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Irene Arango Gómez, community care coordinator for the Community Practice Innovation Center in South Dakota State University’s College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions, says her work is shaped by a need to know and understand public health systems and advocate responsibly within them.

“I have found myself in spaces where I needed to know what was going on,” she said. “I want to inform myself and grow. I want to know what I'm doing and talking about so that I can properly provide the right information to people.”

That curiosity and her commitment to putting knowledge into action have become defining features of her career and garnered her entry into not one, but two, leadership development programs. 

Arango Gómez was one of 40 individuals selected for the Region 8 Public Health Leadership Institute for Systems Change. The six-month program equips public health professionals with leadership skills through a mix of live sessions, coaching and applied learning tied to real community challenges.

For her focus, Arango Gómez chose to explore the disproportionate incarceration of Indigenous people in South Dakota. Native Americans make up a relatively small share of the state’s population but a much larger portion of those incarcerated, a gap she wants to better understand and ultimately help address.

At the same time, Arango Gómez has also been participating in the statewide Public Health Policy Champions program, designed to sharpen public health advocacy and policy skills by giving participants hands-on experience with the policymaking process. The program allows participants to explore how policy actually works by learning to analyze case studies, communicate effectively with legislators, and build skills in community outreach and engagement.

“It’s been eye-opening,” she said. “I’ve really learned about what policy is and how it works, positively and negatively, in public health.”

Both programs have allowed Arango Gómez to gain additional tools to create meaningful change in her chosen field.