Courtney Eckstein is originally from the small town of Batesville, Indiana, halfway between Indianapolis and Cincinnati. She attended the University of Cincinnati and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in health communication and Bioethics in May 2019. Her original plans had been to attend Medical School upon graduation, but after returning from a trip around the world, decided to go a different route. She pursued my master’s degree in public health and graduated with it from Indiana University in 2021 (ask her what it’s like to be a Public Health student during a pandemic.) During the Covid-19 pandemic, Courtney worked the frontlines in IU health blood labs until Dec 2020. After that she returned to Cincinnati to work Covid response and vaccination efforts until July 2021.

Courtney began working in the radiation/nuclear world in July 2021. Prior to that most of her work experience was in healthcare. She has found the change challenging and amazing and has given her a newfound passion for emergency preparedness and radiation safety. While Indiana currently has no nuclear power plants, The Emergency Preparedness Plans for 4 nuclear power plants could affect 11 ingestion pathway counties in northern Indiana. Courtney is the state liaison for all 11 counties. In addition to being Indiana’s REP coordinator, she is also the National Radiological Emergency Preparedness Region V Representative. She began this role in December 2021, and recently helped organize the NREP conference in Nashville. She will also be the state host for the NREP conference in Indianapolis next year. In November 2022, Eckstein was promoted to Radiation Program Director in Indiana and currently oversees both Nuclear Response efforts, and the upcoming Agreement State Program that Indiana is hoping to take over from the NRC in 2025.