COVID-19 Campus Health Coordinator Katie Gravens

OFF THE CUFF

COVID-19 Campus Health Coordinator Katie Gravens Returns to Retirement

Katie Gravens

Photo by Tanya Rosen-Jones

Kush Bulmer News Editor

Katie Gravens came out of retirement in August 2020 to begin working at Oberlin as the Campus Health Coordinator to navigate the College’s COVID-19 response. In her role, she coordinated the College’s vaccination effort, contact tracing, and its COVID-19 health communications all while consulting with the Lorain County Public Health Department regarding changes to quarantine and isolation practices. Prior to this position, Gravens worked in higher education as a program director and nursing faculty member for Lakeland Community College. She also served as a nurse practitioner with the Lorain County Public Health Department. On Dec. 22, Gravens will return to retirement, after a successful tenure at Oberlin.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What brought you to Oberlin?

I had actually retired. I taught nursing and was the director of a nursing program, and after I retired I was looking for a part-time position. Then COVID-19 hit and everything that I was participating in — volunteering and taking classes — it all came to a halt. A friend sent me this position description. Although it was full-time, I thought it sounded interesting, so I interviewed with Chief of Staff David Hertz and then with President Carmen Twillie Ambar. I took a full-time position because I thought it sounded like a challenge, and it has been a challenge, but it’s been a great experience. I’ve really enjoyed Oberlin. Everybody has been great, and it’s given me an opportunity to work with Lorain County Public Health Department and University Hospitals.

Could you describe some of the biggest challenges you’ve had to face in the position?

COVID-19 was an unknown, right? We were entering into something that no higher education institution or the country — at least in this timeframe — had ever experienced. When I started, Oberlin had most of their protocols set up. Testing was just beginning, and the decisions to de-densify the campus and shift to three trimesters had already been made. It was up to me to continue working on those things and to set up a contact tracing team. No one had ever done contact tracing. Johns Hopkins University had a contact tracing course, so there were a number of employees from various areas on campus who offered to help. All of them did the Johns Hopkins course and became certified. That was kind of fun and interesting. I then worked with the health department in setting up a protocol to determine what we would do with isolation and quarantine.

What are your thoughts on the Omicron variant? Do you have any worries about a winter holiday spike?

Like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director keeps saying, we’re still having problems with the Delta variant. At the moment, Omicron is not a big issue. It’s beginning to increase, but Delta is still what’s out there. The cases that we have seen and the spread we have seen at Oberlin have all been based on social interactions in which students were close together and not wearing masks. So my advice would be to wear your mask in indoor settings with your friends, and if you’re going to be eating, then make sure that you’re distanced while you’re removing your mask. I think in the time before people go home, they just need to be more mindful of that because we are seeing it spread. It is happening. People have to use common sense measures. If you’re sick, please stay home; don’t go interact with other people. If you are with other people, wear your mask and make sure they wear their mask — that’s how we’ll prevent the spread.

Is it true that you’re moving on from your position at Oberlin?

I’m going to retire on Dec. 22. Actually, my initial contract ended on June 30, 2021. At the time, cases were low and things were very quiet, and President Ambar said, “Well, why don’t you stay part-time, you know, eight to sixteen hours a week, in case we need you.” And I said, “Oh, sure. I can work a couple days a week.” But that has not happened. It’s a little bit more than I want at this stage in my life, so I am going to retire. That’s where Special Assistant to the President for Student Affairs Clare Rahm comes in. She and I have been working together so that she will begin to assume the coordination of COVID-19. We’re still hoping to hire somebody additional to help with things. But again, as you know, it’s really difficult to hire people at this time. We’d like somebody with a medical background. My background is in nursing, and I’ve done a lot of work in public health. But I think our policies are well setup. Administrative Manager Emily Speerbrecher in the President’s Office and I have worked closely. We do have somebody now that we’ve hired — an Oberlin graduate, actually, Catherine Mavrich. She graduated last May and works at the Lorain County Public Health Department. She is helping us with evening and weekend contact tracing.

I have truly loved working here. I’ve loved the students, how honest everybody is when I talk with them, and how intelligent they are. Last year, I would have students sending me articles from Johns Hopkins and all these very reputable sources defending their point. I really enjoyed that. I’ve loved walking through campus and hearing the Conservatory students playing music, especially last year when they couldn’t practice inside. It’s been a great experience, and I will be back to visit.

Do you have any plans for your retirement?

Well, I’m having a new grandchild in February in Chicago, and then I have two grandsons in Washington, D.C. I’m heading to D.C. in January and then to Chicago in February. I’m going to travel and take classes and go to the gym and read and all those kinds of things.

And I’ve loved working with the Review. I’ve talked to many of the people on the Review, and it’s been a nice relationship.

History of African-American Alumnae Brought to Life

Nikki Keating

A new research project by the History Design Lab, an initiative of Oberlin’s History department, aims to provide histories of Oberlin-affiliated AfricanAmerican women intellectuals. Former Associate Professor of History Tamika Nunley founded the Lab to engage students in archival research projects advised by faculty and professional staff. This latest project strives to increase access to an archive of often-neglected, African-American women intellectuals affiliated with the College.

Nunley taught the course Research Methods in Black Women’s Intellectual History in spring 2020, which caught the attention of the History Design Lab, a collaborative community of students, faculty, and staff aligned under the goal of a research-based history project. This spurred the lab’s African American Women Intellectuals project, dedicated to developing an archive of scholarly biographies that document African-American women who attended or were affiliated with Oberlin College.

“It becomes an ongoing space where students can do really high-level research and learn how to present that research in a way that would be on digital platforms or speak to public audiences,” said the lab’s advisor and Robert S. Danforth Professor of History Renee Romano.

After Nunley, the lab’s previous advisor and the project mentor, left for a position at Cornell University earlier this year, Romano took over in providing a space for students to learn about and research the legacies of African-American women from Oberlin.

Students work in groups with defined leaders and editors where they choose an African-American woman affiliated with Oberlin College and do extensive research on the historical figure. This includes researching within the Oberlin archives and finding letters, papers, or organizations influenced by the figure before compiling the information into an exhibit.

“A lot of the research that I did originally was in the class, and that kind of served as the model for the way that people would research going forward,” said Benjamin Clark, College third-year and Oberlin History as American History project editor in the History Design Lab.

Currently, there are 12 exhibits on the website that showcase African-American women affiliated with Oberlin College.

“We wanna focus on subjects whose stories haven’t always been told or told fully or told right,” Romano said. “You have to be really creative with how you look at sources because traditional archive collections may not be fully representing the experiences of women of color.”

The women chosen for the project, such as Ruth Anna Fisher and Shirley Graham Du Bois, excelled in many different areas. Fisher graduated from Oberlin in 1906, worked for the Carnegie Institution and later for the national archives, while Du Bois focused on producing operas that reflected the Black experience. Each exhibit showcases a different talent through the eyes of African-American women, an underrepresented group when it comes to recognition of intellectual achievements.

“A key part of this is to really recast and reframe an understanding of the important intellectual legacies and contributions,” Romano said. “They’re not just important people for what they did, but they’ve gone on to influence and shape many other aspects of things.”

For Clark, the project is exciting because it helps make valuable information more accessible to the general public.

“People can then cite those sources in a way that links back to the institution and offer those sources up to people when otherwise they would have to personally request them from the archives and do research themselves,” Clark said.

The public can also become more aware of the contributions of African-American women that have not been broadcasted throughout the United States, or even the College.

“I think a fair amount of students who go here are really interested in the history of Oberlin,” College third-year Meredith Warden said. “It has a really strong history as a radical school, but also within that, there are stories — like the story of Edmonia Lewis who was a Black woman who went here who ... was the victim of racial hate crimes when she was here. I think it is really important to not just tell the stories of these women but do more research into them, so people are more aware of the fact that these women were up against so many odds.”

By contributing to this project, students have the pleasure of telling stories that hadn’t previously been told or valued, subsequently spreading the message that the story of any person’s life has inherent worth.

“If you see a wall of inventors, the chances that most of them are gonna be white men is … really high,” Romano lamented. “We need to change that, so kids recognize themselves [in their] role models.”