Community Hero of the Month: Jayne Smith

LEE, Mass. — Jayne Smith, shared services manager for the Southern Berkshire Public Health Collaborative, has been nominated as August's Community Hero of the Month.

 

The Community Hero of the Month series recognizes individuals and organizations that have significantly impacted their community. 

 

The series is in partnership with Haddad Auto and will run for the next four months. Nominate a community hero here. 

 

Smith has been working for the Southern Berkshire Public Health Collaborative from very early on in its inception. 

 

The organization was established in 2021 as part of a Public Health Excellence grant to enhance public health services through shared services.

 

The collaborative serves Alford, Great Barrington, Monterey, Mount Washington, New Marlborough, Otis, Sandisfield, Sheffield, Tyringham, and the existing Tri-Town District towns of Lee, Lenox and Stockbridge. 

 

"[Smith] knows South County very well, and she puts so much time and energy into the communities that we serve. I have to keep reminding her to take breaks. That's how mu ch energy she puts into the community," James J. Wilusz, Tri-Town Health District executive director, said. 

 

She joined the collaborative in 2022 because she believed in the organization's work and wanted to help build it. 

 

"I had faith in it, and also, it was a blank slate as to figuring out what is needed to help public health," Smith said. 

 

The collaborative has several programs, including public health nursing, inspection services, and community partnerships.

 

Smith emulates the organization's mission to provide services, clinical, and community support for all of its residents, Wilusz said. 

 

Tri-Town is the oldest health district in the state, created in 1929, and wrote the roadmap on shared services. 

 

"We have a standard here at Tri-Town. We work really well with our communities. We like to solve problems and make sure public health and safety is protected," Wilusz said. 

 

"And Jane emulates the mission and the standard that we hold all our staff to and the level of services that we provide."

 

An example is when she requested "a significant amount of personal time" to go and help migrant families who had moved into Southern Berkshire County. She helped them feel safe, cooked for them, and oversaw food protection operations, he said. 

 

"She was trying to get away with using her earned time like vacation and personal time, and I wasn't having any of that," Wilusz said and told her that this is part of what they do in the community. 

 

He said everyone should have basic governmental services such as clean water, public health, vaccinations, and community spirit. 

 

Despite each community in South County being unique in its own way, there is still a sense of interconnectedness, which is needed to have a bigger impact on public health and safety, especially for smaller communities with limited resources, he said. 

 

"I've said it many years before. I'll say it again: there are no borders on public health. If something is going on in Lee, it's going to affect Lenox. It's going to affect Stockbridge, and so on and so forth," Wilusz said. 

 

"We have to work together in this communitywide effort to really make sure our community is healthy and safe for generations to come."

 

Smith has been in public health since 1999 and has worked as a health agent, a senior inspector, and a registered sanitarian for several organizations and towns. 

 

She enjoys project-based work, appreciates the autonomy of the boards of health, has a passion for working with youth, and derives satisfaction from making a tangible and positive impact on local communities through public health work.

 

Before entering public health, she worked for a Pittsfield firm designing septic systems and delineating wetland areas. 

 

When her family moved out of Pittsfield, she wondered what to do next. The former Tri-Town Health Department director, Peter Kolodziej, recommended that she try public health, so she took the leap and ended up in Agawam. 

 

However, it was not until she started working as a health agent in Great Barrington that she saw the significant impact the field could have on the community through several of its programs. 

 

She recollected how, when living in Springfield, Vt., people from a drug house down the street from a school would harass the children. When the police were contacted, residents were informed to set up a camera and let the authorities know when incidents happened. 

 

"I remember thinking there's got to be more that towns can do than ask mothers of elementary kids to stake out for the police," Smith said. 

 

When she started to work for Great Barrington, she realized there is more a community can do -- in fact, the state has a guide on how they can. 

 

While working in Great Barrington, she was involved in many programming and initiatives, including establishing a recovery center, training doctors on prescribing pain medication, developing a tool to monitor pain medication usage, dealing with the copper lead exceedance in the Housatonic River, addressing safety and health issues in public housing, and much more.

 

She went on to work as a senior inspector at Berkshire Public Health Alliance through the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission. During her time there, she was involved with the youth empowerment nonprofit Railroad Street Youth Project.

 

After working for BRPC for two years, Smith decided to leave the public health industry to start her own business in septic design. But then the pandemic hit, and the industry called back to her. 

 

She re-entered the field because of her "desire to help people" and her "inability to sit on her hands when people need any skills that she can provide."

 

Dalton had just lost its health agent, so Smith offered to work for there for a couple of months. Two months turned into two years, and it was "a wonderful experience," she said. 

 

"The town was just so open to having some support, and it was really like a step away from the regulatory role," Smith said. 

 

"I was sending out emails almost weekly letting businesses know how they can navigate the new requirements that the state just turned out, working with restaurants to figure out how to configure their tables so that they could stay in business and meet the requirements. Like it was very hands-on." 

 

She said she loved her time there and would still be there if the commute from her home in South County was not so far. 

 

Smith's legacy on Dalton is evident, especially based on her nomination submission for our community here series.  

 

The anonymous submission said Smith's "community engagement and program leadership has made a continued impact in Berkshire County." The nominator said her leadership in Dalton and South County through the Southern Berkshire Public Health Collaborative is inspiring. 

 

"In addition to her great leadership in South County, [Smith] also gives back to great lands of South County, raising cattle and creating her own delicious honey products," they wrote. 

 

"[She is a] woman of many talents, but the most important is how she leads public health programs for South County. A true community hero."