When Becky Lehman walked into her first class at Kent State University, she was in her 30s, raising kids and working at an embroidery shop in nearby Mogadore, Ohio.
"It was really my turn," Lehman said. "And really it was wanting to do something in the field of healthcare, but I didn't want to touch people. I wanted to help people make a difference."
Today, Lehman is the health commissioner for the Portage County Health District – a career milestone she credits directly to the degrees she earned close to home at Kent State.
The Right School in Her Own Backyard
Lehman grew up in Mogadore and settled in neighboring Suffield, Ohio, both close to Kent State. When it came time to choose a university, the decision was straightforward.
"I chose to attend Kent State University because it was a safe college in my own backyard with a good reputation," she said. "Living in Suffield, I could go to Akron U or Kent State, and it was like, Kent State is right here. It's in our county. I feel safe. The programs were good. It was really just the natural trajectory to start on my path."
She began her undergraduate studies as a nutrition and dietetics major before quickly discovering that the heavy chemistry coursework wasn't the right fit. A meeting with her academic advisor pointed her in a new direction.
“Honestly, I got into health education really by accident,” Lehman said. “I started Kent State knowing that I wanted to make a difference without being in direct patient care. So, I started at Kent State as a nutrition and dietetics major. I quickly realized that entailed a lot of chemistry, and that was not my strong suit. So, I met with my advisor at Kent State and really found that community health education was a better fit. I did that in my second semester and never looked back.”
She graduated with her bachelor's degree in community health education in August 2009, and was hired by the Portage County Health District just two months later, as the H1N1 outbreak demanded all hands on deck.
Professors Who Made the Difference
As a non-traditional student, Lehman's college experience looked different than that of her younger classmates. She didn't join a sorority or spend time at campus events. What she found instead were professors who met her where she was.
"For my community health [degree], it was Dr. Cindy Simons having a whole class on how to do a firm handshake – for real – and the importance of that," Lehman recalled. "Or Dr. Lori Wagner on health communications, the model of, 'So I hear you say ...' and I use that to this day."
Being in class with traditional-age college students felt overwhelming at times, she said, but the faculty made all the difference.
"I didn't go to a sorority. I didn't join a club. I really connected with the professors, and they connected back with me," she said.
That experience shaped her own approach to education. Lehman has taught as an adjunct faculty member at Kent State for more than a decade, originally to help supplement income while her children were in school – but she stayed because she loves it.
"I love being able to work with the students and instill my experiences in public health and social services to give them a more well-rounded, hands-on look at just what the community problems are and different ways that they can tackle them," she said.
Building a Career, Degree by Degree
Lehman's undergraduate internship at the Portage County Health District – where she logged 420 hours working on a childhood obesity grant – gave her the foundation to hit the ground running professionally. Over the next several years, she worked under four grants and steadily built her expertise.
When the health commissioner at the time told her to earn a master's degree in exchange for the chance to build an entirely new division, Lehman enrolled in a Master of Public Health program. She earned that degree and went on to create the health education and promotion division at the health district, hiring health educators and launching programs, such as the car seat inspection and installation program and Project DAWN, the district's Narcan distribution initiative launched in response to the opioid epidemic.
But she wasn't finished. Knowing she wanted to become a health commissioner, Lehman identified a gap in her skills, specifically in finance and human resources, and returned to Kent State for a Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree.
"What better place to get my MPA than again in my own backyard?" she said. "I was teaching at Kent State, so it made perfect sense to go there. But it was really about strengthening some of those leadership skills that I knew I needed just a little bit more."
She completed her MPA in May 2023. By November 2023, she was named health commissioner for the Portage County Health District.
"It was that education for the MPA that really provided me that fiscal piece, the human resource piece that I really needed," she said.
Giving Back to the Next Generation
Lehman's connection to Kent State extends well beyond her own degrees. She continues to teach a professional seminar in the College of Public Health, guiding students through real-world program planning rooted in her own experiences on the front lines of public health.
"I'm able to take some of my experiences of community problems – like in 2016, the heroin epidemic – and what I implemented here at the health district and what that did," she said. "Who are the partners that you have to bring to the table? How do you evaluate? It's really getting into their head of what are you passionate about, how does that align with where you're going professionally?"
Her students regularly tell her they've used class projects in grad school applications or as writing samples for grant-writing jobs. The work, she tells them, is not just an assignment.
The Portage County Health District also serves as a hands-on learning site for Kent State students across disciplines. Mobile Flashes volunteers – a student group drawn from public health, nursing and other fields – assist with a monthly popup food pantry. Kent State GIS students helped digitize the district's entire inventory of septic system records. And interns work across all divisions of the health district, not just the one they came to study.
"They're not going to go stand at a table and hand out pamphlets," Lehman said. "They're going to do the work."
Advice for Non-Traditional Students
Lehman doesn't hesitate when asked what she would say to someone in their 30s or 40s who wonders if it's too late to go back to school.
"It's never too late to go back to school," she said. "It gets really scary at first, but I would say just do it. I have three degrees. And listen, I'm going to get my Ph.D. I just know it – through Kent State, it's just a matter of when."
For students considering a career in public health, Lehman's message is simple:
“For students considering a career in public health, I would absolutely say do it. Kent State College of Public Health is an accredited university and provides a solid, solid education.”
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