Staff photo by Fritz Busch Brown County Public Health Director Karen Moritz works with vaccines at the Public Health Office in New Ulm.

NEW ULM — The Brown County Public Health Director was recently honored at the Preparedness Summit convention in Atlanta.

Karen Moritz was named one of 40 Public Health Emergency Preparedness Trailblazers from the United States honored for making lasting contributions to the field of public health emergency preparedness over the past 20 years.

Marking the 20th anniversary of the PHEP program, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recognized state, local and territorial public health preparedness personnel and their contributions to the program over the past two decades.

The only other Minnesotan to receive the award was Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) Emergency Preparedness and Response Director Cheryl Petersen-Kroeber.

“I believe I was nominated for the award because of my passion and experience in public health programming,” said Moritz who has been the county’s public health director since October 2008. Prior to that she was the Emmet County (Iowa) public health director for more than five years.

Moritz was credited with creating the public health emergency preparedness program in Emmet County. She was part of a Florida hurricane response team in Iowa in 2004 and helped with flooding and tornado public health response in affected counties.

Moritz has continued her active involvement in public health in Minnesota locally, regionally and at the state level.

Leading Brown County Public Health emergency preparedness staff, she helped create a robust public health preparedness response to disease outbreaks, including the COVID-19 pandemic and to natural disasters and other emergencies.

Moritz represented the region on several committees, including a PHEP Oversight Committee and COVID-19 Response and Recovery Advisory Group, which advises the MDH on strategic planning for local public health preparedness activities.

“She has provided inspiration and leadership over the course of her career to the field of public health emergency preparedness,” read Moritz’ award nomination from the MDH.

“I have a great team. They make me look good,” Moritz said about her national recognition.

“I enjoy working with community partners to promote health and prevent health issues,” she added. “I like helping protect people from things that can harm them.”

A public health staff nurse in Des Moines, Iowa, for nearly 10 years, Moritz, a Nebraska native with a nursing degree from the University of Nebraska Medical Center, said she enjoyed working as a registered nurse in a hospital but said she really found her niche working in public health.

Moritz said she continues to plan and perform public health training and actual events for the COVID-19 pandemic and in mass casualty drills.

“COVID-19 has slowed down a little lately, but we’re always preparing for emergencies,” she added.

Currently, the Brown County Public Health Office offers a COVID-19 second booster shot clinic on Tuesdays.

For more information, visit co.brown.mn.us and click on “public health.”

(Fritz Busch can be emailed at fbusch@nujournal.com.)