Shelley Haffner spent her Penn State career turning public health preparedness into real-world protection for thousands of students.
Years before a global pandemic reshaped campus life, Haffner recognized the need for a coordinated, community-level strategy to manage infectious disease threats. As the infectious disease manager for Penn State’s University Health Services, she used her graduate work through Penn State World Campus and led the creation of the University’s infectious hazards response plan. This framework outlined a comprehensive blueprint that aligned campuses, emergency managers, clinicians, and administrators around the same protocols. It reshaped how University Health Services would prepare for campus-wide disease threats.
Haffner came out of retirement during the COVID-19 pandemic, returning in fall 2020 to help the Penn State Altoona campus navigate the daily demands of mitigation.
Haffner’s career demonstrates what it looks like when expertise, preparation, and a deep commitment to community come together to make a lasting impact.
Read more about her experience below.
What inspired you to create Penn State’s infectious hazards plan?
After helping with Penn State’s 2009 H1N1 response, I realized the University needed a plan that wasn’t just reactive or tied to a single disease. Through my graduate work in the public health preparedness option of the Intercollege MPS in Homeland Security through Penn State World Campus, I developed a comprehensive, adaptable plan that could guide responses to influenza, measles, meningitis, mumps, chickenpox, and emerging pathogens.
The plan outlined key stakeholders, clarified roles and duties across the University and local community, and identified necessary supplies, training exercises, and communication protocols to ensure alignment before a crisis occurred.
How did you ensure the plan addressed the needs of both campuses and surrounding communities?
Outbreaks don’t stay within the walls of a student health clinic — they ripple into classrooms, residence halls, workplaces, and neighboring towns. For that reason, the plan embedded coordination with Penn State Emergency Management and the Centre Region Council of Governments, an organization of municipal governing bodies in the State College, Pennsylvania, area.
We prioritized joint training exercises, defined shared communication channels, and built a framework that ensured campus and community officials could respond in sync when infectious threats emerged.
How did your World Campus course work shape the approach?
The program reframed outbreaks as community events requiring communication and collaboration as much as clinical expertise. For my capstone, I coordinated a joint exercise with Penn State and Centre Region emergency management, translating preparedness principles into drills we could replicate across locations. I completed the degree in 2017, and we continued running training exercises with other Penn State campuses.
What impact did the plan have before and during COVID-19?
Between 2015 and early 2020, the plan guided preparedness drills at University Park and helped campuses across Penn State develop site-specific plans with clearly defined roles. When I retired in February 2020, those structures were in place.
When I returned during the COVID-19 pandemic to support the Sheetz Health and Wellness Center at Penn State Altoona, the same principles and systems proved essential — from case management and contact tracing to daily coordination with campus leadership and emergency managers. Those shared protocols made the University’s response more consistent and effective.
Looking back, what outcomes are you most proud of?
I’m proud of how the plan improved clarity in both drills and real incidents, strengthened relationships with emergency managers, and created a repeatable framework that other campuses could adapt. Most importantly, it turned knowledge into preparedness that worked — helping protect the health of students and the broader community when it mattered most.
This Q&A spotlight is part of “40k alumni: 40 stories celebrating 40,000 graduates,” a series marking the milestone of more than 40,000 Penn Staters earning their degrees online through Penn State World Campus.