County Employee Helps Improve Health in Lemon Grove

As a community health promotion specialist for the County Health and Human Services Agency, Katie Judd has been promoting wellness in East County communities for the past six years.

Given her work in the region and relationship with local leaders, Judd was selected to be in a group of 19 people who will help decide how to spend $1million to improve the health of Lemon Grove residents.

The city is the only one in San Diego County to receive a grant from Kaiser Permanente’s Healthy Eating Active Living Zones, an initiative the health-care provider is rolling out across Southern California. The grant will be administered by Community Health Improvement Partners, a County partner.  

“I am excited,” said Judd, age 32, who has worked for the County for 10 years. “I will get to help focus all the work that we’ve been doing and apply it to a specific community.”

The advisory committee also includes Ernie Anastos, superintendent of Lemon Grove schools, Blanca Brown, school board member, City Manager Graham Mitchell, and representatives from service and community organizations, child-care agencies, health-care providers and Lemon Grove residents.

Over the next three years, the committee will help Lemon Grove create an environment that gives Lemon Grove 26,000 residents easier access to healthy foods and makes it easier to be physically active, key components of the County’s campaign to improve the health and wellbeing of San Diegans.

“We’re really taking on the Live Well, San Diego! initiative and fighting childhood obesity,” Judd said, referring to her work in the East County region. “We are changing systems and the environment to promote wellness.”

The group will lead the efforts to create a wellness hub close to the heart of Lemon Grove, to adopt a healthy vending machine policy across the city, establish a wellness program for school district employees, create walking clubs and encourage local restaurants to offer healthy menu options.

“We hope to establish a Mecca for healthy living,” said Judd. “We will be working collectively to create the vision for what residents want Lemon Grove to look like and creating a healthy community for years to come.”