Meet Our Director, Nancy Ejuma!
Nancy Ejuma brings nearly two decades of public health experience to a question most people have never thought to ask: what actually happens to your public health data, and who is responsible for protecting it?
Public health IT systems store some of the most sensitive data in existence. They track disease, manage vaccines, monitor outbreaks, and protect entire populations. Yet most people have no idea these systems exist, let alone how they work, who owns them, or what the law requires them to collect.
Dr. Ejuma is here to change that. Through Public Health IT's public information channels, she brings her experience, research, and genuine passion for transparency to conversations that every community member deserves to be part of.
A Career Built Inside the System
Dr. Ejuma has spent her career at the heart of public health operations in the United States, leading programs and teams at some of the most consequential levels of government.
As Deputy Director and Chief of Operations at the Williamson County and Cities Health District, she oversaw the day-to-day infrastructure that keeps a community's health systems running. Before that, she held senior leadership roles at the Texas Department of State Health Services, including Deputy Associate Commissioner for Regional and Local Health Operations and Director of the Immunization Unit, one of the most data-intensive programs in public health. Earlier in her career, she managed the immunization program for the D.C. Department of Health, giving her a front-row seat to how public health IT functions across very different jurisdictions.
She has not just worked near these systems. She has lived inside them.
Behind the Research
Dr. Ejuma’s first encounter with public health came at age five in Cameroon, where she stood in line with other students to receive vaccines administered by the Ministry of Health. She noticed something that day that would stay with her for decades: the needles were being reused. Years later, attending her first international immunization managers' conference in Istanbul, Turkey, she received confirmation that her childhood observation was correct. The official who confirmed it offered important context: that was simply how things were done at the time. Practices evolved after more advanced communities shared protocols that directly addressed the risks those older methods created. That same official noted that some jurisdictions are still where Cameroon once was, and that the work of educating and pulling them forward is actively ongoing.
The through line has never left her. Progress in public health is rarely self-generated in isolation. It moves the way it always has, with communities that have advanced reaching back for those that have not yet gotten there. That spirit of continuous, reciprocal advancement is one of the most powerful forces behind her work in public health IT, and the reason she believes that what you build for public health (and the lessons you learn along the way) should always be designed to be shared.
Learning Globally, Leading Locally
Dr. Ejuma also learned the value of cross-jurisdictional collaboration firsthand while serving as the DC Immunization Program Manager, when she was selected as a Sabin Institute Fellow and traveled to Australia to meet with national health technology teams. One meeting proved particularly formative: a deep dive with the team responsible for entity analytics in a system covering the entire country. The protocols and strategies she brought back were directly applied to DC's own immunization information system, DOCIIS. It was a practical lesson she has never forgotten: the answers to your hardest problems often already exist somewhere else in the world.
Academic Background
Dr. Ejuma holds a Ph.D. in Organizational and Systems Psychology from The Chicago School, where her dissertation examined the psychological factors driving vaccine hesitancy across cultures. She also holds an MBA in Healthcare Administration from Yale University and a Bachelor of Arts in International Health, Anthropology, and Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania.
That combination is rare. It means she understands not just how public health IT systems are built and managed, but how people relate to them, fear them, and trust them.
In 2022, The Chicago School recognized her with a Distinguished Alumni Award for her contributions to public service and healthcare leadership. That same year, she founded Seagan, Inc., a consulting firm dedicated to helping health agencies navigate organizational strategy and digital transformation.
She spent five years serving as an Adjunct Associate Professor at Austin Community College, where she taught Introduction to Psychology and Human Growth and Development. Her belief that education is where lasting change begins now drives her commitment to making public health technology transparent, accessible, and understood by the communities it serves.