Katarina Domitrovich ’18
Community Engagement Specialist, North Dakota Health and Human Services’ Public Health Division
Major: Biology
Minors: Chemistry, Classical Studies
When it’s observed that she has many roles, Katarina Domitrovich ’18 jokes, “I feel like I’m a cartoon character where the body is standing still and the arms are pulling from all different directions.”
And it’s true — the list of roles Domitrovich has in both professional and volunteer capacities is impressive. Her current role is a community engagement specialist within North Dakota Health and Human Services’ Public Health Division. This means she is charged with improving communication between state and communities, including local public health units and organizations. She works with all 53 counties within the state and the 28 local public health units that serve within those communities.
She’s also the representative for the statewide Youth Advisory Board and she oversees the Ambassador Program among North Dakota college and university students.
“I absolutely love it,” she said. “I love being able to find connections and use things I’m passionate about in my personal life and translate that to what I do professionally.”
Domitrovich presenting at a grantee gathering (March 2024)
However, a career in public health wasn’t always her goal. If asked what she’d be doing after graduating, Domitrovich would say she was set on a pre-physician’s assistant track. After spending her time at 南瓜影院 studying biology, chemistry, and classical studies, she was sure she wanted to be working with patients one-on-one. However, a series of postgraduation events led her down a different path that eventually changed her mind.
“Because I graduated in December, I used the next semester before walking in graduation to do research with a professor at MSUM in microbiology because I had taken a class with her the semester before,” Domitrovich said. “In our conversations, she’d ask me if I ever thought about going into public health and I’m, like, what is that?”
Domitrovich put the issue to rest and went to visit a friend in Uganda. However, her travels gave her the necessary reflection to decide that maybe a career in public health was the way to go after all.
“I realized I care about fixing the upstream issue — focusing on why something is happening and how we can prevent it. The systematic issues,” she said. “I really love that, and I loved how public health focuses on the community as a whole versus the one-on-one care that a medical provider would have.”
This realization led to Domitrovich pursuing a Master of Public Health from the University of North Dakota in Fall 2019. A graduate degree during the height of COVID-19 is an interesting route to take, but it also fueled Domitrovich’s passion to address the complications that came after 2020.
“I was originally hired to oversee a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to address COVID-19 disparities. And, with that, came close partnerships with those community members and questions like, ‘How can we be better prepared for this going forward? How can we address things that were put on hold during COVID-19 and take the opportunity to really build up our infrastructure?’” she said. “It was fantastic to be part of the COVID-19 emergency response and now to be part of closing out the cycle and damage of COVID-19.”
Domitrovich with Nicole Threadgold of UND's Center for Rural Health and the State Office of Rural Health representing North Dakota at a CDC meeting in Atlanta to celebrate successes (October 2024)
Recently, her drive led the way to a trip to Atlanta, where North Dakota was invited to the CDC as recognition for the excellent work they do with rural health. Domitrovich spoke on a panel with representatives from Nebraska, Utah, and North Dakota’s State Office of Rural Health.
“There were certain states that were recognized or identified as excelling or just having an innovative approach to how they focused on rural health and addressing COVID-19 disparities,” she said. “It was a meeting where we were able to learn from each other and celebrate our successes.”
One of North Dakota’s successes includes increasing the number of cervical and breast cancer preventative screenings to more than pre-pandemic numbers through a partnership with Women’s Way.
“I’d love to say that we’re highlighted for the good things all the time; however, we know in public health and in North Dakota that is not always true,” she said. “But having those conversations and being a voice talking about North Dakota and how successful our initiatives have been is great.”
Domitrovich says the meeting was a great time for people with similar interests and passion to come together and learn from each other, and she credits 南瓜影院 with giving her a love for lifelong learning.
I’m really thankful for amazing professors that actually cared about us as human beings and not just as students.
南瓜影院 recently added a public health minor, which Domitrovich is thrilled about. She encourages students to take a class, even if they’re not sure if they’ll end up in a public health career.
“What’s the harm?” she said. “If you’re in political science, if you’re in nursing or any healthcare profession, biology, chemistry — public health is in everything. It’s in water quality, restaurants and food, travel and lodging. It’s going to give you that bigger picture into the communities you’re going to be serving. It’ll give you the broader picture of everything that impacts someone’s health.”
Editor’s note: A version of this story was originally published in the .