OAKLAND — Casey Johnson Bromberg has a master’s degree, manages an emergency homeowner loan program, teaches a college class, is married and has two children.

Impressive for someone who has had eight birthdays.

Bromberg, born Feb. 29, 1980, is a leap year baby, and her birthday today comes around just once every four years.

During her leap year birthday today, Bromberg, 32, will blow out candles on her cake for the eighth time.

Bromberg is frequently ahead of the curve.

In 2010, she was named to Mainebiz’s Next List for being an outstanding individual shaping the future of Maine’s economy.

As manager of Kennebec Valley Community Action Program’s Emergency Homeowner Loan Program, she has written grants and acquired considerable funds to assist low-income families escape foreclosure and to help people who have been laid-off from their jobs to retrain for new careers.

Bromberg said her mother, Mary Ellen, who had to deliver her by cesarean section, chose Feb. 29 as her birthdate.

“She gave me the gift of a built-in ice-breaker,” said Bromberg, who grew up in Brewer and graduated in 1998 from John Bapst in Bangor.

Bromberg said that when she was very young her classmates didn’t understand what it meant to be a leap year baby. “They couldn’t see it (Feb. 29) on the calendar,” she said. People born this day are also known as leapers or leaplings.

In non-leap years, Bromberg marks her birthday on Feb. 28.

And once every four years, her celebrations are larger.

When she turned 16, Bromberg said her classmates decorated her school locker and she invited 16 friends to attend her pajama party.

This year, Bromberg plans to celebrate by dining with her husband Sam and with friends she made while taking part in Leadership Maine, a program that seeks to develop talented people to propel the state forward.

She said she appreciated the coincidence that the theme of that program was “taking a leap.”

The mother of two young children said she is passionate about taking leaps of faith and trying to make a difference.

She graduated from the University of Maine with a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s in mass communication.

“I wanted to be a journalist but I wanted to help people too much; I couldn’t stay objective,” she said.

For more than five years she was an aide in the Maine House of Representatives analyzing pending legislation. Then she joined Kennebec Valley Community Action Program.

Bromberg said she immensely enjoys working at the agency because she’s able to see the benefits of her efforts.

As a youngster, Bromberg said she sometimes thought she was missing out having a birthday once every four years.

Now, she said she realizes how special and precious time is.

Beth Staples — 861-9252

bstaples@centralmaine.com