Dr. Acton doesn’t consider herself remarkable.  

“I am an ordinary person who ended up in an extraordinary moment of time,” the former Ohio Department of Health director explained.

Dr. Acton grew up in nearby Youngstown, earning her medical degree from Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOUCOM). She was working at the Columbus Foundation, a nonprofit that helps organizations with their charitable giving, when candidate Mike DeWine reached out. 

One of his advisers had saw an Acton presentation and told him about her. 

Upon meeting, DeWine simply asked about her childhood. She recounted how she was in and out of around 18 different places — eventually homeless living in a tent in the middle of winter. 

While her situation changed, it hadn’t for some friends. She came to the realization that a person’s living situation impacts personal outcome and health more than DNA.

Even though Dr. Acton acknowledged that Ohio was doing some amazing things before COVID, it was Ohio’s pandemic efforts that got everyone’s attention.

DeWine is a registered Republican. A Democract, Dr. Acton became the first female director of the Ohio Department of Health.

The party difference wasn’t an issue for Acton. “I am a non-partisan person,” she told the audience Saturday. “I will work with anyone to get the work done.”

Get the work done for Ohio they did. Dr. Acton related about returning from a February 20 White House briefing she attended with DeWine. She vowed to be brutally honest with the people about the crisis.

Her daily 2 p.m. press conferences became must-see for many Ohioans during the pandemic. Her presentations provided facts but also reassuring messages.

“All I could do is all them the best information I had at the time,” she explained. “We needed someone to start telling the public the truth.” 

With Ohio leading the charge, that truth produced dividends. 

“The second that we told the truth, the best people in the world started coming to us, allowing our ability to respond so much better,” Dr. Acton said.

The public embraced her brutal honesty, vulnerability and empowering nature. “When you care and don’t want anyone to die, it is very motivating,” she added.

She admits her efforts of constant encouragement were very much intentional. “All of us were pulling each other up,” she told Saturday’s crowd. 

At the beginning of the pandemic, the mortality rate was more than 50 percent for hospitalized patients. By June 2020, that mortality rate had dropped to 5 percent, as doctors had better treatment protocols and had somewhat stifled the spread with vaccines. 

“What I learned from Ohio is no order that I wrote flattened the curve. Ohio flattened the curve,” she added. 

At one point, she stepped down as DeWine’s director but remained on as a key medical adviser.

“Ohioans did what they needed for each other during the crisis, showing that the love was profoundly greater than the hate,” she stressed.

The experiences reminded her that healing, care and relationships is why she pursued public health in the first place. It reminded her of why she went into the medical field. 

“We need to get back to that,” acknowledging loneliness and unhappiness can impact one’s health.”

Even though Dr. Acton is reportedly considering a gubernatorial run, she offered no comment on that. She just attributed her presence at this event to wanting to see more strong women in  leadership and public service roles.

The money raised by the tickets for Dr. Acton event will earmarked to support the organization’s marketing efforts.