Exeter's Newest Health Officer Madison Bailey

Exeter, NH - November 20th, 2023: Please join us in welcoming Madison Bailey as the town of Exeter’s newest Health Officer.

Bailey recently began serving in her new position, replacing James Murray. “Everybody here has been super supportive, very welcoming, and they’ve been giving me a lot of resources. Other health officers in neighboring towns are also willing to step in and help out. I’m pretty confident in this transition,” she said.

The Exeter Health Department is supervised by the Exeter Fire Department and aims to make Exeter a safe place to live, work and dine out. The health officer’s duties include reviewing plans, inspecting work in progress, licensing food service operations, inspecting day care facilities and responding to complaints that fall under the jurisdiction of the Health Department.

Bailey is a resident of Pembroke, where she was born and raised and is a 2020 graduate of Pembroke Academy. She earned a bachelor’s degree in public health from Southern New Hampshire University and plans to further her education in January when she begins pursuing her master’s degree in public health at the University of New Hampshire.

She originally considered a career in physical therapy, but after taking a class focused on public health, she decided that it was the path that was a good fit for her.

Bailey was a senior in high school when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, and while she was focused on graduating from high school and starting college, the pandemic was a unique opportunity for her to see how all levels of government, the general public and other aspects of society respond to a global public health emergency.

“Public health was not really well known. Before COVID, people really didn’t know what epidemiology was,” she said.

The pandemic shined a spotlight on the importance of public health. “I think since then it’s gotten a lot of attention in the right way, which I think is very good. There’s a lot more funding and resources being put toward prevention, which is really important,” she said.

While it will take some time to settle into her new role, Bailey said she hopes to eventually find ways to provide more outreach in the area of mental health, especially for those who may be uninsured or don’t have other means to access mental health services.

“I know that many community members have said that mental health is definitely something that people are struggling with,” she said.

In her free time, Bailey enjoys spending time outdoors, running, hiking, skiing in the winter, and walking her dog.