Hi everyone!

I am Bridget Lally and I am serving as a health educator this year with Heartland Health Centers at Devon and Hibbard elementary. I’m originally from around Grand Rapids, Michigan and graduated from Central Michigan University this past May with bachelors in community health education and a bachelors in Spanish. During my undergraduate education I had the opportunity to spend a semester abroad in Buenos Aires which ignited my passion for learning about other cultures and serving others. Also during my undergraduate experience, I did a lot of community service work and really enjoyed learning about social issues and how we can address them. A year serving with AmeriCorps seemed like a logical next step for me before entering graduate school.

In my position at Heartland Health Centers, I serve as a support for patients who are trying to make positive changes in their lives and set goals for themselves. I also assist with our community medical visits that provide patients with the opportunity to spend more time with their providers to get the care they need. I have also had the privilege of helping with the organization’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic by assisting with COVID-19 testing at the clinic. Through all of these experiences I am learning more about what public health looks like in practice and what gaps exist in health care that we can serve to address in a primary care setting.

Moving to Chicago this summer, I was most excited about all of the things I would be able to learn through my service and all of the people that I would meet that I could learn from. While this service term has been different than what I had expected when I signed up, I have still learned so many invaluable things from many amazing people that I have met and I am honored to be in a position to use that knowledge to help people during this uncertain time.