A. Jay Root
West Virginia University Potomac State College will recognize A. Jay Root, Mineral County Health Department Administrator, with the Distinguished Service Award during the upcoming Alumni Association’s Achievement Awards Banquet to be held during homecoming, Saturday, Oct. 16.
Root has been extremely helpful to the College since the onslaught of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. He has been instrumental in providing return to campus COVID testing for faculty, staff and students in the fall 2020 as well as surveillance testing throughout the fall of 2021. He has served as a knowledgeable county resource for COVID-related data and important public health issues. Additionally, he has supported several COVID and flu vaccine clinics on campus.
Root is a native of Keyser, having graduated from Keyser High School. He attended Potomac State College and went on to graduate from WVU with a Bachelor of Arts degree in biology.
He started his public health career in 1999 with the MCHD focusing on environmental health as a sanitarian identifying risks and enforcing environmental regulations, health and safety.
Then, in 2005 he took on the role of administrator for the MCHD, a position he has held for the past 16 years. He also serves as the Regional Threat Preparedness Coordinator for the Eastern Public Health Response Team.
Throughout his career, Root has served on more than 30 local and state committees including the WV Association of Local Health Departments, WV Public Health Partnership, and the Public Health Threat Preparedness Oversight Committee. He served as vice president of the WV Extension Service Committee, Family Resource Network and Building Safety Enforcement Agency. He served as president of the WV Association of Local Health Departments, WV Association of Sanitarians, Mineral County Pre-K Policy Council and the Local Emergency Planning Committee.
Root resides in Keyser with his wife of 21 years, Betsy and their three children, Peyton, Brayden and Jayden.
The awards banquet will be held in the Davis Conference Center with social hour at 5 p.m., dinner at 5:30 p.m. and the program starting at 6:30 p.m. Reservations are required and can be made through Eventbrite at go.wvu.edu/psc-homecoming by Tuesday, Oct. 5. The cost of the dinner is $30 for adults and $15 for children 12 and under. Seating will be limited to six individuals per table.
(Note: The safety of students, faculty, staff, and guests continues to be an important guiding factor. Plans could change should the threat of COVID-19 and the delta variant increases in which case announcements and refunds would be made.)