Welcome to Public Health On Call, a podcast from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health,

where we bring evidence, experience, and perspective to make sense of today's leading health challenges.

If you have questions or ideas for us, please send an email to Public Health Question at jh.edu.

That's Public Health Question at jh.edu for future podcast episodes.

Hi, I'm Lindsay Smith-Rogers, producer Public Health On Call.

Last fall, we partnered with the Stoop Storytelling series to present an evening of stories

about the personal impacts of public health.

We're releasing some of those recorded stories as a series, and today, in part two,

we hear from two storytellers.

Cleo Hirsch, the executive director of COVID response at Baltimore City Public Schools,

talks about coming from the back offices of policy work to standing up 15 student learning centers

for some of Baltimore's most vulnerable kids during the pandemic.

Next, Tide Courtney Edwards, founding director of Ballet After Dark, talks about how dance therapy helped her survive violent trauma and her work creating a space for others in her community to do the same. Let's listen.

Cleo Hirsch grew up in Hull, Massachusetts, which is a small beach town south of Boston, and she came to Baltimore in 2018 to work in the chief of staff's

office at city schools. Her hobbies include keeping up with her active toddler, watching women's

soccer, yay, and spending time with friends and family. Please welcome Cleo.

Hi, my name is Cleo Hirsch.

My current job title is Executive Director of COVID Response for Baltimore City Public Schools,

which is not a job I ever thought I wanted.

And of course, I did not have this job in the spring of 2020 when the

pandemic hit and schools were closed in Baltimore and across the country. At the time I was doing

special projects for the chief of staff and when schools closed I partnered with the food and

...