Gail Gettens

Biography

Gail Gettens is a Child Development Specialist who has spent more than a decade on the front lines educating about the impact of childhood lead exposure and the importance of pediatric lead level testing. During her tenure with New Hampshire’s Division of Public Health Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program, she developed and delivered educational sessions on CDC recommendations and evidence-based strategies to increase pediatric blood lead level testing rates and reduce childhood lead exposure. Her responsibilities included facilitating the NH DHHS Statewide Clinical Lead Advisory Committee, which provided opportunities to develop collaborative partnerships with the New Hampshire Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and numerous state and regional pediatric healthcare providers. Within the New Hampshire Division of Public Health Services, Ms. Gettens worked closely with the WIC, Maternal and Child Health, and Early Support Services programs to create education standards for lead exposure prevention, blood lead level testing, and support for lead-exposed children. In 2024, Ms. Gettens was selected to serve as a Subject Matter Expert Mentor for the CDC’s Lead Detect Prize, an initiative to accelerate the development of innovative solutions to enhance the detection of low levels of lead exposure through blood tests administered at the point of care. The successful outreach strategies Ms. Gettens developed to increase pediatric blood lead level testing in New Hampshire were published in an article she co-authored, Changing a State’s Climate to Increase Blood Lead Level Testing Rates, in the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice (January/February 2019). As co-author of the recently released children’s board book Happy, Healthy, Lead-Free Me!, Ms. Gettens has built relationships with CDC-, EPA-, and HUD-funded lead exposure surveillance and prevention programs nationwide, well as state-level Chapters of the American Academy of Pediatrics and numerous maternal and child health partners -- as they all have become enthusiastic users of Happy, Healthy, Lead-Free Me! as an effective clinical adjunct and public health resources for lead exposure prevention and importance of testing guidance. Since transitioning to semi-retirement in December 2025, after over a decade of service with NH Division of Public Health’s Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program, she continues to be a national presence, speaking widely on pediatric lead exposure and testing, providing technical assistance consulting to public health and clinical partners on increasing testing rates, while advocating robustly for preventative health policies. Ms. Gettens is a graduate of Dartmouth College and earned a Master of Science in Child Development and Early Childhood Education from Wheelock College (now part of Boston University). She holds NH credentials as both a Professional Development Specialist and Infant and Toddler Development Specialist.