KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Many people may not know her voice or understand what she reads in Knox County Health Department videos, but in clip after clip Liliana Burbano is saving lives.
She now leads COVID-19 outreach efforts to Latin and Spanish-speaking communities at the health department.
"We are here in public health to make sure everybody has a chance to be healthy," Burbano said.
She translates documents and at testing events, partners with Spanish-language media and helped create a WhatsApp group with information written in Spanish about the coronavirus.
"At the beginning, they really didn't trust public health measures they were not interested in getting tested or even to be in contact with us and now you see that completely differently," she said. " When people see the face of someone like them, they really trust them."
Her work seems to being making a difference.
This summer, people who identified as Hispanic accounted for one in every four Knox County COVID-19 cases. Tuesday, it was one in ten. The ratio is still disproportionate, but it is still improving.
In no small part because of the work of Liliana Burbano as she helps the health department reach people in their native tongue.
"I can connect with them. They are my people and I want the best for them," she said.