Title Page & Abstract
An Interview with Jerrod Welch
Part of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum Tumultuous 2020 Oral History Project
Interview # T20-A-L-2022-35
Jerrod Welch, Adams County Health Department Administrator, was interviewed on the date listed below as part of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library’s Tumultuous 2020 Oral History project.
Interview dates & location:
Date: April 27, 2022 interview conducted at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library
Interview Format: Digital audio
Interviewer: Philip Pogue
Total Time: 1:26 / 1.43
Accessioned into the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Archives on August 8, 2022.
The interview is archived at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois.
© 2022 Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum
Abstract
Jerrod Welch, Tumultuous 2020, T20-A-L-2022-35
Biographical Information Overview of Interview: Jerrod Welch was born in Quincy, Illinois, in 1977, but grew up in Hannibal, Missouri. He attended Hannibal High School and was active in baseball, golf, and football. He graduated in 1996 and began attending Truman State University to study business administration, graduating in 2001. He continued his education at Kentucky State University in Frankfort, Kentucky, and earned a Master of Public Health in 2006. In Kentucky, he worked in a public water department, hospital lab, and the Environmental Protection Agency. In 2006, Welch returned to Quincy to become the Adams County Director of Clinical and Environmental Health. In 2012, he was selected to become the Adams County Health Department Administrator.
Welch discusses during the interview the different challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic brought to Adams County through his experiences as the Health Department Administrator. Welch opens up with a description of the health department and the services they provide. He details the different ways that the health department maintained those services and added to them throughout the pandemic. Welch describes the challenges of creating an infrastructure for contact tracing, setting up mass vaccination sites, and working with two bordering Missouri counties. Welch closes by sharing his personal experience with the pandemic.
Headings/Key Words: Adams County Health Department; Quincy, Illinois; public health; COVID-19; COVID-19 pandemic; Jerrod Welch; Tumultuous 2020; Tumultuous 2020 oral history
Note to the Reader: Readers of the oral history memoir should bear in mind that this is a transcript of the spoken word, and that the interviewer, interviewee and editor sought to preserve the informal, conversational style that is inherent in such historical sources. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library is not responsible for the factual accuracy of the memoir, nor for the views expressed therein. We leave these for the reader to judge.
COPYRIGHT
The following material can be used for educational and other non-commercial purposes without the written permission of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. “Fair use” criteria of Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976 must be followed. These materials are not to be deposited in other repositories, nor used for resale or commercial purposes without the authorization from the Audio-Visual Curator at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, 112 N. 6th Street, Springfield, Illinois 62701. Telephone (217) 785-7955.