Championing public health: A student's impact from Auburn to the White House

From Auburn University to Washington, D.C., and back, junior Clara Ragan’s journey is a testament to her passion and dedication to public health. 

Clara’s mother, a pharmacist and Auburn alumna, works for the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). 

“I was exposed to a lot of the systematic issues my mom deals with working for the VA at a young age,” she said. “I never thought I wanted to go into health care. I wanted to become a lawyer.” 

That all changed when Clara shadowed Alabama Circuit Court Judge John Graham in Jackson County after her freshman year. 

“He ran a successful drug court and was very focused on rehabilitation, justice and solving the broader issue of the opioid epidemic,” she said. “He led with compassion.” 

With a career shift in mind, Clara landed an internship with the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy. 

She was able to take what she learned in Washington,D.C. and joined the Student Government Association’s lobby board. 

“Joining lobby board has allowed me to keep driving policy changes across campus and with state legislature,” she said. “I’m able to learn what issues students care about.” 

One of those changes has led to Clara successfully advocating for the drug Narcan to be available in every fraternity house and residence hall on campus. 

“Narcan is quite literally a miracle drug,” she said. “It can reverse a severe opioid overdose and save lives. Although Auburn doesn’t necessarily have an opioid problem, it’s still something that can affect us, and I think it’d be silly to not prepare for that.” 

Clara has served as a resident assistant (RA) and has worked with student conduct in Auburn Cares. 

“I began recognizing that we have RA’s who are trained on alcohol overdoses, but also opioid overdoes response,” Clara said. Working with the assistant director of housing, Clara ensured that opioid overdose response and Narcan training was included in the RA curriculum. 

“It’s important to note that having this lifesaving medication on campus isn’t saying that we have a drug problem on campus. This is another way to show that Auburn is keeping its students safe.” 

Clara didn’t stop there. 

“We have a ton of visitors to our campus on game days,” she said “We needed to make sure we could place the Narcan outside, too, because not everyone has access inside these buildings. I worked with Student Affairs Operations and former Student Government Association (SGA) President Jack Hilton to determine the best place to put the medication. We decided to place the medication on the blue light phones across campus, because that’s a central place people will gather during an emergency.” 

Clara has written a university drug overdose implementation plan, and it’s currently working its way through review in Campus Safety. 

If all her advocacy work in public health wasn’t enough, Clara is also a Truman Scholar nominee. 

The Truman Scholarship foundation awards students who want to have to careers in government or other forms of public service. 

She was recognized by Paul Harris, a professor in the political science department within the Honors College. She credits him for being her champion throughout the process. 

While she was not selected, she credits the process for honing her career goals and passions toward public health and public service.