March 3, 2025
Meet Kacy Brobst
We collectively work to enhance the health and well-being of youth by building strong partnerships with educators, public health professionals, government agencies, and community leaders. One of our many partners is Kacy Brobst, Public Health Educator for Fishers Health Department in Indiana.
Kacy, who has held her position for about a year and a half, has already touched the lives of over 4,300 students. She notes, “I am so lucky that the administration of a large, local public school district saw the value in this program and wants me to teach it to so many students. I am also teaching it at a few of the private schools in the area as well, which is great!”
Located just north of Indianapolis in Hamilton County, one of the healthiest counties in the state, Fishers is an affluent suburban community that is becoming increasingly diverse. As the community continues to grow, the Health Department is actively supporting individuals and families from a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds including lower-income households, immigrants, and multi-language learners.
Before joining Fishers Health Department, Kacy taught high school science, specifically Biology and Project Lead the Way Biomedical Science, for 11 years. Kacy’s extensive classroom experience has greatly contributed to the success of her health initiatives.
Learn more about Kacy, her efforts, and her community’s unique approach to keep youth healthy and nicotine free.
In Kacy’s Words…
Education has changed greatly in the last 12, almost 13, years that I have spent inside classrooms. While access to devices, the internet, and social media have created many impactful opportunities in education, they have also provided so much misinformation that needs to be addressed, especially around health. I find that many students believe information about e-cigarettes that is not true simply because they saw something online that said otherwise. I believe that prevention education using real-world data and facts from trusted, reliable sources delivered by individuals who know how to explain this message to all students is the best thing we can do for our students right now.
How Kacy tailors CATCH My Breath to meet the unique needs of her community
Right now, I teach CATCH My Breath in 6, 7, and 8th grade, and in high school health and wellness classes in both public and private schools in Fishers. I teach the curriculum about e-cigarettes in 6, 7, and 8th grade, and at the high school level, and I just started to add the cannabis add-on lesson to the 7th and 8th grade curriculum as well. I like to get the students really involved with the lessons, so I ask the students questions and have them guess some of the answers. For example, the students love to make predictions about how many middle school and high school students used e-cigarettes in the last 30 days and they are often shocked by what the data really says!
Since becoming a trainer and teacher of CATCH My Breath in July 2023, I have taught almost 4,400 students (my official number is 4,397). I believe that a few of the school staff at the local public schools are certified trainers, but I am the main trainer/teacher of CATCH My Breath in our community.
Our public school system is encouraging the teachers to have me in every 6, 7, and 8th grade class during the 2024-2025 school year, which means I should see between 4,000 and 5,000 students this year, if not more. This is all part of their idea to have a guaranteed health education lesson for every grade K-8 and then also lessons at the high school level in various classes (health/wellness, science, psychology, etc.). It is a unique program to educate and empower students from a young age and teach them about public health.
Kacy’s Success
The biggest success stories I have would be when students come up to me after the program and ask if I can give them a resource card I made (business cards with the phone numbers of different texting and phone hotlines). They could be for a friend, a loved one, or for themselves, but they are interested in having those resources on hand when they or that loved one are ready to quit.
To join the movement in empowering students to live vape-free, click the buttons below to learn more. CATCH My Breath is free for educators, public health professionals, and community leaders with resources available in English and Spanish for parents as well.
EN 
ES 
ES_CO 
SW 
HI