Howard seeks election to Cape County health board

This is the fourth in a series of articles featuring candidates for the Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center Board of Trustees in the April 6 municipal election. The trustees are unpaid and hold regular meetings monthly. Kara Clark Summers, county clerk since 2007, told the Southeast Missourian never in her tenure have so many people filed at one time to serve as PHC trustees.

Diane Howard, a lawyer with The Limbaugh Firm, was appointed in 2019 by the Cape Girardeau County Commission to replace the resigned Patricia Ray until the 2021 municipal election. Howard is running to fill Ray’s unexpired term until 2023. Howard previously served as a PHC trustee from 1993 to 2012. She left after being appointed by then-Gov. Jay Nixon to a three-year term on the Missouri Gaming Commission.

A native of Harrington Park, New Jersey, she moved to Cape Girardeau at age 12 and graduated from Notre Dame High School. Howard received her undergraduate degree in 1976 from the Mississippi University for Women and graduated in 1979 from Saint Louis University School of Law. She joined the U.S. Navy and was assigned to the JAG (Judge Advocate General) Corps. After more than four years of active duty, Howard joined The Limbaugh Firm in 1984, while continuing to serve in the Naval Reserves until 2005, retiring as a captain.

Why do you want to serve?

Public health is fascinating, and it has become a passion. I’ve been honored to have been a small part of the growth of the PHC since my first year as a trustee in 1993. Back then, I thought public health was basically about visiting-nurses, about home health and immunizations. But now, it is so much more. Today, the county health department is no longer in the home health business because private providers have stepped up to do this. In public health, we often fill the gap of what the private sector isn’t doing.

The complexity of public health is amazing. It’s the public health department, for example, who does the things only government entities can: septic inspection monitoring, for instance. Another is enforcing food ordinances at restaurants. If you see an “A” sticker on the window, for example, that came from the PHC. Our health center also operates an HIV program for a multi-county geographical area.

How do you feel personally about the still-in-effect July 9 mask order?

I strongly support the order and it is highly misunderstood. The face covering mandate is about mask-wearing — that’s it. Some of the criticism we’ve heard is that we’re trying to limit seating at restaurants. Not true. There’s nothing in the order about this. The mask order is consistent with our public health mandate to keep people safe. Plus, I believe a large percentage of county residents are also in favor of it.

What are your qualifications/background?

The PHC trustees run the business of the county health department and my skills, I think, have been very helpful over the years. Lawyers can be good contributors to a public health board.

What role should the trustees play in public health in Cape Girardeau County?

We have a statutory mandate when it comes to public health and it is our role to control expenditures. We’re responsible for the actual health center on Linden Street and in my years as a trustee, I’ve seen the facility be expanded and renovated twice. We get involved in some personnel issues and we set the compensation for all employees.

What are your goals as a county health board trustee?

Primarily, my goal is to continue to oversee the administration of public health at the same excellent level as we have now. The mass COVID inoculations are a concrete way for county residents to see — perhaps for the very first time — their county health department at work. Very proud and honored to be the very top in Missouri when it comes to percentage of county residents who’ve had their first vaccine dose. I look forward to continuing to be a part of a government entity, this public health center, that produces at such a high level. It’s very exciting to me.