At the center of URI’s response to COVID-19 is Ellen Reynolds ’91, assistant vice president of student health and wellness and the director of Health Services at URI. Known for her boundless energy, calm demeanor, and willingness to do whatever it takes to solve the problem at hand, she’s leading URI’s response to this crisis with characteristic poise.

Ellen Reynolds ’91 had only been the University’s director of Health Services for about a year-and-a-half when she received disturbing news the morning of Oct. 21, 2014: A student who had been to Liberia–the African country being decimated by Ebola–had returned to campus exhibiting symptoms consistent with the often-fatal disease.

The student tested negative for Ebola, but that scare helped Reynolds and her team respond decisively to a suspected case of COVID-19 on the first day of classes in January 2020. Eventually, the student tested negative for the virus, but Reynolds and her team knew the drill: They immediately isolated the student, meals were delivered to her door, and URI Health Services personnel used technology to check in with her daily. In addition, her roommates were removed immediately from the shared room, tested, and quarantined for two weeks.

Reynolds says that knowing the drill means “frequent training for our doctors, nurses, EMS responders, and staff in how to put on and take off personal protective equipment, as well as infection-control precautions, contact tracing, inventory control, and supply management.”

In February 2020, as the pandemic was beginning to spread internationally, a URI team was formed to bring students back to the United States–first from China, and then from other countries–and to inform the community about the steps it was taking, Reynolds was often the primary person talking directly with those students and their parents. Through the din of constantly ringing phones and conversations at the University’s Emergency Operations Center, she retained her smile and calm manner, and even managed to squeeze in time for interviews with the media.

Reynolds was central in planning for URI’s return to in-person classes this fall, establishing isolation and quarantine processes, and developing resources for students.

Reynolds’ commitment and steadiness have helped her lead URI’s public health response to the COVID-19 outbreak and anchor the University’s COVID-19 Task Force, along with the University’s Office of Emergency Management and other administrative units. She is also in constant contact with the Rhode Island Department of Health.

In that role, Reynolds was central in planning for URI’s return to in-person classes this fall, establishing isolation and quarantine processes, and developing resources for students.

Before the start of the fall semester, Reynolds and her Health Services team tested close to 4,000 students moving into campus residence halls. She helped develop URI’s COVID-19 tracker, which gives students, faculty, staff, parents, and the general public daily updates on testing, positive cases, and the numbers of students in isolation and quarantine.

“Our effective response to COVID-19 depends on a thorough understanding of epidemiology, health-care delivery, incident management, and crisis communication,” says Sam Adams, URI’s Emergency Management director and assistant director of Public Safety. “In all of these respects, I couldn’t ask for a better partner than Ellen Reynolds as URI navigates the complexities of this historic event. Her knowledge, poise, and dedicated leadership bring out the best in everyone on our team.” •

–Dave Lavallee ’79, M.P.A. ’87

Photo: Courtesy Ellen Reynolds