University appoints Kym Langford as new COVID-19 Clinical Officer

“If you have any questions, reach out.”

This is the message that Kym Langford, Oklahoma Christian University’s new COVID-19 Clinical Officer, wants all of campus to hear and embrace in the upcoming semester. 

“We have an email, covid19health@oc.edu, that students can reach out to. If you’re feeling like you need some support with your mental, physical or spiritual health, it’s important to reach out,” Langford said. “We’re there for students and we can get support services in place to help. So don’t be afraid to reach out if you need anything, that’s what we’re here for.”

After teaching in Oklahoma Christian’s School of Nursing, working occasionally at Integris Baptist and being on the frontlines of the pandemic in New York and Syracuse, Kansas, Langford is ready to receive the baton passed down by Shawna Hood. Being the COVID-19 Clinical Officer is a tough job, but one that Dr. Jeff McCormack, head of the COVID-19 Response Team, believes Langford is well prepared for. 

“She’s been teaching in the nursing program for several years here so she’s well qualified to serve as our COVID Clinical Officer,” McCormack said. “We’ve already seen that she’s well suited for it. Her and Shawna have been working together [in] the transitioning and she’s going to be fantastic.”

Langford agrees with this sentiment, citing her communication skills as a tool to keep students and faculty informed. Langford also states that her up-close and personal experience on the front lines of the pandemic puts her in a great place to educate those who may doubt the dangers of the coronavirus. 

“I’ve already had to encounter several students that blow me off or act like it isn’t a big deal… so I get to educate those students on the severity of what I saw,” Langford said. “I can truly say this is not a joke, I’m not kidding with you, this is serious and there’s going to be serious repercussions if you don’t want to comply with what we’re asking you to do. And I feel like I have the education to back that up. I’m not just someone saying, ‘You need to quarantine’ or ‘You were in close contact with this person’ or ‘You are positive for COVID.’ I really can say, ‘No, I’ve seen people die on the daily with this disease.’ … I do feel like I have a lot of firsthand knowledge and can communicate the dangers of it and really ask people to take it seriously.”

As she begins her time in this role, Langford acknowledges one of the greatest challenges of her semester will be the fatigue that has set in after almost a year of this pandemic. 

“I worry about compliance and I say that because everybody is fatigued at this point and kind of done with wearing masks and are frustrated at the situation we are in,” Langford said. “I feel like people are letting their guard down. So, they might be going to parties or they might be doing stuff outside of what they would’ve done last semester because they’re tired of being cooped up, they’re tired of wearing masks, they’re tired of being told ‘no.’”

But as the semester springs to life and activities such as intramurals and Spring Sing begin, Langford remains cautiously optimistic due to a growing campus immunity, rapid testing, the development of a vaccine and the work of the COVID-19 Response Team to keep students and faculty safe and out of lonely quarantine. 

“We have a really great team,” Langford said. “The COVID-19 Readiness Team consists of a range of people and we do a GoogleMeet everyday at 3 p.m. to go over what’s going on.  Everyone is on the same page and working together. There’s lots of different people all over campus, whether it’s Candance in Residence Life, Neil, Risa, Jeff, Jennifer, John Hermes … there’s a lot of us that talk about what’s going on and how we can make things better so I feel like [Oklahoma Christian’s COVID-19 Response] is continually evolving and improving as we need it to.”

As the semester continues, both McCormack and Langford hope that those on Oklahoma Christian’s campus can display the diligence they modeled in 2020. 

“I’ve been honestly super proud of how compliant students have been,” Langford said. “I’ve been impressed with seeing students wearing their masks, seeing faculty wearing their masks, social distancing when they can, hand washing, keeping things clean, it’s been good.”