Mountain Hawk Heroes: TFXC Alum Megan Hetzel

Every Wednesday, Lehigh Athletics, Lehigh Valley Health Network and Coordinated Health is proud to recognize a Mountain Hawk Hero - someone associated with Lehigh Athletics who is making a difference in the medical field. We continue today with track and field/cross country alum Megan Hetzel '12.

Previous Mountain Hawk Heroes
July 22: Lexi Martins (Women's Basketball Alum)
July 15: Nii Daako-Darko (Track and Field/Cross Country Alum)
July 8: Ali Linsk Butash (Softball Alum)
July 1: Kimberly Scotto-Wetzel & Jonathan Wetzel (Track and Field/Cross Country Alums)
June 24: Robert Bonow (Men's Basketball Alum)
June 17: Morgan Decker (Softball Alum)
June 10: Jim Guzzo (Former Quarterback)
June 3: Amina Affini (Women's Basketball Alum)
May 27: Natalie Krane (Women's Soccer Alum)
May 20: Tricia Klein (Women's Golf Assistant Coach)

By: Justin Lafleur, Lehigh Sports Communications

Former Lehigh cross country/track and field student-athlete Megan Hetzel '12 is used to marathons in more ways than one.

In terms of running, Hetzel has completed more than 10 marathons in her life. Meanwhile, her career as a registered nurse has certainly brought its fair share of marathon-like days.

Hetzel's entire journey has proven to be a marathon as well.

Let's learn how…

The Road To A Nurse
Today, Hetzel is an RN (registered nurse) at an acute rehab facility, Vibra Rehabilitation Hospital of Denver. She's worked there for around a year and a half, marking her first full-time position out of nursing school.

"Typically, we take patients who are post-stroke or major surgery, trying to get stronger and ideally get back to living at home," she said. "We tend to have a pretty healthy group of patients, all things considered. But since the pandemic started, we've gotten patients following prolonged hospitalization because of COVID-19."

Nursing school was the last thing on Hetzel's mind when she graduated Lehigh in 2012 as a journalism and graphic design major, landing a job at Runner's World magazine.

"I totally remember Megan sitting in my office on her recruiting visit talking about studying journalism," said Debbie Utesch, Lehigh's head women's cross country coach and assistant track and field coach. "I told her about Rodale Press (Runner's World) being right down the road in Emmaus. She came to Lehigh and pursued an internship with Rodale. Interestingly, Megan was able to write a small feature on her Lehigh men's teammate Evans Kosgei and have it published in Runner's World while she was still a student-athlete.
Megan Hetzel

"I saw Megan as a go-getter. She had her mind set on getting that position with Runner's World, so she sought out every lead and connection until she got the job."

Hetzel ended up working there for almost five years.

"I was a reporter, managed the social media for a bit, worked on parts of the print magazine and wrote online stories," said Hetzel. "I did a little bit of everything. I've been a serious runner for most of my life, so it was a dream-job scenario."

Around the time Hetzel was working at Runner's World was when journalism became a pretty unstable industry for a number of reasons, including the rise of digital platforms and social media. Fortunately for Megan, a separate idea was already creeping into her mind.

"My now ex-boyfriend was a nurse," said Hetzel. "He would come home from work and tell me about his day. Over the course of a year or two, I developed an interest in what he was talking about.

"Somehow, over the course of a few months, it went from a joke to a serious discussion about me switching careers. I signed up for (RN) prerequisites at Lehigh Carbon Community College, was about to start online classes and then got laid off at Runner's World. The decision was essentially made for me."

Since Runner's World was based in the Lehigh Valley at the time, Hetzel didn't have to travel far for DeSales' accelerated 15-month program for second-degree students.

"After a year of prereqs, I started at DeSales," she said. "I took my clinicals and realized that I really enjoy working with patients. I was intrigued by all the disease processes. It was great to interact with people and not be sitting behind a desk all day."

Meant To Be?
What was once a leap of faith turned into a sign that everything happens for a reason.

"At the time, it was entirely jarring to get laid off from Runner's World," said Hetzel. "But it was such a relief to already be thinking about changing careers. It ended up working out even better because I could take my prereqs faster."

Hetzel has quickly worked her way into a rewarding career. After graduating DeSales in 2018, her first job took her to Colorado.

"My family lives in Texas, so I'm quite a bit closer to home," said Hetzel. "It's now a 10-hour drive to visit them instead of a whole day's worth of traveling."

Today, Hetzel gets to see her biological family more often. She's also developed a second family at her hospital (coworkers and patients). Hetzel has been able to use some of her greatest traits, her energy and positivity, to help brighten the days of patients suffering through some of the toughest days of their lives.

"I tend to be a pretty perky person," she said. "I like to have fun and my mom has always described me as someone who likes to help people, which I didn't fully realize about myself until I got older.

"In nursing, you have an opportunity to help bring someone out of the situation that they're in."

Part Of Patient Recovery
Hetzel is an important part of patient recovery.

"I work alongside the therapists to encourage my patients," said Hetzel. "As nurses, we tend to want to help our patients, because we like to help, but we want our patients to do as much as they can on their own.

"In addition to giving them medications and making sure they're doing okay, many of our patients have multiple comorbidities," she continued "For example, they may have had a stroke, but they're also diabetic."

Therapists work with patients for multiple hours per day, trying to get them back to doing daily tasks like cooking, showering and brushing their teeth.

"Patients may be with us a few weeks and they leave being able to walk out of the building with a walker," said Hetzel.

Rehab facilities can bring incredible transformations in a short period of time. The COVID-19 pandemic has also demanded plenty of transformations in practically every walk of medicine.

It's no different for Hetzel.

"Because of COVID, we've been accepting sicker patients to take the load off other hospitals," she said. "We've had folks who require more nursing care versus rehab."

Hetzel and her colleagues are taking the new challenges in stride. No known COVID-19 patients are admitted to the facility, but Hetzel needs to be ready.

"We're learning, day-by-day, that we can't control everything," she said. "The second someone spikes a fever, or shows any signs of being sicker for a reason other than why they're there, we put out precautions and test right away.

"We're walking this fine line between allowing our patients to have visitors, but we also want to think about the health and safety of the staff and patients already there," Hetzel continued. "On a day-to-day basis, we're doing standard precautions like wearing a regular surgical mask the entire shift."

Determination Demanded
Hetzel's role demands a toughness and determination, which she learned at Lehigh and has carried forward.

"As a runner, you're a three-season sport," she said. "We never stopped or had a semester when we weren't competing. At Lehigh, I was forced to really bust my butt every day to make sure I got my classwork done while also juggling practices, meets and traveling."

Hetzel's Lehigh experience helped prepare her for the accelerated program at DeSales.

"Lehigh helped me manage the chaos that was nursing school," she said. "Nursing school is typically a four-year program, so trying to get it done in 15 months was challenging, but nothing compared to what it was like at Lehigh."

Hetzel has run marathons for a while now, but as a registered nurse, she was introduced to a different type of marathon.

"Some days fly by," she said. "But some days, for lack of a better word, feel like a marathon. Running and my background of powering through challenging situations has mentally helped me get through these days."
Megan Hetzel

The hospital has seven patients for every nurse, which can lead to plenty of challenging situations.

"There was a day when one of my patients spiked a fever and had gotten septic the day before from a surgical wound," said Hetzel. "He was fairly unstable, more unstable than I'm used to having on my floor.

"At the same time, I had a group of patients who were desperate for pain meds. You feel bad because you want to help them and relieve their pain, but you're also trying to manage someone who's in a more precarious situation. It's trying to prioritize who needs what most immediately and not losing your cool."

Hetzel has plenty of experiences to draw back on that have demanded mental toughness and keeping her cool. Even though they may not seem related on the surface, the experiences are quite similar in the mindset needed to succeed.

"Through running, I've built up a mental endurance to manage tough situations for a long time," she said. "I've completed more than 10 marathons. Mentally, it's a hard effort for 3+ hours. In a weird way, that translates into nursing. You have days when you push yourself through for 12 hours.

"It's like with a marathon, pushing through 26.2 miles," Hetzel continued. "You'll get there."

Hetzel Has Arrived
Hetzel has certainly "gotten there." She has arrived at a rewarding career. If she was focused on her career progression being a sprint, who knows where she'd be today. But she didn't get discouraged when she had to change course.

Instead, Hetzel kept putting one foot in front of the other – much like taking it one hour at a time during her marathon nursing shifts or running 26.2 miles during an actual marathon.

For as unpleasant as either of those things may sound to most people, both are part of Hetzel's identity, and it's made her stronger.

"Running has been such a huge stress relief," she said. "To get out and move is cleansing to my soul. It balances the craziness that is work right now. We've had particularly challenging days this year, mainly because of the pandemic. There's been an air of tension at work all the time due to running on all cylinders for a few months now."

For all the hectic days, Hetzel wouldn't have it any other way.
Megan Hetzel

"It's not surprising to me that when Megan decided to make a career change to nursing and put her mind to it, she was able to follow a new path to be successful," said Utesch. "Obstacles weren't a problem for Megan. Her primary event at Lehigh was the steeplechase, which presents runners with immovable barriers and water hazards to traverse during a 3000 meter race. It may not have always been pretty, but Megan found a way to get over those barriers."

Hetzel remains grateful for not only the ups, but also the barriers she's faced along her journey – much like mental and physical barriers in a marathon – which have molded her present and future.

"It's been a weird, twisted kind of path," said Hetzel. "I definitely miss working at Runner's World. I miss the group of people I worked with and getting to run at lunch. I interviewed some Olympians and had some crazy cool experiences.

"But now I'm doing something I feel is very worthwhile," she continued. "It's a career where you're always learning and always pushed to keep improving yourself.

"Thinking back, getting laid off was definitely a blessing in disguise."

Lehigh University Athletics

Upcoming Event: Women's Cross Country at Princeton Fall Classic on October 17, 2025 at 10:30 AM

Upcoming Event: Women's Cross Country versus Patriot League Championships on October 31, 2025 at TBA

Upcoming Event: Women's Cross Country versus NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional on November 14, 2025 at TBA

Upcoming Event: Women's Cross Country at NCAA Championships on November 22, 2025 at TBA

Completed Event: Women's Cross Country versus Paul Short Run on October 3, 2025 , , 25th of 40

Completed Event: Women's Cross Country at Ted Owen Invitational on September 20, 2025 , , 3rd of 9

Completed Event: Women's Cross Country versus Lafayette College on September 13, 2025 , Win , 22, to, 33

Completed Event: Women's Cross Country versus Lehigh Invitational on August 29, 2025 , , 3rd of 7

Completed Event: Women's Cross Country versus NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional on November 15, 2024 , , 14th of 30

Completed Event: Women's Cross Country versus Patriot League Championships on November 2, 2024 , , 5th of 10

Completed Event: Women's Cross Country versus ECAC Championships on October 18, 2024 , , 5th of 20

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