On September 10, 2002, a life was changed forever in Margaret Cullen Daniel Residence Hall. Surrounded by family and friends, BSC freshman Casey Daniel ’07 was celebrating her 17^th birthday in an unusual but triumphant way: by giving herself her final chemo injection to beat stage III melanoma.

BSC has long been an integral part of her family history, beginning with her parents’ marriage at Yeilding Chapel in 1977. In 2001, as a rising high school senior, Daniel was attending the Summer Scholars program at BSC when she was diagnosed with cancer.

“That program was an amazing experience for me and really helped me through some of the most difficult first parts of my cancer experience,” Daniel says. “Since I was still undergoing treatment and monitoring when I graduated high school, BSC was a perfect opportunity for my next step. I knew I loved it, and I could still be close to home and my medical team.”

An English major with a lifelong interest in the medical field, Daniel credits Professor Jeanette Runquist with introducing her to public health. While receiving her master’s and doctoral degrees at UAB, she discovered an unlimited potential to impact the health and lives of people, including cancer survivors like her, on a global level.

“Behavioral science, epidemiology… it opened up a world I never knew existed,” she says. “And honestly, I was surprised to find that graduate school frequently paled in comparison to the educational rigors of BSC. It was incredibly rewarding to find that my efforts there had prepared me better than I could have imagined.”

After completing postdoctoral training in cancer prevention and control at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Daniel was recruited to work at the University of South Alabama (USA) in Mobile. At USA, she is now the Director of Epidemiology and Public Health, as well as an Assistant Professor of Oncologic Sciences at the USA Mitchell Cancer Institute and faculty member in the USA College of Medicine’s Department of Family Medicine.

A firm believer that “being able to write well is essential in virtually all fields,” Daniel draws from the influence of BSC English professors like Dr. Sandra Sprayberry in fostering her medical students’ writing skills to give them a competitive edge in their research.

While her work in building infrastructure for public health education at USA was steady but slow at first, the outbreak of COVID-19 put Daniel’s expertise in high demand. From helping to develop contact tracing and campus return protocols, to designing a COVID screening tool for those returning to campus and tracking and reporting weekly statistics, Daniel has been an invaluable asset to her campus community in the face of the unknown.

Although the sudden increase in her responsibilities was stressful at first, she says, “It was amazing to be able to put my training into action and demonstrate the previously underestimated value of public health as a field.”

Advice: “Attending Birmingham-Southern remains one of the best decisions I have ever made. It is a unique experience that creates a marked bond among all alumni, regardless of age. Appreciate your time at BSC; live it to the fullest. You time there is a privilege; treasure it always.”

This story was published in the Fall/Winter 2020 issue of ’Southern, BSC’s alumni magazine.

If you have ideas for our next issue of ’Southern, please email [email protected]. We always welcome stories about outstanding people from the BSC community.