this work, local health departments providing these services are assured the necessary funding to continue to assure safety and sanitation throughout their local communities.

His contributions have the potential to positively affect all local health departments through increased efficiencies, funding, and sustainability. His passion and dedication to public health is to be admired and noted as he receives the Bill Patton Environmental Service Award.

Congratulations to this year’s Bill Patton Environmental Service Award, Lake Cumberland District HD’s Environmental Director, Stuart Spillman.

• 2019: Todd LaFollette
• 2018: Not Awarded
• 2017: Raymond “Jackie” Cole
• 2016: Carlene Whitt
• 2015: Not Awarded
• 2014: Dr. Emmanuel Lyiegbuniwe
• 2013: Vijay Golla/Ritchie Taylor
• 2012: Three Rivers District Health Dept. Environmental Team – Sarah Biggin, Rachele Cobb, Natasha Collins, Ashley Froman, Wayne Biddle, Don Jacobs, And Justin Pittman
• 2011: William G. Thomas
• 2010: Not Awarded
• 2009: Kathy Fowler
• 2008: Juli Conner
• 2007: Wayne Biddle
• 2006: To All Who Helped With Hurricane Katrina
• 2005: Tim Vorbeck
• 2004: Sam Burnette
• 2003: Lloyd Peniston
• 2002: William “Bill” Patton *
• 2001: Stephen F. Harris
• 2000: Carolyn Boaz
• 1999: Brian Elswick
• 1998: Paul C. Rice
• 1997: All Kentucky Health Environmentalists
• 1996: Patrick Clark Bledsoe Department Environmentalists
• 1995: Veda Wooton, RD
• 1994: James Wesley
• 1993: Porter Bailey
• 1992: Ed Cecil
• 1991: Bert Turner
• 1990: Gary Coleman
• 1989: Jim Sullivan
• 1988: Keith Brock
• 1987: Ann Young Wethington