Sally Slavinski, 36, slides into a chair in Hal & Mal’s 30 minutes before we open. She apologizes for being late, explaining that she just ran 11 miles in training for the Mardi Gras half-marathon on Feb. 16. Dressed in a gray Berkeley zip-up sweatshirt over gray sweatpants with a New Zealand All Blacks rugby cap over her straw-blond hair, she opens a container of strawberry Dannon yogurt and sips from an Aquafina bottled water. It would take 20 pages to list all that she’s done in her short life, starting with a childhood in Long Island, N.Y., a biology degree from Michigan State, working summers in Yellowstone, veterinary school, working with the Heifer Project in Uganda, practicing small-animal medicine in Ohio, working with the World Health Organization for three months in India, working in Martha’s Vineyard and acquiring a degree in public health from Berkeley. But what does she do now?
Slavinski is an epidemiologist with the Mississippi State Health Department. She monitors the rates of diseases and investigates outbreaks such as last summer’s West Nile cases. Mississippi was one of her top three choices, along with Massachusetts and Hawaii; she chose to work here because she knew it could “possibly be an adventure.”
With a passion for doing good, Slavinski wanted to work in a field where it was guaranteed that she could bring about a change, to “feel like I went into a place and made a difference.” This is evident in the stories she shares of her experiences working in Mississippi. A few years ago there was a cluster of HIV cases in teenagers in the Delta, seven kids ages 13 to 19. Slavinski was there. When asked how she manages the emotional aspect of dealing with people with infectious, fatal diseases, she says she doesn’t always.
Slavinski loves living in Jackson and elected to stay past her two-year obligation and has been living happily in the city for three years. She adores the “small townness” she’s found and can be seen at just about any function or performance there is about town, from indie films to academic talks at Millsaps.
Does she consider herself an idealist? “Oh yeah,” she quickly answers almost before the question is asked, nodding her head, brown eyes glinting. She wonders how people can be so insular, so blind to what goes on around them. But at least Sally Slavinski’s eyes are open, and that makes our world a better place.
— J. Bingo Holman
