N-PAC Chair

CDR Margaret (Meg) Whelpley, CRNP
Margaret.s.whelpley@cbp.dhs.gov

Deputy Branch Manager, Senior Clinical Advisor
Medical Operations Emergency Response Coordinator
U.S. Customs and Border Protection

LCDR Meg Whelpley began her work with NPAC shortly after receiving her commission. Her mentor at the time encouraged her to find opportunities to serve the NPAC and read the listserv regularly. She has been involved in multiple subcommittees most notably the APRN subcommittee’s workgroup on Education and Research, which she co-chaired for two years prior to her election as NPAC chair.

Prior to commissioning, LCDR Whelpley spent seven years as an ED nurse before receiving her NP and working in the ICU and cardiac catheterization lab. She joined the NIH cardiology consult service as a civilian in 2013 and commissioned as an LT in 2014. LCDR Whelpley recently left NIH and is now working for U.S. Customs and Border Protection in the Office of the Chief Medical Officer. In addition to her work in her formal assignments LCDR Whelpley was deputy commander of Capitol Area Provider team 3 and participated in a multitude of deployments for the migrant crisis and the COVID 19 pandemic.

LCDR Whelpley received her undergraduate and master's degree in nursing from Johns Hopkins University. She enjoys spending time with her husband and two young children.

N-PAC Executive Secretary

CDR Shauna Mettee Zarecki, MSN, MPH, RN, NHDP-BC
smzarecki@cdc.gov

Public Health Advisor
Division of Emergency Operations
Center for Preparedness and Response
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

CDR Mettee Zarecki received a BA from the University of Colorado in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology before coming to CDC in 1996 as an Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory Fellow where she responded to a cholera outbreak in Guinea-Bissau, among other international and domestic outbreaks. After completing a BSN in 2004, she worked as an ER nurse and then completed an MSN in International Nursing and an MPH in Global Health from Emory University. Her thesis focused on improving the care of Bangladeshi rural woman during obstetric emergencies. While at Emory, CDR Mettee Zarecki was president of SORT – the Student Outbreak and Response Team, and forged partnerships with CDC and local health departments for members to gain practical experience in disaster response and outbreak investigations. She was the recipient of Emory University Humanitarian Award for 2009.

In 2009 CDR Mettee Zarecki joined the U.S. Public Health Service as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Officer at CDC. In 2011, she was the first nurse accepted into CDC’s Preventive Medicine Residency/Fellowship, assigned to a three-county health district. Following the fellowship, CDR Mettee Zarecki joined CDC’s Director’s Policy Office in the Office of the National Prevention Strategy supporting the Surgeon General’s office, and the National Prevention Council, to implement the National Prevention Strategy. In September 2013, CDR Mettee Zarecki  joined CDC’s Office of Health System Collaboration, supporting CDC’s priority to strengthen public health and health care collaboration.

In 2017, CDR Mettee Zarecki was awarded the U.S. Public Health Service Responder of the Year award and the USPHS Nurse Responder of the Year award. CDR Mettee Zarecki has supported numerous public health emergencies for both CDC and USPHS, such as supporting Indian Health Service hospitals, multiple Ebola outbreaks, hurricanes, screening children at the U.S./Mexico border, and most recently for the COVID-19 response, for a variety of missions such as investigating outbreaks in nursing homes and detention centers.

CDR Mettee Zarecki serves in a variety of nursing leadership roles. She is the Nurse PAC Executive Secretary, Co-Lead of the Public Health Service Nurse Responder Workgroup tasked with developing a tiered nurse responder competency model to enhance PHS nurse preparedness and response capabilities, Co-Lead of the Association for Public Health Nurses (APHN) Public Health Nursing Emergency Preparedness and Response Workgroup, and prior president of the CDC/ATSDR Nurses Work Group (CNWG). She is a board-certified National Healthcare Disaster Professional (NHDC-BC) by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). CDR Mettee Zarecki and her husband, kids, cat, and new puppy live in Atlanta, GA.