DEH gains ‘patience’ with district officer
Patience Eke
(CNS): The Department of Environmental Health (DEH ) has added Patience Eke to the team as district environmental health officer. She brings more then 25 years of experience from working in both Nigeria and Jamaica.
Eke holds an associate’s degree in public health, a post-graduate diploma in meat and other foods, and a master’s degree in public health. She is a certified food safety trainer and exam administrator for the National Environmental Health Association.
She is responsible for addressing all George Town district environmental health concerns such as complaint investigation as well as inspection of tourist establishments, schools and day care centres, beauty salons, barber shops, and environmental health-related businesses.
Eke is enthusiastic about her job. “I am a passionate advocate for a clean environment and pledge to do everything in my power to maintain an environment that is safe and healthy for the George Town community,” she said. “Persons who create nuisances in the community should be a part of solving the problem.”
DEH director Roydell Carter spoke of the environmental health officer. “Ms Eke is a community mobiliser, and this is evidenced by the five community clean-ups in George Town that she has organised within the few months she has been in her position.”
A certified food safety officer, Eke has worked as quality-control manager in one of the major food-processing companies in Jamaica and played a leading role in the guidelines and standards for the inspection of schools, nursing homes, prisons and hospitals in parts of Jamaica and Nigeria.
She also worked with the epidemiology/infectious disease team that played an important role in controlling a malaria outbreak in Jamaica.
Category: Environment
