Today we’d like to introduce you to Nancy Ejuma.
Hi Nancy, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I grew up with an international lens, shaped by a family committed to global service and years of moving across cultures and continents. Learning to navigate different systems early on drew me toward public health, not as a clinician, but as someone focused on the systems behind care. Then and now, I believe the strength of public health systems determines how far the safety net reaches and how well it holds for the people who need it most.
That conviction led me to the University of Pennsylvania, Yale (MBA in Healthcare Administration), and The Chicago School, where I earned my doctorate in Organizational and Systems Psychology. Over nearly two decades, I have led public health programs and operations across the U.S., managing immunization programs in Washington, D.C. and Texas, directing statewide operations at the Texas Department of State Health Services, and leading technology transformations that modernized how public health data is collected and used.
In 2022, I founded Seagan, Inc. around one core idea: Bringing Better Business to Public Health. I had seen mission-driven organizations held back by outdated systems and quiet operational inefficiencies that limit community impact. I also knew better solutions existed because I had watched them work in other states and other countries. Too often, those innovations remain invisible to the organizations that need them most.
That insight became Seagan’s foundation. We combine global public health IT market research with hands-on strategic consulting, helping organizations learn from proven successes worldwide and build the internal capacity to sustain improvements long after our engagement ends.
Today, I am on a temporary assignment in Montréal focused on content development, brand building, and expanding Seagan’s international reach as we invest in the research that will define our next chapter. Austin remains our home base, and I am proud to be part of a community of entrepreneurs who believe business can be a genuine force for good. For me, that belief has never been abstract. It is the work I was built for.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Smooth roads make for boring stories, and mine has been anything but boring.
Building a consulting firm from the ground up while also doing the deep, specialized work is a constant balancing act. In Seagan’s early days, I was the researcher, the strategist, the business developer, and the administrator all at once. The hardest part was building systems and processes that could scale without compromising the quality of the work. That required a level of discipline and patience I had to develop intentionally.
The shift from senior leader inside large public health institutions to entrepreneur was also a major adjustment. In government, credibility is often conferred by your title and the institution behind you. As a founder, you earn trust differently, through your ideas, your relationships, and consistent delivery. Learning that new version of authority, and getting comfortable with it, was a real growth curve.
Also, launching a global market research practice is genuinely hard. It means finding the right international partners, building methodologies that hold up across very different health systems and regulatory environments, and making the case for global intelligence when clients are under intense local pressure. That’s a long cycle, and it demands persistence and clarity of vision.
What has kept me grounded through all of it is an unshakable belief in the mission. When the work is connected to something larger than yourself, obstacles feel less like roadblocks and more like part of the path.
We’ve been impressed with Seagan, Inc., but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Seagan, Inc. exists at a very specific intersection: the place where rigorous global market research meets on-the-ground public health consulting. Most consulting firms working in public health either focus on domestic operations or offer broad, generalist advisory services. Seagan does something different. We specialize in global public health IT market research, meaning we systematically study how health information systems, immunization registries, disease surveillance platforms, and related technologies are being designed and deployed around the world. We then translate those findings into actionable intelligence that helps our clients make smarter, faster, more informed decisions about their own systems and investments.
On the consulting side, we work with public health agencies, nonprofits, and health-focused organizations on strategy, operations, and technology transformation. What sets us apart is that our recommendations are never pulled from a generic playbook. They are grounded in real evidence of what is actually working, in comparable contexts, in other parts of the world. That global perspective is a genuine differentiator.
We are also deeply committed to knowledge transfer. We do not build dependency. Every engagement is designed to leave our clients more capable and more self-sufficient than when we found them. That philosophy is baked into how we scope work, how we communicate findings, and how we measure success.
What I am most proud of, brand-wise, is that Seagan has become synonymous with rigor and trust. In a field where the stakes are high and the margin for error is low, our clients know they are getting analysis and guidance they can stand behind. That reputation has been built one engagement at a time, and it is not something we take lightly.
At its core, Seagan exists because public health organizations deserve the same quality of strategic intelligence and operational support that the private sector takes for granted. Better business practices lead to stronger public health outcomes. That is not just our tagline. It is our north star.
What does success mean to you?
Success, for me, has always been defined at two levels: the organization and the human.
At the organizational level, success means building a firm that is financially sustainable, intellectually rigorous, and genuinely useful to the clients we serve. Seagan is not in the business of producing reports that sit on shelves. Success looks like a public health agency making a smarter technology investment because of our research, or a program reaching more people because we helped strengthen the operational infrastructure behind it. Measurable, real-world impact is the standard I hold us to.
At the human level, success is quieter but more important. It means a parent in an underserved community can get a child vaccinated because the system designed to reach them actually worked. It means that when an outbreak happens, the public health infrastructure is strong enough to respond quickly and effectively.
For Seagan specifically, I will consider this chapter successful if we help close the global knowledge gap in public health IT, if we make it easier for organizations to learn from each other across borders, and if we leave every client more capable than we found them.
Personally, success means continuing to grow, staying curious, and building something that outlasts me. I want Seagan to become an enduring, trusted resource for the public health community long after my direct contribution ends.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.seaganinc.com
