ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Iowa has the country's second highest cancer rate, and it's increasing. So 23-year-old Bri McNulty moved there to help fight the disease as a public health worker, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it will terminate her next month. NPR's Yuki Noguchi reports.
YUKI NOGUCHI, BYLINE: Bri McNulty grew up in Williamsburg, Virginia, fascinated with the bubonic plague and hoping to one day work at the CDC.
BRI MCNULTY: Everyone knows about the CDC. Like, you hear about them all the time. I think they've always been amazing, and I've loved to learn about the work they do - even in, like, movies like "Contagion." Like, I think those kind of also shaped my dreams of working for them.
NOGUCHI: She got her biology degree, then applied for the agency's prestigious Public Health Associate Program. Of over 1,000 applicants, McNulty was among 66 selected to work with public health programs across the country. In late 2023, she started a two-year term at the Iowa Cancer Consortium, which is stepping up to fight the state's high cancer rates. For McNulty, it was a dream.
MCNULTY: Extremely excited - definitely cried a bit.
NOGUCHI: For the past year and a half, she's advocated for vaccines to prevent cervical cancer. She maintained databases, tracking local disease trends, spoke at events and created educational materials promoting early detection. A week ago last Saturday, the 23-year-old received an email, quote, "removing" her from her job. Other associates in her program were also among the 1,300 people cut from CDC and received the same email, criticizing their performance, using the same language.
MCNULTY: The agency finds that you are not fit for continued employment because your ability, knowledge and skills do not fit the agency's current needs, and your performance has not been adequate to justify further employment...
NOGUCHI: Kelly Wells Sittig is executive director of the consortium where McNulty worked.
KELLY WELLS SITTIG: We were really happy with Bri's performance and growth.
NOGUCHI: Sittig says their efforts are already short-staffed. If the CDC program that sponsored McNulty disappears, she says, her community will lose opportunities to attract the health care talent the state so desperately needs.
SITTIG: We need young people coming to Iowa, working in our public health and health care workforce and our cancer control workforce, and losing Bri is a loss of that.
NOGUCHI: Bri McNulty says most people may not realize federal dollars fund work like hers in their neighborhoods.
MCNULTY: People hear that there are cuts being made in CDC or NIH. Their thought is, oh, they're only getting cut from D.C. or Atlanta, and that's just not true. Like, federal employees - field workers, specifically - like, we are in your communities and doing the help that we can.
NOGUCHI: Now she's weighing her options - apply to grad school or try finding new work.
MCNULTY: But job hunting is also intense now because you have these extremely highly educated, wonderful people who all just got let go at the same time and are all looking for a new job, and it's just going to be even more competitive than it was before.
NOGUCHI: McNulty says the abrupt, brusque end to her dream job leaves her feeling betrayed for just trying to help.
MCNULTY: I grew up, you know, as a military brat and as someone who aspired to serve my country. I got my degree, I got good grades. I volunteered. Like, I do everything in my life to help people as much as I can because I care about others. Why am I being hurt for this when I did everything right?
NOGUCHI: She's furious, she says, but she's not quite sure where to direct the anger. Yuki Noguchi, NPR News.
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