Macon native ready for focus as CDC ‘disease detective’

A zest for childhood mystery novels and a penchant for problem solving has thrust Julie Castles Self to a global front.

From pecking away at the keyboard well after midnight as a teen growing up in Macon, she is now focused on finding ways to fight back pandemics and pathogens that threaten us all.

Self can’t wait to attend her daughter’s career day at school.

When she was a child herself, she set in motion a path to take her way beyond her hometown.

“Julie’s always been very much a person of the world,” said her mother, Sherry Castles, a special education teacher at Rutland Middle School.

If the world is now Self’s oyster, it could be a challenging one.

The 34-year-old is a “disease detective” for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Her new role as an officer in the Epidemic Intelligence Service follows weeks of training with dozens of people from all over the country.

“You never know what outbreaks will happen, and I’m sure I will travel,” said Self, who holds a doctorate in nutrition and health services from Emory University. “I’m a detective, but I’m trying to figure out what bacteria or other pathogens or other little tiny bugs that make people sick.”

Self’s focus is on public health, while others on the team are doctors, veterinarians and those with doctorates in related fields.

Self won’t be spending all her days on the road, nor does she have a laboratory job, dressed head to toe in a protective suit.

“I also spend a lot of time at the computer analyzing data and seeing what we can do better,” she said.

Along with her childhood love for the “Encyclopedia Brown” book series chronicling the adventures of a boy detective, Self was drawn to science and problem solving.

Even at Union Elementary School, Self was wise beyond her years.

Castles had to caution her adult friends not to openly discuss mature topics in front of her little girl.

“She always had a high understanding of what was going on,” Castles said. “And she’s going to remember it just how you said it.”

By the time Self reached Stratford Academy, she was a proven hard worker with a brain so focused it was sometimes hard to shut down.

“At 3 and 4 o’clock in the morning, I’d hear the typing and I’d tell her you’re going to have to sleep a little,” Castles recalled.

The problems Self will be trying to solve now are those that keep people awake at night. The deadly Ebola virus is only one example.

Self’s concentration will be food-borne illness, but she can’t rule out a trip to Africa to battle one of the world’s biggest threats.

Now living in Decatur with her husband and three girls, ages 6, 2 and 9 months, Self is juggling family and career.

While studying for her doctorate, Self traveled to several countries. She learned she was pregnant with her second child while she was in Cambodia.

Her oldest daughter, Rosalyn, arrived the year Self got her master’s degree in public health at Emory.

Entering first grade, the youngster was already working on a DNA puzzle and could fully pronounce deoxyribonucleic acid.

On little Rosalyn’s first day, the girl even asked her teacher if she could learn more about DNA.

Rosalyn’s mother is careful, though, about how she explains her new job to her daughters.

“I’ve talked about how I might have to travel a bit to help people stay healthy,” Self said.

While embarking on the new role, Self gave her mom and dad, Terry, a copy of “Beating Back the Devil,” a book detailing the role of the CDC’s disease detectives on the front lines of global health catastrophes.

It was not an easy read for Self’s mother.

“I’m a worrier. ... But I have to leave it in the Lord’s hands because I’ve never had control over her and her life,” Castles said. “Even her brothers know it’s best just to watch her and support her and pray for her a little because it’s not good to get in her way.”

But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t enjoy herself.

“Whoever is working with her, they’re going to have fun with her,” Castles said.

For the longest time, Self thought she wanted to be a doctor.

When it came time to take the Medical College Admission Test while studying biology at Asbury College, now a university in Kentucky, she changed her mind.

“I wanted to focus on preventing disease, not treating people when they are sick.”

Serving others was an important lesson she learned early on, she said.

After the two-year fellowship in EIS, she hopes to stay on with the CDC and continue her work.

“I think the general public doesn’t always understand what public health does and what role we play in people’s lives every day because you don’t hear about it until something is going on,” she said.

Castles may be wary of where her daughter is headed, but she is certain Self will give it her all to save others’ lives.

“It’s not a selfish thing,” Castles said. “It’s about what she needs to accomplish and it’s for the betterment of everybody else. She’s always looking at the bigger picture.”

To contact writer Liz Fabian, call 744-4303.

This story was originally published September 6, 2015 at 9:03 PM with the headline "Macon native ready for focus as CDC ‘disease detective’ ."