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Giving ‘her whole self’

Erika Delamar praised for tireless leadership, compassion during pandemic

By California State University, Bakersfield

June 1^st, 2021

Erika Delamar was chatting about her hopes for high local COVID-19 vaccination rates when huge news hit CSUB email inboxes:

Most students, faculty and staff would be required to get the shot before returning to campus.

The announcement from CSUB President Lynnette Zelezny, passed down from the chancellor’s office, had big implications for Delamar as associate director of CSUB Student Health Services.

But exactly what they were wasn’t immediately clear.

“I would imagine the health center will be involved in the process of verifying records somehow,” Delamar said. “Actually, I don’t know the answer yet on that one, but at least I’m sure we’ll have some sort of input on that.”

The scene perfectly encapsulated Delamar’s work over the last 15 months leading Student Health Services’ response to the pandemic. It’s been 15 months of surprises, changes in direction and unchartered territory.

Through it all, Delamar gets high marks for her thoughtful leadership, tireless work ethic and compassion, whether in crafting campus screening policies to prevent outbreaks or making sure sick students get needed health advice and academic accommodations.

“She has given her whole self to this,” said Jessica Allred, a clinical assistant who manages marketing for Student Health Services. “It has kind of consumed her, but she’s still remained her compassionate, calm self.”

Around the clock

Delamar, who earned her master’s degree in educational counseling from CSUB in 2010, has worked for Student Health Services since 2000, moving up from health educator to the No. 2 job she’s held since 2017.

One of her main responsibilities pre-COVID-19 was keeping up the Student Health Center’s accreditation by meeting 23 “chapters” of standards for things like quality, safety, risk management and infectious disease management. CSUB has one of the longest-standing accredited college student health centers in the country.

“We take pride in that we have a whole wall in our clinic with all of our previous certificates,” she said. “We call it our wall of achievement.”

CSUB Student Health Services hosts an open house in August 2017 for faculty and staff to learn about its services and how to partner with the department. Delamar, far right, speaks to the group.

The accreditation and Delamar’s experience maintaining it positioned Health Services well for responding to the pandemic beginning in February 2020. For example, one of the first things Delamar had to do as medical branch director for CSUB’s Incident Command System was figure out what to do if students started coming into the health center sick.

She already knew: Put them in isolation rooms CSUB had created for people with infectious diseases like chicken pox and flu.

The next question? How to help the rest of campus.

It was Delamar who proposed recommendations for what to do when people contracted or were exposed to COVID-19, such as making notifications and ensuring people received work and school accommodations. She also worked with IT to develop the online screening tool people must clear before entering campus.

Delamar’s medical background, teaching experience (she’s an adjunct professor), mind for processes and strong on- and off-campus relationships were huge assets – especially during times of shifting or absent state guidance, said CSUB Police Chief Marty Williamson.

“She was instrumental at the beginning developing our initial protocols,” he said. “She’s great at interpreting and researching and putting (policies) into easy language for us to follow.”

Delamar, left, is the advisor for the Educational Counseling Association Club at CSUB, and this is her at a welcome back BBQ in September 2012. Colleagues say her medical background, teaching experience and campus relationships positioned her well to lead the university’s COVID planning and response from the medical side. — Delamar, left, is the advisor for the Educational Counseling Association Club at CSUB, and this is her at a welcome back BBQ in September 2012. Colleagues say her medical background, teaching experience and campus relationships have been huge assets.

When reports of exposures and actual cases started coming in, Delamar was CSUB’s one-woman case management team for several months. Williamson estimated she was working 60 to 70 hours a week, seven days a week.

“If a report came in, whether from faculty reporting a student or a student, faculty or staff member reporting themselves, we would reach out – uh, I would reach out. I would make the calls to assess them,” Delamar said, catching herself.

“And then based on the plan, I would say, ‘OK, you’re going to need to go get a test and I can’t clear you for campus until we see what that test is.’”

If they’d merely been exposed to COVID, Delamar would call them every three or four days to see if they’d developed symptoms. If they were a true case, she’d call every couple days to see how they were feeling and If they needed any advice or accommodations.

She was particularly concerned for the students, whether they were able to attend their (virtual) classes and whether faculty were working with them.

“It was kind of around the clock. It’s not like she could just do it during work hours,” said Lauren Hedlund, a campus health educator who has worked with Delamar for years. “There were many times she would have really late-night and super-early morning phone calls, making sure she was providing resources or referrals, making sure people’s basic needs were covered, just going above and beyond.”

“I was impressed by how compassionate she was,” Allred chimed in. “Especially making those multiple phone calls, talking to people and remembering them, saying, ‘Let me go back to that. How are you doing with that? How’s everything going now?”

The CSUB Student Health Center, where Delamar has worked since coming over from the Kern County Department of Public Health in 2000.

In all, 153 students, faculty or staff have reported COVID-positive cases to CSUB, according to the university’s online dashboard. Of those, 123 were contracted off-campus and 30 on-campus.

Delamar and her case management team, which eventually grew to include three nursing staff members, have managed more than 500 cases of reported exposures that require sometimes-extensive contact and tracing efforts.

Delamar and one nursing staff member now manage actual cases and workplace exposures while two other nursing staffers handle less-sensitive exposure cases. Williamson credited Delamar’s recommended protocols for the lack of widespread campus outbreaks.

Having a little fun

Delamar also gets high marks for Student Health Services’ communications strategy, which she developed with Allred and Hedlund. Her goal was to craft messaging and activities that grabbed students’ attention and interest, like a social distancing campaign called “Practice Safe Six” and a challenge to find ways other than handshakes to greet people.

“It was a bit of a stress reliever for me because it was a way to get away from the seriousness of case management and say, ‘How can we have fun with this?’” Delamar said.

A Student Health Services graphic posted to Instagram encourages students to practice safe six early in the pandemic.

While Kaiser Permanente and Adventist Health took the lead on CSUB’s mass vaccination hub, it was Delamar who worked with Express Pharmacy to set up the separate vaccination clinic for university faculty and staff. The arrival of vaccines was a huge relief to her and her staff, knowing the more people got shots, the fewer cases they’d have to manage.

“Our big thing now is to encourage students to get the vaccine, and for faculty and staff to get the vaccine,” Delamar said in an April interview.

Her staff’s pitch on social media: `Runners are responsible, and when individuals get vaccinated, everyone benefits – especially those who cannot get vaccinated for health or age reasons.

That brought up the question: Will CSUB require students, faculty and staff to get the vaccine?

“So, it just came out at 1:05 from the president…” Delamar responded.

Sure enough, an email from President Zelezny had just gone out to the campus community alerting it to the CSU chancellor’s decision to require the vaccine, with some limited exceptions.

Delamar obviously knew the announcement was coming, but the health center’s involvement in verifying records was still to be worked out. She noted CSUB already had immunization requirements for students, but not faculty and staff.

“We’ll definitely be doing some marketing!” Delamar said with a laugh.

'That is all Erika'

Delamar is a self-described Air Force brat who grew up living in Florida, Nevada and Germany but considers herself from Las Vegas, where she graduated from high school. She went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in health education from the University of Nevada, Reno and a master’s degree in public health from Loma Linda University.

Delamar originally planned to go into physical therapy, but internships relieving the caretakers of late-stage AIDS patients and teaching public health classes to elementary school students steered her in a new direction.

To get her foot in the health care door after earning her first master’s degree, Delamar worked as a secretary at an HMO for seniors in Las Vegas. That’s when a graduate school friend living in Tehachapi alerted her to an open health educator position at the Kern County Department of Public Health, and after figuring out where Kern County was, she applied.

“I came out for an interview and they were really nice,” Delamar said. “I don’t want to say they hired me on the spot, but they kinda did.”

After a year and a half interacting mostly with providers instead of patients, Delamar came to CSUB as its first-ever health educator. She counseled students one-on-one and campus-wide on topics including sexual responsibility, STDs, tobacco and alcohol use, and stress management.

Delamar moved up to health promotions and accreditation coordinator in 2006 and assistant director in 2013, taking over accreditation, staff training and supervisorial duties along the way. She became associate director under Medical Director Dr. Oscar Rico in 2017; Rico hasn’t been able to be on campus during the pandemic.

Delamar earned her master’s in educational counseling from CSUB in 2010. Pictured outside the Student Health Center just before her ceremony (l to r): Megan Goldy, Maurice Pittman, Delamar, Theresa Rubio, Michael Lane and Crystal Montoya.

Delamar’s favorite graduation picture is one with her daughter, Kristyn.

Delamar led the health center’s transition from paper to electronic medical records, championed diversity and inclusion initiatives to make all students feel more welcome and represented, and secured a $75,000 basic needs grant through which students could obtain affordable health insurance coverage.

“She came up with the idea, and we’re the only one in the CSU doing this,” Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs and Student Success Ilaria Pesco said of the grant. “And this was before the pandemic, which was really fortuitous."

The need for coverage cannot be overstated, she said, adding that it’s now serving as a bridge to longer-term options.

“If I’m a student struggling with basic needs, I’m probably not getting my health care. I’m not getting my prescriptions or labs,” Pesco said. “I’m asking, ‘Do I put gas in my car to come to campus or do I get my prescription?