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In this episode, Sujani sits down with Kristi Sprowl, the Community Impact Director at the American Heart Association. They talk about finding your niche in public health, building from your experiences, and ways to champion and innovate the profession of public health. 

You’ll Learn

• How Kristi found her way into public health through nursing
• Why Kristi decided to pursue a Doctor in Public Health degree and how a doctorate can offer more flexibility and opportunity
• Tips on how to find the right career path for you including exploring as much as you can and finding the right mentors and community
• How knowing your “why” and centering yourself helps you avoid burnout and accomplish your goals
• Interviewing tips and how to springboard from prior jobs and experiences to a new position
• The importance of servitude and taking action outside of the workplace
• How the workplace is changing and where innovation can take place in the public health field

Today’s Guest

Kristi Sprowl is a Los Angeles native, health enthusiast, and Public Health Practitioner through rigorous academic training. She received her Bachelor of Science degree at California State University, Dominguez Hills in Community Health and her Master in Public Health degree at the University of Arizona where she received numerous awards for her research efforts related to public health issues affecting women. Kristi moved to Atlanta to pursue her public health career on a larger scale and joined Emory University conducting public health clinical research and worked as a Senior Health Educator at the Fulton County Board of Health where she planned and implemented community public health education programs, community outreach campaigns and public awareness initiatives with clinics, schools, and other stakeholders across Georgia’s largest county. Kristi now works as a Community Impact Director at the American Heart Association, leading and directing health initiatives in the Metro Atlanta region to drive local policy change. Kristi was recently accepted into the Doctor of Public Health program at the University of Georgia's 2021 cohort for working executives. She was awarded as a 2021 Health Equity Fellow at the University of Georgia and now representing as a 2022 Urban Leaders Fellow for Dekalb County in Atlanta’s metro region. Her future goals include teaching at the collegiate level, conducting research around leadership training and assessment for BIPOC professionals, and advancing programmatic efforts around social determinants of health and racial inequities. 

Resources

• Follow Kristi on LinkedIn 
• Learn more about the American Heart Association 
• Learn more about the McNair Scholars Program 
• Read about the de Beaumount data about stress and burnout in public health professionals 

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