The NCAA’s Final Four weekend is here, which means Richmonders get to partake in some of our favorite things: meeting up with friends at local bars and restaurants to watch excellent basketball and reminiscing about VCU’s own Final Four run in 2011. RHHD Environmental Health Specialist Ed Nixon has a lot of experience with both.
A member of that 2010-2011 VCU Men’s Basketball team, Ed found his way into both basketball and public health through hard work and a lot of serendipity. As an eight-year-old in Florida, he was waiting for him mom to pick him up when a coach approached him about playing basketball, a game he’d never heard of before. “This guy—who ended up being my coach—really changed my life, he took me under his wing and taught me everything about basketball,” Ed says. “To see how all these things had to fall into place for that one thing to happen is kind of eerie. You gotta be at the right place at the right time or you miss your blessing.”
Ed also ended up at VCU by chance—as a star player in Florida, he was heavily recruited by universities across the country. But he knew and played against Lance Kearse and Joey Rodriguez for a long time, and both were headed to VCU. “My mom was really pushing me to get out of Florida and try something new. The world is your playground, she always says.”
Ed’s time at VCU took him to the Final Four, the ESPYs—where the Rams won “Best Upset”—and ultimately, to professional basketball in Macedonia. “All the things I’ve learned and the person I’ve become are centered around basketball,” he says. “I come from very humble beginnings, and I’ve been all across the world. The friends I’ve made playing basketball are still the friends I have to this day.” Ed describes his former teammates as a “brotherhood” that stays connected even when they aren’t all in Richmond.
It’s that investment in relationships and a commitment to Richmond that makes Ed such an effective Environmental Health Specialist. After realizing he was a “homebody” and returning to Richmond from Macedonia, he worked in construction and safety management before joining RHHD’s food inspection team.
“I love educating operators on the proper way to handle stuff. It’s a good feeling to have a place that has had violations get completely compliant.” Ed says work like this is especially important on big weekends like March Madness: “Everybody wants to head out and catch the game. Especially when our teams are in the Final Four, Virginians like to come out and support. What I do is make sure that these restaurants are taking care of business and protecting people the way they ought to, whether that’s cooking the food the proper way, cold holding or hot holding the proper way, making sure employees are washing their hands, just doing good retail practices to keep the public safe.”
A lot of the skills Ed built on the court come in handy during his work: “When you’re talking about a team aspect, no matter how much talent you have, and this goes for the workplace as well, the chemistry amongst your team truly matters.” He also sees a similarity between his role on the Rams—as a defensive powerhouse along the perimeter—and the less visible work of the EHS team. “Coming to VCU, I had to sacrifice myself and part of my game to be what the team needed in order for us to win. Especially for defenders, you have a role that doesn’t always get the appreciation. And that compares to Environmental Health—we don’t get the appreciation we deserve simply because you don’t see it, it’s not at the frontal lobe. You see police officers driving around and you think, “okay, how fast am I going.” As an inspector, we go in and we have tough conversation, it’s a different environment inside of these kitchens and we don’t always get the credit, but it’s for the betterment of the people, of the team.”
This weekend, Ed’s looking forward to being a fan as he watches both the men’s and women’s Final Four games and hopes for the day VCU returns to the Big Dance: “I’m having a guys’ day. We’re gonna shoot some hoops, put some burgers on the grill and then go to a bar to watch the championship.” And at the bar, Ed will be a fan both of the game and of the hard work going on behind the scenes to make sure food and drinks stay safe for the crowds!
Keep up with Ed during the regular season as he covers VCU Basketball for Ram Nation. And if March Madness has you wanting to get off the couch and get moving, there are plenty of public courts around town! Ed says that Richmond is filled with former VCU players working to give back through great basketball programming, like Lionel Bacon with his free clinics for kids, and Jesse Pellot-Rosa and Rob Brandenburg, who run J&R Basketball Camp.
