Beyond Data Management Podcast
The definitive podcast for government data management and stories from the field - with a special focus on Environment Health professionals.
Beyond Data Management Podcast
He Walked Away From a PhD. Now He’s GEHA’s President | Austin Haney at Lake Lanier | Ep51
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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 microscope
12 to 15 mosquito species you see in a gravid trap — and the weird ones that show up in a light trap
The memorable inspection isn’t the disaster. It’s the third visit to a troubled restaurant when he walked in and said “fantastic” before he started
Why manager turnover broke the relationship that used to create that change
GEHA’s travel-restriction year vs. this year’s rebound — and why he’s serving a second term as president
Testing Georgia’s new statewide EHIS with 60–70 people on the call, going live in November
Live from GEHA 2026, Lake Lanier, Georgia.
Beyond Data Management, powered by HS GovTech.
Chapters
00:00 Live from Lake Lanier
00:54 EHS-5, trainer, data specialist
01:18 GEHA president
03:32 The non-traditional path
04:16 Oregon State, UF, and 2020
05:22 The office-mate phone call
06:06 “What does an EHS actually do?”
07:13 How you ID a mosquito
09:13 Rabies, septic, and every cert in the book
10:37 GEHA, travel cuts, second term
16:00 The inspection story that isn’t gory
18:31 Turnover and lost relationships
19:50 Statewide data conversion
24:02 Thanks / next guest
Links
AFDO eNews & Quick Bites — https://www.afdo.org/newsletter-updates/
Please remember to like and subscribe - and reach out to us with your stories and show ideas Beyond@hscloudsuite.com
This is the Beyond Data Management Podcast powered by HS GovTech. Now here's your host, Cameron Garrison. Live on the road again. We're in Lakelanier, Georgia, at the uh Gha, Georgia Environmental Health Association conference. And uh we'll be bringing you over the next couple of days. We'll be talking to a bunch of people here. We have some great interviews lined up, including, if you remember, Matt from LA, the food truck guy. He's actually coming all the way from California to, I think he's gonna bring one of his carts too, right? And uh with that, we'll welcome our first uh first chat conversation here into the mobile studio here down on Lake Lanier in Georgia. And uh Austin Haney. And Austin, you're a you have a long title. So it's uh EHS5, and you are the standards trainer. Yep, Mr. Standard Trainer, and also data specialist, which you know is interesting because it's in the name of this. Um so you're down from um down at the southern, down near Florida, right? In that district.
SPEAKER_01Yep, South Health District, uh right above Florida. Um, we've got 10 counties in our district. Uh, just recently moved into that new, then just keep adding, you know, then you just add stuff as as you move along in your career.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you haven't actually, we left off one of the other titles. I think you're the outgoing president of Jihá as well, right?
SPEAKER_01That's right. I I'm currently the president um of Jihá as well.
SPEAKER_00So you have like a lot of jobs.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I uh busy is not a not an issue for me, usually, most days.
SPEAKER_00That something tells me you're not a nine to five guy with all of those responsibilities. Oh, yeah. So quick break, tell you about an exciting offering from Afto, and it's free. I don't know about you, but my days I never end up accomplishing everything that was on the list, and it's always the unexpected things that throw me off and just put me behind. Staying current on food safety issues, that's not really optional. And making time for professional development can be a challenge in a fast-moving field. Afdo delivers two-free email resources directly to your inbox that help food safety professionals stay informed and continue developing the skills that you use every day. Afto Z News brings together the latest in association news, upcoming training opportunities, events, and other information that's important to the food safety community, all in one email that comes out every Tuesday. Delivered every Thursday, QuickBites deliver short videos directly to your inbox, curated by the Afto staff. QuickBites focuses on essential skills food safety professionals need, including critical thinking, active listening, time management, problem solving, emotional intelligence, and de-escalation. Together, these free resources provide a steady stream of news, professional development, and practical insights designed specifically for the food safety community. Subscribe to AFTO News and QuickBites today. I get them, and I highly suggest that you do too, following the link in the description below in this video. So how did so you're from the Atlanta area originally, right? So you're Georgia native. Um what we talked to a lot of people on this about like what got you into environmental health in the first place. Because you know, it's not the kind of thing that people in the the lunchroom at in high school are you know talking about going and doing.
SPEAKER_01Or even know what an environmental health specialist is, which I guess I'll kind of tell that story a little bit. Um when we're talking about what I do. I I didn't take a traditional path at all. Um, I went to school at Valdosa State University, which is how I sort of fell in love with South Georgia. You mentioned I was from around Atlanta, um, but I got my master's and master's from Valdosa State. So that's how I sort of came down there, fell in love with the region and my wife um all in the same same time. Um I then pursued the PhD program. Um I didn't I didn't finish it. Um I spent two years at Oregon State and then one year at the University of Florida. Oregon State. Yep.
SPEAKER_00So you went all the way to the Northwest. Yep.
SPEAKER_01Um lived there for two years and um loved it. It was great. I was doing well. The pandemic hit uh in 2020 uh when I was at the University of Florida and went to Marine Labs. And um sometimes, you know, things like that makes you take a step back and think, one what do I really want out of life? Like what do I want to do? What do I enjoy? Um it wasn't that I wasn't necessarily enjoying my PhD program, I just didn't know what was on the back side of that that I would really truly and enjoy, right?
SPEAKER_00Um and so other than being called doctor.
SPEAKER_01That's right. Other other than being called doctor, um a lot of the career paths on the other side of that were gonna take me away from family, and I was trying to do something that um I could come home every day and and and and and still make an impact because it's really hard to go from um something like that where you really feel like you're making an impact. And so that's why I started looking into teaching in June of 2020, and um I wound up um talking with my now current boss, um, who used to be my college office mate when in a master's program. Called him and said, Hey, I know you're you're working for the health department, and do y'all have any openings? Because I know that you you've loved your job uh since you've been there, you know. And um he said at the moment, no, and then called me back the next day and said, Hey, you need to apply. We got a, you know, uh we found an opening that's been vacant for about a year, um, apply, and I wound up wound up getting it. Wow. And to your point that you made earlier, um, about you know, you don't sit in a high school lunch room talking about being an environmental health business, that was one of my questions, like going in an interview, because it was easy interviewing to be a teacher, right?
SPEAKER_00Because you kind of Yeah, you you at least know what to expect, roughly, right?
SPEAKER_01That's right, and I had taught college courses throughout my academic career. Um and so I kind of knew what to expect from that, but that was coming in an interview. One of my first questions was I know health inspections, you know, I health inspector, right? But what do we do? What what does the day in the life of an EHS look like?
SPEAKER_00And um that they have a good answer for that question.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. And and uh they've always supported that and are enthusiastic about environmental health and what we do. And not only that, um being advocates to other people of hey, we're yes, we're health inspectors, but we are so much more than that, and involved in so many other things, um, from rabies to mosquito identification and testing to trap them and take them to the lab, and like it's there's a lot of a lot of science involved in a lot of these programs. And we did that, we were a part of that program for years and and learned how to even identify them. So we were doing identification in our wow health departments, and uh we had two identifiers, me and uh myself and Jeremy. So what how do you identify mosquitoes?
SPEAKER_00What's involved in that?
SPEAKER_01Under a microscope, uh, usually with a book, so uh in the beginning, they have like a key, right? So if if they have X, go to you know, section six. So you have kind of a key that you can go through and you're looking at at bands on on the wings or different types of uh cilia, things like that, and it puts them in different categories. You know, do they have a curved firmoscus? Do they have a straight one? Um, is it you know, are the antennae longer or shorter than the furoscus? Like and it gives you kind of a a key to start off with, and then after that you you get the most common to where you get in the form.
SPEAKER_00You you know at first sight what you're looking at.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, um, and then you'll get a weird one and you have to walk through.
SPEAKER_00How many different kinds of mosquitoes are there in like South Georgia? Um tons. I'm at yeah.
SPEAKER_01I wouldn't say hundreds, I'd say the majority of the ones that we caught in the traps that we looked at. Um you had to know about twelve to fifteen species that you would catch regularly, like in a in a grabbing trap. But if you started doing like light traps, you start catching a lot at different things.
SPEAKER_00All kinds of all the exotic ones.
SPEAKER_01You really have to brush up on on your mosquito IDs at that point. Um But uh a lot. I I'm not the person to talk to about that. I just I numbed them out and looked at them and you know.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's uh it you never know what you're gonna do in a day, do you? No. In in environmental health. No at all. And you got septic is a a huge program down, especially in in your district, right? You got a lot of rural, got a lot of septic systems. Um did you have any idea when you went to the interview that that septic all these broad different things? Because people think of food inspections or pool inspections are pretty top of mind for most people if you ask them what the health inspector inspect. But a lot of folks just have no idea about all of the other programs.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, just like I say, I mean, we're chief rabies officer in our counties, so like even investigating rabies cases. Um, but soil, I mean, it's really hard. I I sat down one day uh probably about two years ago, so about four years into my career, and kind of looked at what all it actually took to do what I did as a as a generalist, right? And it's having a surf safe manager's certification, so you have to go through and and you're a surf safe managed certified manager, right?
SPEAKER_00Just like the manager of the Bojangles or the McDonald's, yeah.
SPEAKER_01That's right. You've got that. You're a CPO, right? So you're a certified pool operator. Um you're a level two soil classifier, so you've gone through and learned about so you're you're part soil scientist, part food scientist, um, you're a certified pool operator. You um like I say, um the people that work on Rabies are chief rabies officers, so you understand the Rabies manual. All these certifications that get you, and then you start adding on to it, you know. Yeah. Getting standardized by the state of Georgia to become a district standard trainer, so you can standardize other people in your district. Um all kinds of certificates and and trainings and a lot of hours of training come down from the state and local.
SPEAKER_00And you have to have ongoing educational credit hours too to keep those things certified and up, right?
SPEAKER_01And jihad helps with that too.
SPEAKER_00With with Yeah, so let's let's talk about Jihad. So um you've had great attendance this year at the conference. Um and far cry from last year, I think budget cut. You had a budget or grant cut last year. Remember, we were in that mall and uh the country. That's right. So it was just wherever people could get to quickly and easily.
SPEAKER_01We're trying to get to um a central location that everybody can drive to and have a date. And so they can make and wound up being it. How long's the term for president in jihad? One year. Um for now now. We we've had to do some reshuffling. Um currently, so I'll serve again next year. Um and everybody below will will shift up. Um we had a vacancy come up. Oh, okay. And so everybody's shifting up under instead of vice president is one of the harder jobs in in our in our administration, so we didn't want to try to fill that off the um elections. Yeah. Instead letting them kind of work through the cycle.
SPEAKER_00What what makes vice president one of the harder jobs here?
SPEAKER_01Um they're in charge of the agenda and and getting oh yeah, that's a lot of work. Yeah, getting everybody pulling together. Um we made strunk some structural changes this year to try to ease the burden a little bit on people that are serving. Um and it's been very successful, and we're gonna continue to do that next year.
SPEAKER_00Because these are all people who have a day job, right? That's right. Typically at a health department. And uh there's a couple of private sector folks, I think, on the AG department as well.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. We have um Gia, it really is, it combines a lot of different organizations, and historically, it's had even more. I mean, you know, you talk about forestry, EPD, and we we have somebody from EPD coming to talk.
SPEAKER_00Um Yeah, you you are you do actually cast that net wider and because you have a good relationship with the ag folks in the state. I know I've worked with both ag and health going back more years than I probably care to admit. But like it it was always a unique relationship because in some states they don't really talk as much as you guys do here. Uh but Craig and Summer, it's a good team over there at the Department of Ag.
SPEAKER_01Especially in retail foods. I mean, we we always have Carl Summers as well. Um, we especially, I mean, I know in South, I can only speak to my experience in South Georgia working in the field. Um, I had our ag inspectors' numbers, you know, in my phone because we would run into things all the time where they would call me and say, hey, I walk into one of my gas stations and there's a full-blown like restaurant in here. You know, can we talk about that? You know, etc. Did you know?
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Excuse me.
SPEAKER_00So um the uh so you're gonna be a two-term president.
SPEAKER_01And that's what it's looking like. Um so far. I don't know that that's really public knowledge yet. I guess it is now.
SPEAKER_00We just told a few friends. Yeah, that's there.
SPEAKER_01Uh but yes, uh it's looking like I'm gonna be president again next year. And I and I'm AOK with that.
SPEAKER_00What is the what was the highlight? What'd you enjoy about uh the first year uh of president? What's involved in that? So the vice president we know gets has to do all the actual really, really hard grueling work of the schedule and stuff. What what what's been sort of your agenda and the highlight for you of the past year?
SPEAKER_01You know it's funny, uh, like I said, uh I we kind of we call it running the gauntlet, right? So you you start off as secretary, and then you have the option to run the gauntlet of vice president, um president elect, president, past president. So it's a four-year-old.
SPEAKER_00Once you get on that track, if you want, you can go all through.
SPEAKER_01You run you run all the way through. Um so vice president, I I had my my goal, right? Get the get the agenda set and do the agenda, um, bring all the speakers in. President elect last year, like I like I said, it was a little bit of a different off year of travel restrictions coming in, like we need to we need to have a one day. And so I don't really know what my role was in that. And it got a little, you know, it got a little weird last year. And that happens. You gotta be able to roll with what hits you. And then as president, honestly, um being a part of a well-run organization with a lot of people that have buy-in and a lot of people that have skin in the game, and a lot of people that put effort into it and are passionate about it. Um to be honest with you, uh this year I've just kind of sat back and let it run. Run the meetings, like um handle logistics uh of of certain things, but honestly, like the team carries. Yeah, bringing it, yeah, just running meetings, bringing it together and supporting where I can when I can.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And that's been it's been fun. Danielle uh is great, isn't she? She's worked so hard and um actually was responsible for asking if we bring this here originally, and it's it's you know, we see a lot of conferences. Yeah, and um they all are you know, take a lot of effort and people work hard on them, but some people just have that extra gear and just really make it just a a notch above. And it feels like uh you guys have done that really well. So when you you've probably done gone in the field um for pretty much all the programs, right? You've done restaurant inspection, you've done them all because you've had to be certified in all of them. We always ask folks and you don't have to, but kind of most memorable or craziest inspection story.
SPEAKER_01I don't you know, I I was thinking about that um today, trying to come up with something. And I mean we all we all see things that that take us aback sometimes, etc. But but to be honest with you, I think my most memorable experiences over the past six years have been truly the when I see change occur and and I and what I mean by that is restaurants. And in restaurants that to be honest with you, you know, you don't you'll thread going to them uh sometimes because you just know you never know what you're gonna get. Um but the satisfaction that you get not only that you get, but the restaurant owners and the managers get when you're when you walk in and you you help them and walk them through and and teach them. And and that's I think one of one of my stronger gifts as I you know, I mentioned looking at teaching jobs and I taught college courses. But teaching and and and educating has always been one of my stronger suits and one of my you know, passions, honestly. And seeing that uh education pay off and going into the restaurant I you know, I can I can think of I'm not gonna name restaurants at all by any means, but I can think of one of them earlier in my career where you know it was mad score, mad score, all that, and educating, walking, walking them, and then the third time uh I walked in the restaurant, looking around, and I went. Fantastic. And I mean before I even like started inspection.
SPEAKER_00You had a big role in helping coach them into how to pay attention to what's important. And has the job gotten harder uh in the last four or five years? I I know that during the pandemic it was really rough because the restaurants were closing and things like that, but it it has it got you've mentioned dread, and a lot of people will write an email, and that's one of the things they talk about is the stress of like preparing for Monday morning, especially if you've got a restaurant on there that you know it's either gonna be either gonna be combative or it's just always a disaster. Um but has it gotten harder? Uh also because you know, employee turnovers seems to still be worse, they're harder to staff, although that's always been an issue in fast food, probably in restaurants, right? But what's the landscape like now for an inspector, that environment?
SPEAKER_01I would say early on in my career, you're right. I I think that the one thing I took for granted because it was early in my career, because I just thought it was normal, right? To go to restaurants two or three times in a row and I'm talking to the same person, and I'm building a relationship with the same person. And that's why I say, you know, that that satisfaction of change, that's when it came through, was building that relationship with the same person. I'm gonna say in today's landscape, you're right. It's a lot different in restaurants where I'm introducing myself to the manager over and over again at the same restaurant. So now your local places, your your your mom and pop stores, that that's never changed. Yeah. And and that and those are the ones that I I truly enjoy. I'm not saying that I don't enjoy um fast food inspections or anything like that, because I've had some of the best relations with managers in fast food. But that is when you see more in the turnover, and that's where more of the challenge is.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's hard to uh you I I just taught the last guy how to do this, and now he's gone and probably didn't write it down or pass it on.
SPEAKER_01That's right.
SPEAKER_00So, training, we can't end it without mentioning so uh and you do see in your happy places and educating, mentoring, and bringing people along, right? It's obvious. The data specialist part that they tagged onto your title, right? Um actually a busy time to exercise those muscles right now, right? Because you're going through uh once in a 20-year systems and data conversion for the entire state.
SPEAKER_01We are, and uh, I'm by no means an expert in that. So like I'm I'm I can't get into technicalities about it. I see a familiar name up here behind me. Yeah. Um, but we are in in the process of testing the new the new EHIS. Um and yeah, it's it's a lot of work. It is a lot of work. Transitioning the entire state over, and um, you know, we have a lot of people at the state level who are spending and this is their, you know, this is their job for Tim and that crew have have done a fantastic job.
SPEAKER_00How's it going? And it's almost a a difficult question when you're in the middle of testing, because it is so hard. And testing by definition is you're drilling in on what needs to be different or better or is not right, right? But like how how are you feeling so far? I should also, for folks that aren't from Georgia that watch, you all are on an ambitious timeline. The project didn't kick off until basically the the beginning of May. Basically, yeah. And you're we we knew, you know, you you got the emails from the print. And again, like it was underway, but the project, like, they didn't engage HS. I uh uh the the vendor wasn't uh engaged to start until April uh end of April. And you're going live in November.
SPEAKER_01That's that is almost unheard of. Is a is a testament to um honestly the local I guess the the local health forms and the local people that are getting on here and and hammering out testing and and working hard to to try to make it happen. Because I mean you it takes a lot of people to at least in this phase that I'm in right now, I understand why you know total buy-in was asked for. And um hard in we're doing our best to make that happen.
SPEAKER_00And you are, and so that's one of the things Tim did really well. Uh you know, HS is implemented in multiple states for you know statewide. A lot of times they don't really insist on the buy-in. And so one of the first times a local agency sees it in that environment is when it's live or at training, and then it's kind of like too late, the cake's been baked. I think the last number I heard is there's 50 folks like yourself who are in there more now.
SPEAKER_01A lot of times when I'm online in the teams meetings, I mean there's 60, 70 people on it, which I mean I I guess that involves some staff at Matrix GoTech. Yeah, it's a lot of that's a it's a lot of local people.
SPEAKER_00And those are people again who aren't like given time to just focus on that, right? Like you're still trying to juggle your normal responsibilities and do the testing.
SPEAKER_01No, and I I'm lucky um in that, like I say, with that total buy-in, um, our district has really, really tried to to implement that. And that's why NATO specialists was at and you know, and all that long string of things, is because when I've got time and that and that's taken that takes priority, right? I mean, like I said, we're going live in November, so yeah, we're able I'm able to do it. I'm able to have time to carm out and do it. And so they told me run with it, do what we need to do, and help as much as we can.
SPEAKER_00And so that's you guys are doing excellent. I know it's it's you know, it's a lot of work on a tight timeline, but thank you all. Are you excited about it? Like half the fog of testing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you you think it'll be exciting and I think we're excited about the possibility of it, and yeah, you know, being one of the people in there playing with it, tinkering with it. You know, I mean, we're breaking it, and that's the point. Yeah. I mean, and so we're in that phase right now, but um looking at what we're looking at, you know, we're excited about the possibilities that it holds and um looking forward to it.
SPEAKER_00It'll be great. I um worked with Tim and and the crew back in 05-06 when DHD uh went statewide, and it's um makes me feel old, but it's a real honor to like be continuing working with Georgia. Thank you for having us here and for all you do. We'll uh next when we see you next year, uh we'll probably have another responsibility tacked onto that title, won't you?
SPEAKER_01June, June, yeah. Just making it just keep adding it.
SPEAKER_00You know, I love it. So Austin, thank you so much, and great. Thank you for inviting us here and for uh a great conference and look forward to uh to the next couple days. It was a pleasure. Thank you for having me on. Absolutely. It's our pleasure. And as Austin here, the president of the uh Georgia Environmental Health Association. We will be back shortly. We're gonna be talking to John Ford. Also, he's on the Niha, uh Niha District Representative as well. He'll be here next, next guest up on the Beyond Data Management Podcast, live from Jiha, Lakelanier. We'll be back in a few minutes.