For 50 years, Lander University nursing alumna Jane Dean ’74 has transformed lives through her work at the Greenwood Genetic Center (GGC), blending compassionate care with tireless education.
As a nurse and long-time public health advocate, Dean has spent decades guiding families through the complexities of birth defects while championing one of the most powerful preventive measures in maternal health: the use of folic acid to reduce the risk of neural tube defects.
Her leadership and commitment to education have helped generations of mothers make informed decisions – and in doing so, has left an indelible mark on the health of countless children and families.
Dean admits that she never imagined that her first day on the job in December of 1975 at GGC would become a 50-year career. “I love children and was excited to try something new. I loved being in the pediatric practice that we had when I first came,” she said. “My goal changed because of the families I was privileged to meet, the children who stole my heart and the doctor I had the honor of working for, Dr. Roger Stevenson, one of the center’s co-founders. Honestly, I never thought of leaving.”
Preventing Neural Tube Defects
Dean began her career at GGC, which opened in late 1974, as a nurse for the pediatric practice, Greenwood Children’s Clinic. At the time, she worked evenings at GGC while also working at Self Memorial Hospital. As her job evolved, Dean became the genetic nurse to assist Stevenson with his clinical visits at GGC and other clinics held beyond Greenwood.
In 1992, Dean was among the GGC staff who launched the South Carolina Neural Tube Defects (NTDs) program, now known as South Carolina Birth Defects Program. The initiative was started at GGC, in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to lower the rate of NTDs, which are serious birth defects to the brain, spine and spinal cord. The risk for these defects, caused by the failure of the neural tube to close during the first month of pregnancy, can be reduced by taking folic acid – a preventive measure recommended in 1991.
“When we began this program in 1992, our rate in South Carolina was twice the national average, the worst rate in the nation. Two in every 1,000 babies were being affected by birth defects of the brain and spine,” Dean said.
Today, the rate has dropped significantly because women are taking folic acid before they try to get pregnant. “That is the key because these defects happen the first 28 days after conception,” she said. “We have reduced our rates in South Carolina by more than 60 percent.”
Dean also has helped educate mothers, who already have had a child with a neural tube defect, on the importance of folic acid. “The recurrence rate is ‘zero’ in women who have had one child with a neural tube defect when they take four milligrams of folic acid prior to their next pregnancy,” she said. “They have all had a healthy baby.”
A Career of Service
At the beginning, the NTD program was to last only five years. “But because of our success in lowering the numbers of neural tube defects in South Carolina, it continues,” Dean said.
As the program increased in visibility, Dean began to help educate high school and college students, brides at wedding fairs and women at other community events on the importance of folic acid to prevent birth defects. “I went from being a pediatric nurse to a research nurse doing lectures. When I finished Lander’s nursing program, I would have never thought I would be doing that,” she said.
In fact, “genetics was not taught or really known a lot about when I attended Lander. When we were studying obstetrics and gynecology, we looked at many different defects that children might have,” she said. “But when it came to NTDs, we did not spend much time on them because we were told ‘you will never see children born with this. It is very rare.’”
However, in her first week of duty as a labor and delivery nurse, a baby was born with spina bifida, a neural tube defect that can cause paralysis among other health problems. “Of course, I had to pull my books out and study up on this ‘rare condition.’ The genetic education I received was strengthened through the Greenwood Genetic Center and my boss and mentor Dr. Stevenson,” Dean said.
A Lasting Impact
Her work has led Dean to travel to meetings where she’s met renowned geneticists from all over the world. “I learned so many things from them and from our physicians here at GGC,” she said. “To be a part of the success of the Greenwood Genetic Center is an honor.”
However, the most gratifying part of her job has been “to be a part of making a difference in women’s lives in South Carolina and ensuring that their risk of having a baby affected with an NTD is reduced by doing something so simple as taking four milligrams of folic acid at least three months before they try to get pregnant,” Dean said. “Helping women have healthy babies – that is my gratification.”