Jennifer Sumpter, who most recently had served as the chief nursing officer for the department, has been with Webster County Health since 2007. She was appointed by the Webster County Board of Health on Feb. 1, 2023, to replace Dr. Kelli Wallace, who had served as the interim director for the department for the past eight months.

Sumpter got her start with Webster County Health 15 years ago when she was hired as a home health nurse. Prior to that, she was a nurse in the ICU at UnityPoint Health — Trinity Regional Medical Center for two years.

“I just kind of thought it was a good time to step in as a leader,” Sumpter said about her decision to pursue the director position. “I think the staff really needed that after everything that’s happened over the last couple of years with the pandemic. I really believe in the staff there and I believe in the program, things that we provide to the community.”

Sumpter is a self-proclaimed “pig farmer’s daughter from Pomeroy.” After graduating from Pomeroy-Palmer High School in 1994, she went on to play college basketball. It was after college that she decided she wanted to become a nurse, so she enrolled in Iowa Central Community College’s nursing program, graduating in 1999.

“I started my career at UnityPoint, then I did some travel nursing around the state of Iowa and then went out to the West Coast to California,” she said.

In 2005, she returned home and started as an ICU nurse at TRMC.

The decision to move from working in a hospital to working in public health was one of necessity, Sumpter said. She had a young son with disabilities and needed the regular work hours that Webster County Health could offer that the hospital could not.

“It’s definitely different than acute care,” she said of transitioning to the Health Department. “But I love all the different opportunities. I love working with people in our community. We’ve done so many things, not just in Fort Dodge, but across the rest of the county. It’s just nice to be that embedded piece within the community.”

Sumpter didn’t spend the last 15 years in just one area of Webster County Health.

“I’ve probably done about every program in the Health Department,” she said. “WIC, immunizations and STD testing, to HIV case management, to school education and sex education. I’ve done a lot of the duties here.”

As director, Sumpter leads a staff of 27 nurses, administrative and professional staff.

“I just want to see us continue to move forward,” she said. “I think that our programs have given us a really good base and I want to continue to expand upon those programs.”

Sumpter said she’s thankful for the support she’s received from the Board of Health and Board of Supervisors.

“I’m just very grateful that they gave me the opportunity to do this,” she said. “I didn’t necessarily see this one coming, but I’m really excited to be in the position that I’m in right now.”

The permanent director role at the Health Department had been empty since May 2022 when former Director Kari Prescott was fired by the Board of Supervisors.

Prescott, who had been with the department since 1997 and served as director since 2008, was placed on administrative leave by the county Board of Health on May 19, 2022, pending an investigation into allegations of a hostile work environment, financial irregularities and irregularities in documentation. Further investigation led to Prescott’s immediate termination by the board on May 25, 2022, for “fostering a hostile environment, rising to the level of misconduct on the part of the director.”