‘I felt this was my opportunity to give back’
Some 40 years ago, Tracie Collins watched in quiet indignation as a doctor in an Oklahoma City hospital accused her mother of trying to game the medical system.
Her mother was seeking relief for a painful medical condition. Instead of receiving treatment, she was rebuffed and insulted.
“They thought she wanted drugs,” said Collins, who was 13 at the time. “Pain meds.”
Ultimately, her mother had to go elsewhere for care.
The encounter remains clear in Collins’ memory. It was one of those moments that made her realize she wanted to make a difference in improving the way health care is delivered.
So, with the encouragement of her aunt, who was a nurse, Collins decided to enter the medical field.
Now, at 54, Dr. Collins, who most recently served as head of the University of New Mexico’s College of Population Health, has been thrust into the spotlight as the new secretary-designate of the state Department of Health.
She officially stepped into the job in mid-December as the novel coronavirus continued to take a heavy toll across the state, but colleagues say she began working to address the pandemic a month earlier, as daily infection counts and deaths were reaching unprecedented levels.
Why would anyone jump into the middle of such a maelstrom?
“What drew me to the job was the idea of making a difference at a historic time,” Collins said in a recent interview. “I felt this was my opportunity to give back to the state.”
There’s something personal about her choice, too.
She lost a cousin to the virus in March. He was the son of the aunt who had encouraged her to go into the medical field.
“He went into the hospital on a Friday and was dead on Wednesday,” she said. “He was 64.”
Collins replaced former Health Secretary Kathy Kunkel, 69, who announced she was retiring in the summer because of the “mentally and physically exhausting” challenges that go hand in hand with the pandemic. Kunkel stepped down in October.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham chose Collins in November, saying, “New Mexico has never needed experienced and compassionate public health leadership more than right now.”
Last month, Collins became a
regular presence in virtual news conferences about the virus, weighing in with to-the-point answers and comments.
At one such recent event, Dr. David Scrase, secretary of the state Human Services Department, said Collins “hit the ground running the first day on the job – but like 30 days before she started.”
“It’s great to have someone I can text day and night and coordinate things with,” he said with a laugh.
Others praised the governor’s choice of Collins.
Dr. Michael Richards, vice chancellor for clinical affairs of the University New Mexico Health System, said in an email that based on his experience working with Collins, she has been a “thoughtful and effective leader.”
He said her background in public health makes her a “perfect fit” to oversee the Health Department.
Collins’ medical and academic career includes serving as chairwoman of multiple health institutes outside New Mexico and working as a health professor and practicing clinician. She served for years as chairwoman of Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita, where she was also a professor of internal medicine.
Additionally, she served as codirector of the Research Core at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Health Equity and was an associate professor of medicine there.
Collins said her background has helped her develop a larger lens for viewing the pandemic’s reach and why it disproportionately targets minorities.
A September analysis by NPR found African Americans are infected and dying at rates of more than 1.5 times their share of the population, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a November analysis that
Native Americans, African Americans and Hispanics are four times more likely to be hospitalized for COVID-19 than other racial and ethnic groups in the U.S.
Collins said there are a number of reasons this is happening. For one thing, she said, those communities may have little or no access to health care. Many people live in multigenerational households where it is difficult to maintain social distancing. And some live in areas where there is no access to running water.
Another key cause: “having employment in jobs that put you at the front where you are exposed,” she said, such as in the restaurant, transportation and sanitation industries. “The people who have these jobs are often the minority – African Americans and Latinos and Native Americans.”
The pandemic has made it clear that more must be done to find ways to manage chronic health conditions and address health inequities and the socioeconomics of health care, Collins said.
She cited one positive byproduct of the pandemic: “Everyone is paying attention to health care now – and it’s a good thing they are paying attention.”
Collins said she did not seek out her new job. Rather, she said, someone who knew of her work recommended her to Lujan Grisham, and the two met to talk about the position.
She said Lujan Grisham, a past secretary of the state Department of Health, is “very good about informing me I’m the secretary, the decisions are mine. She served in this role, she understands health care and that makes it nice to work with her.”
Given tens of thousands of doses of COVID-19 vaccines already have been administered across the state and more are on the way, Collins said her greatest hope when it comes to the pandemic is “we will vaccinate the majority of New Mexicans” in the coming year.
Her greatest concern, she said, is that some people may refuse the vaccine, and “we’re gonna continue to lose lives.”
She said she hoped New Mexicans would adhere to state public health guidelines over the holiday season.
“People want to get back to what in the past was known as normal,” Collins said. “But it just isn’t the time.” This story first published in the Santa Fe New Mexican, a sibling publication of the Taos News.