A Legacy of Service: Julie Petix’s Leadership of the New Jersey Medical Reserve Corps

For more than four decades, Julie Petix has helped strengthen public health and emergency preparedness across New Jersey by bringing experience that spans laboratory science, environmental and occupational health, emergency planning, exercise development, workforce training, and volunteer coordination.

For more than 13 years of her career, Petix brought that expertise to the Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) by serving as New Jersey’s MRC State Coordinator and helping to build a network of registered, trained, and exercised volunteers ready to support their communities before, during, and after disasters.

A New Jersey native, Petix began her career with the New Jersey Department of Health in 1983 and worked in the Public Health and Environmental Laboratories performing bacteriology diagnostic services. Over the years, she contributed to programs across environmental and occupational health, asbestos control, childhood lead poisoning prevention, environmental justice, hazardous waste, and emergency preparedness. Her work also included coordinating the Department’s Radiation Emergency Response Plan and providing training and technical assistance to partners developing emergency exercises.

In May 2013, Petix took on the role of New Jersey’s MRC State Coordinator which allowed her to bring together her extensive public health experience with her longstanding commitment to volunteer service.

A Lifelong Commitment to Service 

Long before she led New Jersey's MRC network, volunteering was already part of Petix’s life. Since her teenage years, she had volunteered with animal shelters, food pantries, community cleanups, environmental committees, and a watershed organization. When the New Jersey Department of Health encouraged employees to join the MRC, she saw an opportunity that aligned naturally with that history of service. She applied, was accepted, and eventually went on to lead the statewide program.

Throughout her tenure, Petix worked closely with MRC Unit Coordinators and volunteers across New Jersey. Petix describes MRC volunteers as people committed to “service before self,” and who are individuals willing to step forward when their neighbors need them most by “taking ownership of their communities and bringing tremendous energy and ingenuity to their service.” That commitment can be seen in emergencies large and small.

For example, when flooding forced the evacuation of a long-term care and rehabilitation facility in southern New Jersey, approximately 40 residents had to leave without the opportunity to gather their belongings. Within an hour of an emergency request, three MRC volunteers responded. At the receiving facility, they helped residents get settled, escorted them to restrooms, distributed beverages and snacks, and provided comfort and reassurance during a difficult transition.

For Petix, the response exemplified the purpose and mission of the MRC: trained volunteers ready to meet the needs of their communities and neighbors when they are called upon.

Building Capabilities to Serve the Whole Community 

Petix’s leadership has also focused on preparing volunteers to meet the needs of the whole community. Since 2018, the New Jersey MRC has partnered with the American Red Cross to provide Care Assistant Fundamentals training to its volunteers. Through online and hands-on training, volunteers learn essential caregiving and support skills, including mobility assistance, safe lifting and transfer techniques, feeding assistance, support for individuals with visual impairments, use of gait belts, and de-escalation strategies. Volunteers who successfully complete the training receive American Red Cross certification.  

These capabilities are important when MRC volunteers serve in emergency shelters to which community members may arrive with a wide range of disabilities and access and functional needs. The New Jersey MRC also works closely with the Access and Functional Needs Planner for the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management to strengthen its ability to support community members.

Strengthening the MRC Beyond the Response

For Petix, building a strong MRC network isn't only about what happens when disaster strikes. Maintaining visibility and demonstrating the value of volunteers during what she calls “blue sky” days has been another important part of the work.

One of the challenges is making sure the story of MRC service is captured after a deployment rather than immediately moving on to the next activity. Documenting emergency and non-emergency activities helps demonstrate the reach and economic value of volunteer service while providing a record of what MRC units do to contribute to their communities.

Petix also helped advance investments in the infrastructure supporting New Jersey's volunteer network. Through the 2023 MRC-STTRONG Cooperative Agreement, the New Jersey Department of Health was able to upgrade its volunteer management system, including New Jersey’s Emergency System for Advance Registration of Volunteer Health Professionals (ESAR-VHP) platform. 

A Continued Legacy 

After more than a decade as New Jersey MRC State Coordinator, Petix has retired from her role, leaving behind a record shaped not by any single response, but by years of strengthening the people, partnerships, training, and systems that help communities prepare for emergencies. Her connection to the MRC, however, continues.

Petix hopes to serve as an MRC volunteer in retirement, returning, in many ways, to where her MRC journey began. From decades of public health service to more than 13 years strengthening the New Jersey MRC network, Petix’s career demonstrates the value of expertise paired with a commitment to service. The volunteers she helped prepare, the partnerships she helped strengthen, and the systems she helped improve will continue supporting New Jersey communities long after her tenure as State Coordinator.