Amid the increasing fear and confusion of the coronavirus pandemic, a voice of knowledge reassures Ohioans every day.

At daily live-streamed press briefings, Dr. Amy Acton follows Gov. Mike DeWine’s announcement of orders and restrictions with calm explanations of outbreaks and community spread.

Speaking candidly but calmly, the director of the Ohio Department of Health translates complex medical theory to plain English, then immediately lets her humanity shine through.

“We all, myself included, need to learn to live through something we’ve never dealt with before,” she said at Thursday’s briefing.

She later added a shout-out to schoolchildren in Bexley, where she lives with her husband, Eric, a middle-school teacher.

In a crisis, Acton, 54, is serving as equal parts scientist and psychiatrist, pulling off the ability to be both wonky and relatable. And people are taking notice, calling Acton a “public health rock star” and more.

Rep. Emilia Sykes, minority leader of the Ohio House, tweeted, “Watching this press conference & it’s clear that @DrAmyActon is the real MVP of Ohio’s coronavirus response. She’s explaining public health concepts while making it easy to understand why these interventions are necessary. She deserves ALL the credit. #LadyLeadership”

Watching this press conference & it’s clear that @DrAmyActon is the real MVP of Ohio’s coronavirus response.



She’s explaining public health concepts while making it easy to understand why these interventions are necessary. She deserves ALL the credit. #LadyLeadership 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 pic.twitter.com/77ThlRNqAj

— Emilia Sykes (@EmiliaSykesOH) March 11, 2020

Those who know Acton are not surprised. They describe a woman who overcame childhood hardship to become a passionate proponent of helping both her co-workers and the people she serves.

“The thing I appreciate about her is she speaks the truth,” said Melissa Sever, the health department’s chief of public health systems and innovation. “She’ll often say, ‘I’m not a politician.’ I think there is a realness and genuineness that comes from her.”

Douglas Kridler, president and CEO of the Columbus Foundation, where Acton worked before taking the health department job in 2019, called her, “a unique combination of grit and grace.”

Some of the grit undoubtedly comes from her upbringing in Youngstown.

Sever said Acton has spoken about coming from a broken family and living in 18 different places in a 12-year period, including in a tent when she was homeless.

“She had to learn to take care of herself and her brother and find her own way,” Sever said. “She has a resilience that I see in her every day.”

Acton heard about a medical school attached to Youngstown State University and decided to pursue medicine.

She earned a medical degree from what at the time was called the Northeastern Ohio University College of Medicine. She served residencies in New York City and at Nationwide Children’s Hospitals and earned a master’s degree in public health from Ohio State University.

She later returned to Ohio State as an associate professor of public health, where she earned the College of Public Health’s “Excellence in Teaching Award” for the 2014-15 academic year.

“She was incredibly organized and detail-oriented,” said Amy Ferketich, a professor in OSU’s College of Public Health who worked with Acton. “She also cared a lot about her students. The students loved her and were upset when she left OSU.”

Ferketich said Acton was instrumental in starting the ENCompass (Empowering Neighborhoods of Columbus) program at OSU, where students serve at low-income clinics, perform medical screenings and help connect people to social services.

That compassion for the less fortunate continued in her role as a community research and grants management officer for the Columbus Foundation.

Kridler said Acton spearheaded a Critical Need Alert to help combat youth homelessness, an effort that in 44 days raised $2.4 million, exceeding its goal of $1.5 million.

That track record helped lead DeWine to call on Acton, whom he made his final Cabinet appointment in February 2019. At $230,000, she also is the highest paid.

Under former Gov. John Kasich, the state’s two health department directors were a health lawyer and the former executive director of the Ohio Turnpike Commission.

“I did feel public health had been neglected in Ohio for too long,” DeWine said Friday. “She has an expertise and passion, someone who is able to communicate to the people of Ohio.”

Acton, who has six grown children with her husband, has faced a lot in just over a year: An outbreak of Legionnaire’s Disease at Mount Carmel Hospital in Grove City, an outcry over vaping and e-cigarette use, and now COVID-19.

“She’s competent and smart, but she’s not arrogant,” Ferketich said. “She will be quick to say what she doesn’t know, so when she speaks, you feel confident that this is something she believes in, she’s researched and she knows.”

Sever said in recent weeks, as the crisis has mushroomed and the pressure on Acton and her more than 1,110 employees has grown, she has appreciated Acton’s ability to think of others.

“She comes back after working all day shoulder-to-shoulder with the governor, making policy decisions at the highest level and she asks, ‘How are you all doing?’” Sever said.

Kridler praised Acton’s ability to listen to people, to connect to them and try to be helpful.

“I think she’s the right person at the right place at the right time,” he said. “And we can all take comfort that she is where she is.”

Dispatch reporter Randy Ludlow contributed to this story