Alumni Profile
a passion for public health


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Tanya MacFarlane’s job is to protect the health of residents and vacationers on the Kitsap Peninsula, including tracking down the sources of disease outbreaks. She is passionate about her work.
She inspects restaurants, schools, festival booths, summer camps,
and swimming pools. In addition, she teaches food safety classes, food manager certification classes, and safety classes for pool operators. She works as a consultant to a Native American tribe, and investigates food-borne illnesses and complaints from the community. “My personal challenge is to become the best communicator I possibly can. I particularly enjoy helping food workers find procedures for preparing food that keeps the food safe throughout the process.”
  Sometimes her job requires her to be a detective, investigating the source of food-borne illness. She uses the time-honored who-what-when-where-why-and-how technique to find out who got sick, what they ate, and when. Food-borne illness can often be easily identified by knowing the food consumed, the incubation period, and the symptoms and duration of the illness. However, positive identification requires follow-up laboratory identification.
  Although only a year out of school, Tanya has become involved in professional activities as editor of the Washington State Environmental Health Association’s newsletter. She also chairs the publications committee for the association’s annual educational conference.
  She began work in Kitsap County in April 2000, only a month after finishing her coursework. She had already gained experience as a sanitarian through an internship with Public Health Seattle-King County. She also worked as a research assistant in the Department’s Environmental Health Technology program, doing air sampling.
  Tanya found the Department’s undergraduate classes to be specific and practical. Many of her instructors had worked as sanitarians and offered “a tremendous amount of information about the field.” As an undergraduate she learned to do a restaurant inspection, a pool inspection, and a rodent/housing survey.
  She also learned communication skills, and discovered that the quality of her work is “directly proportional to my ability to listen, observe, speak, write, and demonstrate.” She encourages students not to be shy about talking with their instructors. “I found that each one was available for one-on-one interaction.” She also encourages students to take advantage of internship possibilities.
  “The area of environmental health is so huge that you can make your experience whatever you want it to be, so be creative,” she advises. “Complete a research project. Get a job as a research assistant and work with professors and graduate students on a project that you feel passionate about. Do two internships if you have the time.”