Dr. Michelle Taylor is the Shelby County division director for health services. In this role, Taylor leads the team that plans, organizes and maintains public health programs and services for Shelby County, Tennessee, which includes the city of Memphis.

In this Q&A, Senior Communications Officer Kate McLaughlin spoke with Taylor about how the department partners with the community and local institutions to promote health and health equity.

Q: How does the Shelby County Health Department partner with the community to promote health?

Michelle Taylor: One of the many ways we partner is through outreach, which is key to our mission of promoting, protecting, and improving the health of all Shelby County residents in every way possible. A recent example is our first annual HIV Summit, where we brought together 32 nonprofits, advocacy groups, faith leaders and other stakeholders, along with our HIV program director Dr. Robertson Nash from the Tennessee Department of Health. The goal was to develop a roadmap for increased community collaboration around our HIV response. Shelby County and the Memphis area are second in the nation for new HIV infections, so this summit was crucial for addressing those numbers.

Another notable partnership is with Memphis-Shelby County Schools, the largest school district in Tennessee, for back-to-school events. We team up with the school system and Children’s Hospital to host vaccination clinics, ensuring students are up to date on immunizations before starting school. At the same time, parents and families also have the chance to come and get other resources from community partners so they have what they need and children can be ready to learn.

Q: Tell us about the health department’s involvement with the Memphis Medical District Collaborative.

Taylor: The Memphis Medical District Collaborative (MMDC) is a unique community development organization focused on strengthening the neighborhoods surrounding the Memphis Medical District. Shelby County Health Department became an anchor institution in 2021. The district includes major health care institutions like Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Regional One Health and the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.

Despite its concentration of health care institutions, the surrounding six residential neighborhoods have faced decades of underinvestment due to the legacies of segregation and redlining. About half of the 11,000 residents live below the poverty line. MMDC is changing that, not just by improving aesthetics but by investing in an equitable future.

For example, the MMDC’s “Hire Local” program trains residents for roles like medical assistants and clerical staff and guarantees them employment with area hospitals. We’re exploring ways to participate, as our health department also needs to rebuild its workforce. The collaboration aims to create environments where people want to live and work, contributing to long-term community revitalization.

If we are successful with MMDC, this model could be replicated in other parts of Shelby County, where we have a lot of socioeconomic segregation, and it will be a good example of how you can do better by these legacy neighborhoods that still have people living in them who still want economic security, just like any of us do.

Learn how the Memphis Medical District Collaborative spurs inclusive real estate development:

Q: How does the Shelby County Health Department approach health equity in a way that resonates with elected officials and the community?

Taylor: Education is key. When talking about health equity, we define it as giving people what they need to achieve their optimal health—not a bad word, though it sometimes gets misinterpreted. We also provide historical context, explaining how past policies, like redlining and segregated vital records, created disparities still visible in our community today.

For instance, the Shelby County Health Department has existed in some form since 1838. From around 1910 until 1971, Shelby County’s vital records were color-coded by race, influencing how resources were allocated – how many schools, hospitals and roads to build. So if you were color coding by race, it means you were categorizing how much funding you were going to give to different groups of people. And so that’s why, when you put up a map of socioeconomic status and you shade the map by zip code, and you put up a map of any health outcomes in Shelby County, they look the same.

When you educate people about these connections, it helps them see that addressing health equity lifts everyone up, and helps people get what they need to achieve optimal health. It’s so much more than just saying that people need to make better choices.

Q: Can you describe your partnership with the University of Memphis School of Public Health?

Taylor: Through a public health infrastructure grant, we’ve established programs to modernize our department, rebuild public trust and reimagine public health in our community.

One of our flagship initiatives is the Shelby County Health Department Employee Scholars Program, which has allowed 18 of our employees to pursue graduate degrees in public health. This not only supports workforce development, but also enriches the academic environment. Employees bring real-world experience to the classroom, bridging theory and practice, which benefits traditional students. A professor can be talking about theory, and then someone who has 15, 20 years of experience working in public health can raise their hand and say, let me tell you what this looks like in practice. It has transformed the way that the University of Memphis School of Public Health does business, how it reaches out to the community.

We’ve also piloted an experiential learning program for high school students and launched a population health data analytics program in collaboration with the University of Memphis and Code Crew.

All of these efforts are helping us rebuild the local public health workforce decimated by the COVID-19 pandemic while fostering innovation in how we address health challenges.

Q: What is your role in the Big Cities Health Coalition, and how has it benefited Shelby County?

Taylor: I serve as vice chair of the Big Cities Health Coalition, a forum for leaders of the 35 largest metropolitan health departments in the U.S. Big Cities’ health departments care for about one in five residents in the country, and it advocates for local public health at the national level, emphasizing and striving for health equity and racial justice.

Joining the coalition in 2021 opened doors for us to influence public health policy and gain resources to address Shelby County’s challenges. Hosting the coalition’s fall 2024 meeting in Memphis was particularly meaningful. We began the gathering at the National Civil Rights Museum, which was a powerful reminder of why justice is an integral part of public health’s mission.

Hosting gave us the opportunity to talk more about the unique health outcomes in the South, often overlooked nationally, and allowed us to showcase the critical work being done in Memphis to address systemic health inequities. It has been an incredible opportunity to amplify our voice and learn from other cities facing similar challenges.