By Abby Lau
Jeanelle Posch joined the DWW-SBSM (Doctors Without Walls-Santa Barbara Street Medicine) team in January as our new Operations Director. Jeanelle was raised in Southern California. She and her husband, Chris, have two daughters, Ashley and Sydney. She has a B.S. in Biological Sciences from UC Santa Barbara and a Clinical Trials Design/Management Certification from UC Santa Cruz. She has a long history of working in biotech, research and development, quality control, and clinical research. She has many years of experience working in upper management as an operations manager and project lead in several companies.
Though she does not have experience working at a nonprofit, in her time since being hired, Jeanelle has worked toward learning as much about DWW-SBSM as she can. She has met with the board to better understand her role in the organization, visited each clinic and street rounds several times, and met up weekly with other local groups also involved with the homeless population (such as Cottage, PATH, AmeriCorp, Behavior Wellness, etc.). She has also attended Dr. Jason Prystowsky’s Underserved Medicine Seminar at UCSB this last winter to learn more about working with the underserved population and street medicine.
Jeanelle’s goals for the organization follow the motto “work smarter, not harder”. She plans to streamline operations and procedures and improve our branding and image in the community. Some of her current projects include standardizing written protocols to enhance continuity from year-to-year, formalizing initial training and orientation, helping to implement a new streamlined method for volunteers to sign up for shifts and track hours online, redesigning the organization’s website, and finding ways to concentrate the efforts of different organizations in the city to provide our patients with more “wrap around and holistic care”.
Overall, Jeanelle is impressed with our work. She “appreciates and is aware of all the efforts everyone brings to the table” and wants to continue to improve in order to better serve our patients. In 5 years, she hopes to see a more efficient, more impactful, and more technologically savvy organization. I am excited for the changes she has in store for us.
