Support Stories

Brenau alumna Brittany White is a medical social worker at Emory University who educates and assists patients and their families with care coordination, care progression and discharge planning.

Christy Smith is a master’s in clinical counseling psychology student at Brenau and a quarantine public health advisor for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Melanie Covert, assistant professor of psychology in Brenau’s Lynn J. Darby School of Psychology and Adolescent Counseling, volunteers as a mental health professional staffing the 24/7 free Georgia COVID-19 Emotional Support Line at 866-399-8938.

Jennifer Langston, a senior psychology major in Brenau’s Lynn J. Darby School of Psychology and Adolescent Counseling, serves as the executive director of Reboot Jackson, a community-based organization in Georgia that provides an array of support to people including military personnel seeking recovery from mental health and substance use disorders.

Georgia Army National Guard Spc. Markeyvia Talley is a sophomore marketing major working to assist those affected by COVID-19. Talley, along with 13 others, goes into buildings such as nursing homes and residences to decontaminate everything inside, including bedrooms.

Georgia Army National Guard Sgt. Quantez Harper is a junior interior design major who was deployed to Kosovo in 2011 and Afghanistan in 2014 and 2019. When Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp activated medical personnel to assist at Albany’s Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, a COVID-19 hotspot, Harper says he felt compelled to go.

Assistant Professor Amy Malcom, family nurse practitioner program coordinator in Brenau’s Mary Inez Grindle School of Nursing, is herself a family nurse practitioner. She works in a busy rural practice in Madison, Georgia, that has seen some positive COVID-19 cases.

Tenkela Williams is part of a group of students in the Mary Inez Grindle School of Nursing working with Hope Ripples, a nonprofit organization that provides help for those affected by COVID-19 — particularly patients who have been sent home and are quarantined.

Carysa Mattlin, assistant professor in Mary Inez Grindle School of Nursing, works as a labor and delivery nurse at an Atlanta area hospital. She never knows what she’s going to walk into when she goes to work. “These women may have COVID-19 and be asymptomatic, as may their spouses. We cannot maintain a 6-foot distance …

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