"I Fell in Love with the Work"

Q&A with Ann Stehn, Administrator of Horizon Public Health

Public Health System Transformation Update
July 2, 2026 | View all system transformation newsletters

Finding a calling in public health

How did you get into public health in the first place? What brought you to the field?

Well, honestly, I had a very good public health experience in college.

I was in a small community; we moved to Morris. My husband was in law enforcement, and I was a nurse at the hospital. He was working every third weekend, and I was working every other weekend. So you can imagine how that worked out for us. It was really challenging, and we wanted to have a family. It was like: Well, one of us needs to get a regularly scheduled job.

I interviewed with Sandy Tubbs, the director of Stevens-Traverse Public Health at the time, and the rest is history. I got there and I fell in love with the work. 

I was there a very short period of time, and then I was the maternal child health coordinator, and then a supervisory position opened up. I was 25, 24 maybe, and I was the supervisor in Stevens County, and Sandy was very involved at the state level—so I got a very good dunk into all the things. 

It was a wonderful learning experience for me, right out of the chute.

Sandy Tubbs, who was also administrator for Horizon Public Health prior to Ann, passed away earlier this year after this conversation with Ann.

Then we moved over to Kandiyohi County. My husband took a law enforcement job over there, and I got a job at the health department, and within a couple of years the director left, so I was 28 years old and I became the director at Kandiyohi County Public Health. I've been a director since then.

When you were younger, did you ever see yourself in a position like this?

No. In fact, I thought for a long time that I wanted to be a physician.

I did a social work January term [in college] over at the Shriners Children's Hospital and that is when I learned the nurses are the ones that get all the action. There was some really cool stuff that happened for some kids while I was there, and the doctors didn't get to be any part of that. That was my freshman year, and after that I was like, “I’m going to go to nursing school.” So that's what I did.

But no, I never imagined public health. However, I will say… My mom is a home economist, and I grew up on a farm. And I you know, when I look back, I remember they were very prevention oriented. My dad would wear long-sleeved, thin shirts all summer long to protect himself from the sun, and wide brimmed hats so he wasn't going to get his ears burnt, and hearing protection. My mom was great about serving us healthy, well-balanced meals from the garden and all the things.

So, I look back, and: A lot of the stuff that we're teaching [in public health], I was raised with those things being very much a part of our life and being important. It was all there, but I didn't necessarily know it or see it.

Leading through change

How has the field of public health changed since you started? 

It's not even comparable. It's changed so much.

I can probably speak more to rural health departments than to the metro, but: When I started it was almost 100 percent nurses, for one thing. 

Lots of rural health departments were home care agencies at the time. We were home care agencies first and, you know, we did a little bit of the things that we do now. We did some family home visiting, with curriculum we wrote ourselves—we gathered what resources we could, but there was no internet, there was no email, I didn’t have a computer, everything was on paper charts. 

I can remember getting my first e-mail address and I was like, “Oooh!” [laughter] I shared a computer with others. I remember getting to Kandiyohi when I first started and getting a laptop and was like, “What is this?!”

And at the time, public health was very much about individual services.  

When we stopped doing home care—that was when I was in Kandiyohi [County]—I remember everyone thought that the public health agency was just going to fizzle and dry up, and we weren’t going to have one anymore. That was in the late ‘90s. There were a number of people who really felt that. 

Starting in the 2000s, there has just been a steady progression [toward where we are today]. I mean, the way we use data now, the way the way that we use research and evidence-based practices, the way we're trying to work at a population level… it’s totally different. We weren't doing any of those kinds of things [when I started].

I now have a full-time person doing communications! There is such a complement of professions. Here at Horizon, I've got social workers, I've got nurses, I've got people with a health education background, sanitarian-type people, accountants, dieticians, a strategy planner… we have all kinds of people. 

It’s completely different. It’s a completely different ball game.

What’s a typical day like for you?

When you are a separate joint powers entity, you are running your own governmental business. At Horizon, we're responsible for our benefits and our health insurance and all of our human resources, and all the things. We don’t have other county departments doing that work.

The administration is some of what I love about Horizon. It’s been really enjoyable and I think it's been a great structure for public health.

You know, oftentimes during the work day, you don't really usually get your own work done. You're helping move everyone else along. I always say that's my most important job, to keep everyone else moving. And then you squeeze in your stuff where you can.

As you look back, what are you really proud of? 

I wouldn't point to just one thing. I've had so many wonderful opportunities.

Maybe I’ll answer: What am I most glad I could be a part of?

I've gotten to work in a variety of local health departments. I started my career in a two-county health department that was part of a five-county community health board. Then I went to a single county. I was there a long time, and then we joined with another county, so I went through that process.

Probably one of the most humbling but most impactful times of my career was being a human services director—I was in health and human services for seven years, and that was a very humbling time to just learn and understand how much you just really didn’t know and understand about their work and how important and hard it was, and how very different [from public health]. I feel like I'm able to talk about that in a different way than I could before.

And then to be able to wrap up my career in a standalone organization… I’ve really been grateful to have had that opportunity to work in this multi-county setting and be an administrator, and learn those pieces and be able to have an impact. 

I think getting accredited during a pandemic is also something. How many people can say they got accredited during a pandemic? We can at Horizon! 

I mean, just that I survived a pandemic. And we all did, but not without some scars. That's the case for every human that was around during that time. It impacted everybody a little bit differently.

But being part of an accredited agency—bringing them to that point initially and reaccreditation, I’ve enjoyed that a lot.

Looking ahead with gratitude

What are you looking forward to in your retirement?

Grandkids, traveling with my husband, my hands in the dirt in my garden. Feeling like we can go away for a few weeks… 

I mean, I did take a two-week vacation one time, and I think one other time I was gone for 10 days. But you’re taking your laptop with you everywhere you go, and that feeling of responsibility—if something really bad happens, that your board, your community, your staff feel like you’re there and you can dial in. 

What does that mean? It means you haul your laptop with you. 

I’m looking forward to being able to go on vacation and not haul my laptop with me! 

What will you miss about Horizon after you’ve retired?

The people.

Not surprising!

The people locally, and I'm going to miss the people around the state. I’m going to miss [fellow] board members—I've been fortunate to be a part of the Association of Minnesota Counties FUTURES group for years as the public health representative, and so I know board members and county leaders from around the state. Yeah, I'm going to miss the people.

We’ve got strong leadership for the future of public health. It's not been an easy time for public health, but I've been really impressed with the resilience and the strength of the workforce. We’ll be strong, and 15-20 years from now, public health is going to look even more different than it does today. I can't imagine—but I couldn't have imagined today, either, back when I started. 

What will it bring? I don't know, but I hope it brings a healthier community. I hope we’re able to keep doing good things for our communities.

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Ann Stehn is the administrator of Horizon Public Health, and will retire at the end of this week. Her favorite place in Minnesota is her house, enjoying "the simple things in life": In the winter, watching the sunrise through the hoarfrost on her windows or reading a good book next to the fireplace; in the summer, out in the dirt in her flower garden.