Public health is often invisible, but its impact is everywhere.

“If we do our job well, you don’t know we’re there,” said Chad Kingsley, M.D., district health officer for Northern Nevada Public Health (NNPH).

That work is the focus of the latest Brewing Better Health conversation, where Dean Muge Akpinar-Elci, M.D., MPH, sits down with Kingsley to talk about prevention, trust and the role of community partnerships in shaping health across Northern Nevada.

Brewing Better Health is a conversation series from the University of Nevada, Reno School of Public Health that brings together public health leaders to explore how the field shows up in everyday life and in the communities it serves. The episode comes as National Public Health Week, observed April 6 to 12, highlights the importance of prevention and community well-being.

Their discussion ranges from clean drinking water and safe restaurants to vaccination programs and mosquito abatement, and how much of public health happens behind the scenes. It is built into the systems people rely on every day, often without realizing it.

“If we do our job well, you don’t know we’re there,” said Chad Kingsley, M.D., district health officer for Northern Nevada Public Health.

In Northern Nevada, that work is carried out by NNPH, which supports the region through a wide range of public health services spanning disease prevention, environmental health and community wellness.

“Public health deals with the community,” Kingsley said. “A doctor sees one person. I try to see a thousand people.”

That broader view shapes how public health connects across systems, from transportation and housing to education and access to care, influencing how people live, work and stay healthy. At its core, the field is rooted in prevention, which depends on trust and helping people understand how public health works.

“If we were to stop vaccines tomorrow, you probably wouldn’t see anything dramatic for a few years,” Kingsley said. “But as vaccination rates decline over time, you would start to see those numbers increase, and we would be reactive instead of proactive.”

For Dean Muge Akpinar-Elci, M.D., MPH, that is what makes public health both essential and easy to overlook. “This is the work that keeps communities healthy every day,” she said. “It happens before people ever need care.”

The partnership between the School of Public Health and NNPH reflects how academic and practice-based public health come together. Kingsley serves on the School’s Community Advisory Board and has been a longtime supporter of its work.

Many School of Public Health alumni work at NNPH, creating a direct connection between classroom learning and community impact. For current students, that partnership offers a clearer view of career pathways and the many ways public health can take shape.

“Public health feeds into so many different systems,” Kingsley said. “There are a lot of doors.”

As National Public Health Week underscores the value of prevention and collaboration, the conversation serves as a reminder that public health is built through trust, partnership and shared responsibility.

Watch the latest episode of Brewing Better Health.