College of Public Health Alumna Receives Doris Spain Award

Shannon Railling, Director of the Coordinated School Health Program for Warren County Schools, is this year’s recipient of the Doris Spain Award for Distinguished Service Award.  This award is selected by the TPHA Board of Directors and is presented to an individual who has made significant contributions to the Association.

Ms. Railling is a 2009 graduate of the Master of Public Health in Epidemiology from East Tennessee State University’s College of Public Health.  

The Doris Spain Award for Distinguished Service is presented to a Tennessee Public Health Association member who has made outstanding contributions to the Association over a period of several years.  

Beginning as a conference of health care workers in 1926, the Tennessee Public Health Association was chartered in 1939, creating an organization in which different disciplines work together to obtain higher standards of preventive health practice through recommendations involving administrative policy and legislative action. As an affiliate member of the American Public Health Association and the National Association of County and City Health Officials, it is the official professional organization for those engaged or interested in public health services and is endorsed by the administration of the Tennessee Department of Health.

In 2016, Paula Masters, also an alumna of the College, was the inaugural winner of this award.