"Trinity Western University is dedicated to providing a meaningful, high quality student experience both inside and outside the classroom; the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic has not changed this, even though campus will look very different this upcoming year. The TWU Public Health Team was created to support the University’s commitment to health and safety across our community."
– Taryne Lepp, MPH, RN, TWU Public Health Team Lead
Trinity Western University is committed to the health and safety of students, staff, faculty and our community. Since early May, a special Health and Safety Task Force has been working around the clock to ensure that all our campuses operate safely.
Recently, two Public Health nurses joined this team in order to provide specialized support expressly for COVID-19. They are Victoria Wilkinson, BSN, RN, and Taryne Lepp, MPH, RN.
Taryne Lepp is the TWU Public Health Team Lead. She has worked 11 years as a Registered Nurse, with the last 5 spent helping to establish the Fraser Health Regional Communicable Disease Team.
A graduate of TWU's School of Nursing (2009), Lepp has a Master’s degree in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University.
Since 2014, Lepp has been instructing in the TWU School of Nursing, primarily in the area of Public Health. In 2018, Lepp began working part-time in TWU's Wellness Centre, providing primary care on our campus clinic and helping to develop better policies.
Lepp and her team are placing students' needs first:
"Whether you are a student living in residence, attending a face-to-face lab, or accessing help through the Learning Commons, we are thinking through every step of your journey so you will feel confident in our health and safety standards and response," says Lepp.
"We believe that the strength of TWU in this season will be in how we all think of the others around us, and in so doing, follow our very favorite Dr. Bonnie Henry to, 'be kind and be calm and stay safe.'"
TWU's Health and Safety response (Abridged):
All students will complete a self-assessment every day using the BC Self Assessment App .
If students experience symptoms, they will:
- Notify TWU Public Health staff about their symptoms.
- If testing is recommended, TWU is equipped to conduct testing on campus utilizing current BCCDC guidelines
- Should students become ill enough to require medical attention, the campus team will help students access care off-site with a local medical professional or at Langley Memorial hospital.
Contact tracing if a case is suspected:
- All contact tracing of COVID-19 in BC is a function of the geographical health authority (Fraser Health for Langley campus, Vancouver Coast health for Richmond sites) and they will be the owners of this process should TWU have an exposure on any of our sites.
- The TWU Public Health team will support the work of the Health Authorities in identifying who may have been exposed and liaising with the relevant departments, settings and user groups to facilitate communication.
Protocols if a student becomes infected:
- 6 isolation units in TWU's Devries Centre are being held for quarantine use should the situation arise – this decision will be made by the TWU Public Health team in conjunction with the Wellness Center and/or the local Health Authority.
Read more: How is TWU is Preparing for the Fall?
For further information on TWU's Health and Safety preparedness, please visit our COVID-19 Health and Safety page.
Should you have any COVID-19 related questions, please contact us.
About Trinity Western University
Founded in 1962, Trinity Western University is Canada’s premier Christian liberal arts university dedicated to equipping students to find and fulfill their purpose in life. It is a fully accredited research institution offering liberal arts and sciences, as well as professional schools in business, nursing, education, human kinetics, graduate studies, and arts, media, and culture. It has five campuses: Langley, Richmond-Lansdowne, Richmond-Minoru, Ottawa, and Bellingham, WA. TWU emphasizes academic excellence, research, and student engagement in a vibrant faith community devoted to supporting vibrant leaders seeking to have a transformational impact on culture. Learn more at www.twu.ca or follow us on Twitter @TrinityWestern, on Facebook and LinkedIn.
For media inquiries, please contact: media@twu.ca