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The Art of Adaptation

Brandon Johnson plans to become a family nurse-midwife. His son Rigby was born
last year. 

Brandon Johnson, Fuld Fellow

Computer scientist. Returned Peace Corps volunteer. Father. Nurse-in-training.

Brandon Johnson 12N 14MN is only the second male in Emory history studying to become a family nurse-midwife. And while most nursing students come from an allied field, Johnson hails from a world of computers and web programming.

Johnson and his wife Rachel were serving with the Peace Corps in South Africa when he realized his practical computer training wasn’t so useful to his new neighbors. “I didn’t feel like I was meeting the primary needs of the community,” he says. But the village felt like home, a place he wanted to come back to when his volunteer service was over.

After returning to the states and taking a job as a web developer, “I sat down and re-evaluated my life and where I wanted to go,” Johnson says. “The health care field just felt right. The model of nursing fit my personality and personal convictions when it comes to health and medical issues.”

After he was accepted at Emory, Johnson’s wife became pregnant, and he began learning firsthand about birth and the job of a midwife. Last December, their son Rigby was born. A few weeks later, Johnson began his first maternity rotation.

“The thought of being in the presence of women in labor was a lot more comfortable after going through the experience with my wife,” he says. He also realized that midwifery, in addition to the broad skill set of a family nurse practitioner, would serve him and his community much better than computers had.

Johnson holds a Fuld Fellowship, which provides him the flexibility to complete his BSN and MSN studies without going into debt. Supported by the Helene Fuld Health Trust, fellowships cover the cost of tuition for second-career nursing students with a desire to serve vulnerable populations.

“What it means to us more than anything is the opportunity to go back to Africa and be directly involved in the work we want to do sooner rather than later,” he says. “That’s a real blessing for us.”

While Johnson is preparing to become a family nurse practitioner and certified nurse-midwife, he’s also making sure his son will be ready for the life in front of them. This winter, the family will head back to their South African village for New Year’s.

“Rigby probably won’t remember much of it,” Johnson says. “But it’s important for us to start exposing him to the flexibility of traveling and adapting to new environments.”—Dana Goldman