Photo by Skip Lawrence Vanessa Fredericks is health committee chairwoman at the Frederick County Branch of the NAACP.

She was looking for a place to launch a career in health care. The Washington metro area had many schools and institutions that were perfect for the field.

Six years ago her then-husband (she is now divorced) landed a job at Fort Detrick, and her efforts to become certified as a medical researcher began in earnest.

Fredericks, 35, grew up in New York City. She remembers taking her toys apart and putting them back together when she was a child. Her interest in mechanics spread to the human body.

She wanted to become a physician, but was intimidated by the math she would need to learn.

At 14, she volunteered at a nursing home. She took two trains and a bus, from Brooklyn to the edge of Queens and Long Island, to get there each day.

"That was great, and I loved it," she said.

Her work led to service projects in high school, including volunteering at a Harlem organization that helps children born addicted to drugs and with HIV.

"I consider volunteering to be my foundation," she said.

After attending the City College of New York, Fredericks took a job at the Social Security Administration.

For four years, while living in Rochester, N.Y., she would go to the library on her lunch break to research career paths.

She wanted a job that combined patient interaction with research and organizing information.

Flexible hours were also key so she could spend time with her family, she said.

After settling into her new home in Frederick , Fredericks began volunteering at the American Red Cross in Baltimore.

She also enrolled in a research course at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda.

In 2005, she took a position at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine working on a statewide lung cancer study.

The job takes her across the state, but arriving back home in Frederick always makes her happy, she said.

Fredericks joined the local branch of the NAACP in March as chairwoman of the health committee.

She was impressed by the group's diverse members and the work they do in the community.

"It's been an awesome thing to watch and be a part of."

As a representative of the NAACP, she has partnered with the Maryland Health Care for All Coalition, and she helped organize a health care rally in Frederick in July.

She is also on the advisory board of the Hillcrest School-Based Health Center at Hillcrest Elementary School.

One of her short-term goals is to expand the outreach of the NAACP from Frederick city to the broader county, to help as many people as possible, Fredericks said.

"I'm glad to be a part of a team serving the Frederick community because Frederick is a great place to live."