Georgia Public Health Association President Colin K. Smith, DrPH, MS, CPH, presents the 2019 GPHA Barfield Nursing Section Award to J. Sharrel Jones, BSN, RN, Whitfield County Health Department manager, at the association’s annual conference in May.
Dalton (GA) – Whitfield County Health Department manager, J. Sharrel Jones, BSN, RN, was named winner of the 2019 Georgia Public Health Association Barfield Nursing Section Award at the association’s annual conference this May in Atlanta.
The Barfield Nursing Section Award was initiated by the Nursing Section of the Georgia Public Health Association in 1983 to honor Dorothy Barfield. Barfield was a lifelong learner who rose up the ranks in the nursing profession, eventually serving as chief nurse at the state level. The purpose of this award is to recognize written works, presentations or projects, including research, that promote public health by contributing to public health issues, programs, evidence and philosophies.
Not only has Jones greatly contributed over the years to local public health efforts to successfully create a community network of prenatal care for uninsured and income challenged residents of Whitfield and Murray counties, she has also presented the model for how to replicate this type of prenatal care synergy between public health and other organizations at several meetings and conferences throughout the state, including the State of the Public’s Health Conference in Athens last October and, most recently, the Georgia Public Health Association annual meeting in May.
Jones has lived in Dalton for the past 25 years but is originally from Quitman, Georgia. After graduating from Valdosta State University with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree in 1994, she landed her first position as a registered nurse in pediatrics at Hamilton Medical Center. Jones underwent two years of nursing skill development in the private sector before accepting a position at Whitfield County Health Department in the Children’s Access Clinic, and she eventually transitioned into the Family Planning & Women’s Health programs.
Jones was promoted in 2018 and currently serves as county manager of the Whitfield County Health Department. She has worked in public health since 1997 and has experience in immunizations, child health checks, the Children First program, Women, Infants and Children (WIC), family planning, child passenger seat program, breast and cervical cancer program, maternal/child health, and women’s health, and she serves as the Basic Life Support instructor for the department.
Jones has dedicated 21 years of her nursing career to Public Health and her community.