From helping new moms to food poisioning to pandemic, Berringer, 'face of public health,' retires

A cardboard box filled with framed awards, honors and certifications sat near Charlotte Berringer's desk in the office where she has worked for the past four decades.

The only pictures still hanging on her office walls last week were drawings of children and a one-page exercise sheet designed for people to get out of their office chair.

"I'm in the process of packing," Berringer said with a laugh earlier this week. "I still have a few more days."

Berringer, 65, retired Friday after a 40-year career as a public health nurse with the Erie County Department of Health.

Her official job title is director of community health services but, as one former coworker described her, Berringer has served as the county's "face of public health" since the 1980s. She has often been the go-to person to speak about disease outbreaks, including COVID-19.

"I have always liked public health because I'm a people person and I like seeing patients in their home environment," Berringer said. "When I was a nursing student, I had to work a four-month rotation at a center-city Philadelphia hospital in its medical-surgical unit. I discovered that it wasn't what I wanted to do."

'I didn't even know Erie had a health department'

Berringer moved to Erie in 1982 when her husband, Gary, accepted a job as a neonatal clinical nurse specialist at Saint Vincent Hospital. She worked at first for a skilled home health-care agency, then at Saint Vincent's pediatric primary care office.

"Dr. (Kathleen) Dudenhoefer, a pediatrician at Saint Vincent, asked me one day if I wanted to work at the health department, because they had an opening," Berringer said. "I didn't even know Erie had a health department."

She applied and was hired as one of the department's six staff nurses. She saw patients in its sexually transmitted disease and immunization clinics, and visited mothers with newborns.

Helping new mothers and their babies became more than part of Berringer's job. It was a passion that led her to join the Erie County Policy and Planning Council for Children and Families, and later propose bringing the Nurse-Family Partnership to Erie County.

"I did some research and found that if nurses provide services in the home to at-risk pregnant women, new mothers and their babies, 15 years later there are fewer juvenile delinquents," Berringer said. "We got a pilot program in Erie County in 1999 and it's still going strong today."

"Char was a leader in bringing evidence-based programs into Erie County, like the nurse-family partnership," said Amy Eisert, who has worked with Berringer for about 20 years as director of the Mercyhurst University Civic Institute. "It's the most proven, effective program at reducing juvenile delinquency."

Berringer eventually was promoted to maternal/child health and immunization supervisor at the health department, then was named nursing director in 1996.

Food poisoning outbreak thrust Berringer into spotlight

In 1998, an outbreak of food poisoning that sickened more than 100 people who had dined at the former Erie Maennerchor thrust Berringer into the local media spotlight. The investigation was important enough that three employees from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention were assigned temporarily to work at the health department.

"We had daily press conferences, but we had to do them on the back deck of our building because the CDC people weren't allowed to talk with the press," Berringer said. "It was the age of investigative journalism and we were concerned a reporter would sneak into the building to try to talk with one of them."

In some ways, it was similar to the role Berringer was given when the COVID-19 pandemic started in early 2020. She was a regular participant in the daily, and then weekly, news conferences hosted by then Erie County Executive Kathy Dahlkemper.

But those news conferences represented just one way Berringer's job changed when the pandemic struck.

"It became all COVID, all the time," Berringer said. "We switched to an incident command structure and, for the first year, I was the person in charge of disease investigation. ... We quickly realized that we needed a lot more people."

At an age when many of her fellow nurses retire or take less stressful jobs, Berringer was working up to 55 hours a week on the front lines of the country's biggest pandemic in 100 years. She hired nurse supervisors and disease investigators, among other duties.

Rich Knecht, a former manager of public health preparedness for the health department, was recruited out of retirement to help in the early months of the pandemic. He said Berringer's role in creating this team was vital.

"Her intuitive feel and lead in telephone conversations were key in hiring a core group of investigators/interviewers that, for over a year, guided county residents and their contacts in dealing with covid disease," Knecht said in an email.

'It's time to move into our next life phase'

As the pandemic evolved into a more long-term public health issue, Berringer and the health department resumed more of their traditional duties. She also planned her retirement.

Berringer said she will miss her coworkers at the health department and those she worked with at local hospitals and other health-care organizations.

Saint Vincent Hospital President Dr. Christopher Clark has known Berringer since they worked together years ago putting together an immunization clinic. He said she has played an important role in the public health of Erie County.

"She's highly competent, well spoken and has a great desire to educate the community about public health," Clark said. "Char has been a valuable resource for the hospitals and for the general public."

But Berringer said she is ready to move out of her office and enjoy retirement.

"My husband has been retired for two years and it's time to begin our next life phase," Berringer said. "I'll take two months to decompress, then plan what's next."

David Bruce can be reached at dbruce@timesnews.com or on Twitter at @ETNBruce.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Charlotte Berringer retires from Erie County Department of Health