He Walked Away From a PhD. Now He’s GEHA’s President | Austin Haney at Lake Lanier | Ep51

Austin Haney is EHS-5, district standard trainer, data specialist — and president of the Georgia Environmental Health Association. Recorded live at GEHA 2026 on Lake Lanier.He did not take the lunch-table path. Bachelor’s and master’s at Valdosta State. Two years of a PhD at Oregon State. One year at UF’s Whitney Marine Lab. Then 2020 hit, and he asked what he actually wanted: a job that let him come home and still matter. His old office mate at the health department said there were no openings. Called back the next day. The job had been vacant a year.In this conversation:The interview question he actually asked: what does a day in the life of an EHS look like?Why the job is ServSafe + CPO + Level 2 soil classifier + chief rabies officer + mosquito ID under a microscope12 to 15 mosquito species you see in a gravid trap — and the weird ones that show up in a light trapThe memorable inspection isn’t the disaster. It’s the third visit to a troubled restaurant when he walked in and said “fantastic” before he startedWhy manager turnover broke the relationship that used to create that changeGEHA’s travel-restriction year vs. this year’s rebound — and why he’s serving a second term as presidentTesting Georgia’s new statewide EHIS with 60–70 people on the call, going live in NovemberLive from GEHA 2026, Lake Lanier, Georgia.Beyond Data Management, powered by HS GovTech.Chapters00:00 Live from Lake Lanier00:54 EHS-5, trainer, data specialist01:18 GEHA president03:32 The non-traditional path04:16 Oregon State, UF, and 202005:22 The office-mate phone call06:06 “What does an EHS actually do?”07:13 How you ID a mosquito09:13 Rabies, septic, and every cert in the book10:37 GEHA, travel cuts, second term16:00 The inspection story that isn’t gory18:31 Turnover and lost relationships19:50 Statewide data conversion24:02 Thanks / next guestLinksAFDO eNews & Quick Bites — https://www.afdo.org/newsletter-updates/Send us Fan MailPlease remember to like and subscribe - and reach out to us with your stories and show ideas [email protected]