Arriving at The University of Scranton in 2011, Brett Nance had little idea what her major, public health education and promotion, might portend career-wise.
“I kind of stumbled upon the major,” she said. “I knew I wanted to pursue something in the health field, but I just couldn’t pinpoint it.”
The program eventually led to a fortuitous internship with the Freehold Area Health Department (FAHD) in New Jersey. And that’s exactly where you’ll find Nance today, in her role as the department’s assistant health officer and epidemiologist.
Nance responds to infectious disease outbreaks occurring across five municipalities. Health education and prevention are also big parts of her role, and she and another colleague recently oversaw a free two-part infection control training for 500 staff members from the area’s nursing homes and longterm care facilities.
That work led Nance and her colleague to receive a 2024 Promising Practice Award from the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO).
“It’s great personally to be recognized for all of our hard work — and a great win for our local health department,” said Nance, 31, who lives in Neptune, New Jersey, with her husband, Mike Maguire and their dogs, Maisy and Millie. “I find a lot of passion in the work we do, and helping build up the next generation of public health workers.”
Love at First Visit
An advisory board member for the Leahy College of Health Sciences’ new public health major, Nance admits that Scranton was far from her top college choices as a teen. In fact, it wasn’t even on her radar until her mom casually mentioned one day that the University had a free application.
That initial application eventually gave way to a weekend tour of the University’s campus, which Nance quickly fell in love with.
“When I was doing my tour and meeting people there, there was such a passion among the students,” she said. “Even being an alum now, I feel like the Scranton community is very tight-knit — you feel the love. I also love that it had a small school feel, because I probably would have gotten lost at a bigger university.”
Too squeamish for nursing and not interested in physical or occupational therapy, Nance gravitated to the idea of pursuing a career in public health education and promotion. She loved the coursework and the professors who went on to serve as close mentors, among them longtime faculty member Debra Fetherman, Ph.D., chair of the Health and Human Performance Department and Community-Based Learning Faculty Coordinator.
I truly don’t know if I would be at this point in my career if not for my education at Scranton. ... Those values Scranton instills in you, I think, really drive my passion in my field.” - Brett Nance ’15, MPH, HO, CIC, assistant health officer and epidemiologist, Freehold Area Health Department (FAHD)
Through her roles as president of the Community Health Education Club and vice president of the University chapter of Eta Sigma Gamma, the national honor society for health education, Nance worked hard to recruit undergraduates to the major. She also participated in numerous community service projects, from volunteering at a community garden to organizing food drives.
Through and through, the Jesuit ethos of service to others resonated deeply with her and continues to this day.
“I always think about the idea of being men and women for others,” Nance said. “When people ask me why I do what I do for a living, it’s because I see myself as being a resource for the community. And at its crux, public health reflects the ideals of becoming men and women for others.”
Small Moment Becomes ‘Building Block of a Career’
The summer before her senior year at Scranton, Nance reached out to several public health offices in search of an internship. The only response she got was from the woman who now serves as her boss at the FAHD.
The internship turned out great, and Nance came out of it determined to make a career of it.
“I always tell students, don’t ever discount any type of experience in the field. What may seem small in the moment can really be the building block of a career,” said Nance, who has taught courses in epidemiology at Rutgers University, where she received her master’s degree in public health epidemiology.
While a graduate student, Nance did part-time community health assessment work with FAHD. That introduced her to the world of communicable disease investigations.
“It could be anything, like interviewing people with salmonella to find out how they got sick,” she said. “That’s where my love of epidemiology came from. It’s very analytical, but you’re also bringing the human perspective to it.”
In 2018, Nance took a job as a regional epidemiologist with the New Jersey Department of Health. There, she was a lead epidemiologist on the statewide hepatitis A outbreak in 2019, then logged countless hours during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“My learning curve was exponential, and I truly felt like a sponge during those three years,” she said. “It made me the public health official I am today.”
After three years, Nance went in search of a new position that would provide her with more growth potential and worklife balance. As it happened, her former boss at FAHD was looking for an epidemiologist.
Nance recently passed New Jersey’s health officer licensure exam, which led to her taking on additional duties as assistant health officer. At some point, she’d like to take on a lead health officer role with a public health department.
“I truly don’t know if I would be at this point in my career if not for my education at Scranton. I don’t know if my path would have been paved as well as it was,” Nance said. “Those values Scranton instills in you, I think, really drive my passion in my field.”
