From the Brickyard to the EPA

When alumna Joan Metcalf Hedge toured the NC State University campus in the early 1980s, she walked through the famed Brickyard and her decision was made.

“The class period ended and it was flooded with students,” she says. “I was hooked.”

The Hendersonville, North Carolina, native entered the Department of Animal Science hoping to one day become a veterinarian and possibly work with livestock. Now a biologist for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the Office of Research and Development in Research Triangle Park, Hedge found her calling to do research thanks to a few key professors who nudged her into the field.

“My advice to students in animal science is don’t be too narrowly focused and try lots of different classes and experiences,” Hedge says. “See what resonates with you and then go after it.”

A Little Direction Leads to Unexpected Career

As an animal science undergraduate (BS ’88), Hedge credits her undergraduate adviser, Professor Emeritus O.W. Robinson, with helping her find a new direction in her studies. 

“He was very interested in people and encouraged students to find out what we wanted to do,” Hedge says. “He said to me one day, ‘I’m working on some research at the swine farm, would you like to come out and see what we do?’ And so I went out for a week and helped with his project. From that experience, I decided I wanted to do research.”

Hedge would work on one of the swine farms, then located near the NC State Fairgrounds, under the direction of supervisor Tom Steffel, after completing her undergraduate degree and through her first year as a graduate student, inspiring her to stay in the Department of Animal Science and complete a master’s degree in physiology in 1994.

Her graduate adviser, Alumni Distinguished Professor Ken Esbenshade, encouraged her to apply to the EPA when a former student told him they were looking for researchers with reproductive science experience. 

“Because Dr. Esbenshade encouraged me to apply, I worked as a contract employee with the EPA for two years and then was hired by them as a federal employee,” Hedge says.

Hedge has worked as a biologist, conducting research utilizing several research animal models, from rodents to zebrafish, in her nearly three decades with the EPA Office of Research and Development. She currently serves in the Biomolecular and Computational Toxicology Division.

A Rewarding Research Career

This summer, Hedge won the Rosalind Franklin Society Special Award in Science for a 2023 article she published in “Zebrafish,” a peer-reviewed journal. The award is given to the best paper of the year by a woman or underrepresented minority in each of the Mary Ann Liebert Inc. journals in health, medicine and biotechnology.  

“I certainly cherish my days at NC State and feel I was well-prepared for a career in science because of the experiences I had as a student and graduate student,” Hedge says, crediting her faculty advisers and the swine farm staff for their guidance and support. 

“They were all very encouraging and helped me discover the career I really wanted.”

This post was originally published in College of Agriculture and Life Sciences News.