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In this episode, Sujani sits down with Alexandra Bhatti, a public health attorney who is currently director of US Vaccine Public at Merck & Co. They discuss what led Alexandra to pursue public health law, her experience working in the public sector vs private sector with a pharmaceutical company, and her work in vaccine policy.

You’ll Learn

• What led Alexandra to public health and then later public health law
  • What events led to Alexandra finding her niche in public health law
• Advice on overcoming anxiety when it comes to networking and connecting with others
• How the pandemic helped to emphasize the importance of public health policy and law
• What a day in the life of the Director of US Vaccine Public Policy at Merck & Co. looks like 
• How both the private and public sector have intertwining roles and the importance of interprofessionalism in advancing public health
• The value of having direction while remaining open to opportunities in your career
• Advice for those in search of growth in their career
• The importance of building a community and supporting your peers

Today’s Guest

Alexandra Bhatti is a public health attorney with a decade of diverse vaccine programmatic and policy experience across the government and private sector. She is currently Director of US Vaccine Public Policy at Merck & Co. Inc, where she leads US state and federal vaccine policy development and research as well as federal vaccine policy advocacy to advance evidence-based policy solutions that can help achieve and sustain high vaccination rates. She concurrently has served as faculty at Arizona State University in the School for the Science of Healthcare Delivery over the last 7 years. Prior to Merck, Ms. Bhatti was a public health attorney at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention where she led vaccination law research.  Her roots are in state public health where she was previously  a manager within the Arizona Department of Health, Immunization Program Office as well as a Senior Public Health Scientist within their state laboratory.

Resources

• Learn more about Alexandra and follow her LinkedIn  
• Learn more about the Network for Public Health Law and American Public Health Association 
• Learn more about the CDC's Presidential Management Fellows program and Public Health Assessment Training 

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