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This episode is from inside PH SPOT's membership community: The Public Health Career Club. 

You'll get to listen in on a training session where career club members got a chance to ask Sujani questions.

In this episode, we share one of those questions: how did you get started in public health?

What You'll Learn from this Episode:

• How Sujani got interested in public health, and her undergraduate experience.
• How to get work experience early in your public health career journey (part-time, casual, volunteer).
• How to use all of your experiences (whether they are paid or unpaid) to tell a story about your abilities, skills, and knowledge to prospective employers.
• About The Public Health Career Club, PH SPOT's membership community.

Today's Guest:

Sujani Sivanantharajah is the founder and CEO of PH SPOT. 

Sujani Sivanantharajah is a public health professional trained in Epidemiology. Her gift and passion lie in building relationships and using these relationships to create and cultivate spaces for people to find meaningful partnerships that can serve their communities. In 2017, this passion led her to build PHSPOT.org, a platform and community for public health professionals around the world to build their dream careers.

Sujani holds a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree from the University of Saskatchewan and an Honours Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Toronto.

Featured on the Show:

• The Public Health Career Club

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Join The Public Health Career Club: A global membership community where public health professionals connect, learn, and support each other in building meaningful and impactful careers.

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In this episode, Sujani sits down with Jennifer Mandelbaum, a healthcare economics consultant at Optum and lecturer at Tufts University. They discuss job search and application tips for public vs. private sectors and what factors to consider if you are thinking about pursuing a postgraduate degree.

You’ll Learn

• How Jennifer found her way into public health
• What personal and professional factors you should consider when thinking about pursuing a postgraduate degree
• Job search tips for those interested in the private sector of public health including how to navigate networking in the digital age
• How applying for jobs changes in the public, private, and academic fields and how to tailor your resume and cover letter for each field
• Job search tips for new graduates and things to start considering even as you are finishing your degree including:
  • Being open minded about potentially not landing your dream job right away
  • Building a mentorship network around you and joining professional organizations
  • Developing transferable skills
• How academic work can differ between institutions and determining where you would fit best
• What a day in the life of a healthcare economics consultant looks like

Today’s Guest

Jennifer Mandelbaum, PhD, MPH is a public health researcher and healthcare economics consultant at Optum whose work focuses on chronic disease prevention and mental health care across the life course. Dr. Mandelbaum has experience working across sectors (e.g., academia, government, industry) to understand and address root causes affecting issues of health care access and equity. In recognition of her efforts to improve chronic disease outcomes, she received the Rising Star Award from the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors (2022) and the Dr. Rick Foster Leadership Award from Live Healthy South Carolina (2020). She serves as a Governing Councilor for the Public Health Education and Health Promotion (PHEHP) section of the American Public Health Association (APHA) as well as a member of APHA’s Education Board. Cultivating the next generation of public health professionals is important to her, and she is currently a part-time faculty member in Tufts University’s Department of Community Health. Dr. Mandelbaum holds a BA from Brandeis University, an MPH from Yale University, and a PhD from the University of South Carolina.

Resources

• Follow Jennifer on LinkedIn  
• Learn more about Optum 
• Learn more about the American Public Health Association and the Society of Behavioural Medicine 

Support the show

Join The Public Health Career Club: A global membership community where public health professionals connect, learn, and support each other in building meaningful and impactful careers.

Go from feeling confused, alone and overwhelmed, to feeling confident and in control of your life and career!

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In this episode, Sujani sits down with Dr. Marissa Robinson, coordinator of the Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative at the US Department of Health. They discuss Marissa’s education and career, her interest in HIV and the Black community’s access to health, and harnessing charisma in your professional life.

You’ll Learn

• How Marissa’s personal experiences shaped her interest in the social determinants of health, specifically with HIV and the Black community’s access to health
• Marissa’s experience at Spelman College, a historically Black college for women, and what factors she considered when making choices about education
• Tips on dealing with rejection, self doubt, and other barriers in your career
• How charisma is essential in leadership and public health and why it is especially important for women of colour to develop this skill

Today’s Guest

Dr. Marissa Robinson is a strategic-leader, visionary, and disruptor within the field of Infectious Disease. She focuses on HIV/AIDS research, educating the need to increase opportunities and diversity amongst the public health workforce. She currently leads as the Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S. (EHE) initiative Coordinator at the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health within the Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy.

Dr. Robinson is a DMV native and is trained in infectious disease epidemiology. She has conducted extensive HIV/AIDS research for over a decade. She began her federal career when she joined the United States Peace Corps as a Community Health and Malaria Prevention volunteer in Togo, West Africa. After returning to the US, Dr. Robinson worked at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) in the HIV/AIDS Bureau (HAB) on global infectious disease surveillance supporting the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) initiative. Following her time at HRSA, Dr. Robinson joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) where she conducted and maintained data analytics for a Nursing and Midwifery initiative on behalf of PEPFAR for 13 African countries. After her time at CDC, Dr. Robinson joined the CDC Foundation on the Teens Linked to Care pilot program with the CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health which focused on substance use and sexual risk among youth in rural populations.

Dr. Robinson completed her Doctor of Public Health degree as a Goldseeker Scholar at Morgan State University’s School of Community Health and Policy. Her dissertation was entitled “A Qualitative Exploration of Preexposure Prophylaxis Among Black Women Attending a Historically Black College and University in the Northeastern United States”. Dr. Robinson completed her doctoral fellowship training at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Pre-Doctoral Clinical Research Training Program. Dr. Robinson received her Master of Public Health with a concentration in global health, infectious diseases, and a certificate in socio-contextual determinants of health from Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health and her Bachelor of Arts in psychology and public health from Spelman College.

Resources

• Follow Marissa on

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Join The Public Health Career Club: A global membership community where public health professionals connect, learn, and support each other in building meaningful and impactful careers.

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In this episode, Sujani sits down with Dawn Hunter, a public health lawyer and Director of the Southeastern Region of the Network for Public Health Law. They discuss Dawn’s career journey and experiences, what public health law entails, and combining instincts and strategy to get your dream job.

You’ll Learn

• How Dawn found her way into public health and law
• How public health law differs from health law
• Tips on how to tell if a career is right for you
• Tips on following your instincts and making career changes to find what suits you best
• Dawn’s experience pursuing a JD and MPH at the same time and what motivated her to do both
• What a role as a public health lawyer may entail
• What the Network for Public Health Law is and what kind of work they do
• Career advice on interviewing, drawing strengths from professional and personal experience, and thinking with intention

Today’s Guest

Dawn Hunter, JD,MPH, CPH., is Director of the Southeastern Region of the Network for Public Health Law. Dawn’s work focuses on research, analysis, implementation, and capacity building related to the use of law and policy to improve health outcomes and advance racial equity. She is particularly interested in the development of racial equity action plans and implementation strategies at the state and local level and leads an ongoing assessment of declarations of racism as a public health crisis and related efforts to address health inequities. In the past year, she has been collaborating with partners in the Collaborative for Anti-Racism and Equity. Dawn also focuses on strategies to improve health outcomes through civic engagement and served as the lead author of the Health & Democracy Index. She also conducts training on equity in public health messaging through the Becoming Better Messengers initiative. 

Resources

• Follow Dawn on LinkedIn  
• Learn more about the The Network for Public Health Law 

Support the show

Join The Public Health Career Club: A global membership community where public health professionals connect, learn, and support each other in building meaningful and impactful careers.

Go from feeling confused, alone and overwhelmed, to feeling confident and in control of your life and career!

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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 

Support the show

Join The Public Health Career Club: A global membership community where public health professionals connect, learn, and support each other in building meaningful and impactful careers.

Go from feeling confused, alone and overwhelmed, to feeling confident and in control of your life and career!

Tell us what you thought of this episode - send us a text!

In this episode, Sujani sits down with Heidi Berthoud, the founder of Heidi Berthoud Consulting. They talk about Heidi’s career journey, what led her to creating her own company, and how to successfully build a network and run a business.

You’ll Learn

• How Heidi became interested in public health through frontline work as an EMT and other personal experiences 
• Advice on breaking into public health for those who may not have a formal public health or science background
• Heidi’s experience with balancing school and a full time job
• Heidi’s experience with research and her areas of interest
• Advice for those looking to get into consulting work including networking tips, building a client base, and figuring exactly what kind of work you want to do 
  • What resources such as business coaching are available
• What Heidi has learned from running her own business

Today’s Guest

Heidi is an experienced leader who began her public health and social service career at a large non-profit county hospital supporting training teams in the nursing education department. She received her Master’s Degree in Public Health from the University of Washington and concurrently completed a Global Health Masters Certificate. 

Heidi has more than 20 years of knowledge and experience in health care research, evaluation, technical writing, public health initiatives, qualitative data collection and analysis, and patient advocacy. Her experience includes working with government, academia, and non-profit organizations and she has been invited to work with Indigenous communities developing and delivering surveys and evaluations. 

She is the founder and principal consultant at Heidi Berthoud Consulting, LLC where she works with Public Health departments and health and social service organizations conducting community health needs assessments, program evaluations, and helping teams collect data they can actually use to improve their work. 

Resources

• Learn more about Heidi Berthoud Consulting 
• Follow Heidi on LinkedIn and learn more about her research 
• Listen to the previous episode with Stephanie Moxley 
• Listen to the previous episode with Maudra Brown 
• Learn more about the book "Company of One" by Paul Jarvis 

Support the show

Join The Public Health Career Club: A global membership community where public health professionals connect, learn, and support each other in building meaningful and impactful careers.

Go from feeling confused, alone and overwhelmed, to feeling confident and in control of your life and career!

Tell us what you thought of this episode - send us a text!

In this episode, Sujani sits down with Dr. Sarah Hoehnen, an infectious disease physician who is passionate about improving health systems. They discuss what drew Sarah to community health, her experience with leadership and expanding her work to include medical administration, and what Sarah has learned about marrying healthcare with other public health services.

You’ll Learn

• How a medical school rotation drew Sarah into public health
  • What made Sarah interested in social systems and the way they impact health
• How western healthcare systems differ from others around the world and what we could learn from them
• How we can start changing systems to better connect individual clinical care to the health of the community
• The value of playing to your own strengths and perspectives in healthcare
• Sarah’s experience transitioning from a clinical role to a directorial/management role
  • Why it’s important for Sarah to continue her clinical work along with her administrative work
  • The biggest challenges Sarah has come across in her experience working on both sides
  • What additional training Sarah has gone through or considered to succeed in her administrative role
• Ways to successfully lead a team and have everyone work in their own zones of genius

Today’s Guest

Dr. Sarah Hoehnen is a practicing infectious disease physician who is passionate about improving access to infectious disease screening, treatment, and prevention through integrated care and harm reduction models. Dr. Hoehnen partners with behavioral health and primary care providers to implement innovative systems of care that improve patient outcomes.

Resources

• Follow Sarah on LinkedIn 
• Learn more about the Health Resources and Services Administration 
• Learn more about 360 degree feedback 

Support the show

Join The Public Health Career Club: A global membership community where public health professionals connect, learn, and support each other in building meaningful and impactful careers.

Go from feeling confused, alone and overwhelmed, to feeling confident and in control of your life and career!

Tell us what you thought of this episode - send us a text!

In this episode, Sujani sits down with Doug Taylor, the Director of Operations and Finance for Fact Forward. They discuss Doug’s career journey, how public health and health education has changed over the years, and the different paths that public health can take you.

You’ll Learn

• How Doug became interested in health and wellness after serving in the military health corps and a medical event in the family
• Doug’s experience with his undergrad and graduate degree and what extra value an MPH provides 
• How public health in the 90s differed from today’s environment
  • How sexual health education evolved as a result of the HIV pandemic
• The importance of being engaged in public health communities and societies and making connections 
• Why Doug pivoted from working in government to nonprofit
  • Doug’s experience stepping into a leadership and management role
• How to deal with the more abstract nature of getting results and making change in public health 

Today’s Guest

Doug Taylor is the Director of Operations and Finance for Fact Forward, a statewide non-profit in Columbia, SC, focusing on adolescent reproductive health. His role includes ensuring operational efficiencies, compliance with federal, state, and foundation rules and regulations, and collaborating with the CEO and Directors to secure financial resources that support the agency’s mission. He joined Fact Forward in June 2011 as the Director of Community Programs and Evaluation and oversaw all community-focused programming and the agency’s research and evaluation activities. The Department managed over 3 million in federal and private foundation funding to support youth-serving professionals in providing age-appropriate, medically accurate sexual health education to teens. Previously, Doug worked at the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC), where he coordinated the implementation of DHEC’s Health Services statewide performance management system and led quality improvement teams in process improvement projects. Doug also served six years active duty in the United States Army, and six years with the Texas Army National Guard. Doug has a Master of Public Health in Health Promotion and Education from the University of South Carolina Arnold School of Public Health and a Bachelor of Science in Health Promotion and Education from the University of North Texas. 

Resources

• Follow Doug on LinkedIn  
• Learn more about Fact Forward and follow them on Twitter and Instagram 

Support the show

Join The Public Health Career Club: A global membership community where public health professionals connect, learn, and support each other in building meaningful and impactful careers.

Go from feeling confused, alone and overwhelmed, to feeling confident and in control of your life and career!

Tell us what you thought of this episode - send us a text!

In this episode, Sujani sits down with Inyang Uwak, an environmental epidemiologist with a background in medicine. They discuss Inyang’s experience with her MPH and DrPH program, how to succeed in environmental epidemiology, and how Inyang’s clinical background has helped her in her current career.

You’ll Learn

• How Inyang found her way to public health and specifically epidemiology and environmental from a clinical background
  • What considerations and support she used to make her decision to switch to public health
  • How her clinical experience has helped her in her public health career
• Inyang’s experience with the Johns Hopkins MPH program and juggling school work with family life and motherhood
• Why Inyang chose to pursue a DrPH over a PhD 
  • How she was able to incorporate an interest in research work into her program
• What a day in the life of an environmental epidemiologist looks like
• What skills are necessary to succeed as an environmental epidemiologist
• What opportunities there are in different sectors for environmental epidemiologists

Today’s Guest

Dr. Inyang Uwak is a Senior Epidemiologist with the CDC Foundation, an independent nonprofit created by Congress to support the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s critical health protection work. Dr. Uwak provides her expertise in the field to the City of Houston Health department’s Bureau of Pollution Control and Prevention. She received her DrPH from Texas A&M University in Epidemiology and Environmental Health, her MPH from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, and her Medical Degree from the University of Calabar, Nigeria. She currently serves as the APHA’s Environment Section Program Planning Co-Chair. When she is not working, she enjoys running in the park with her family and creating healthy treats in the kitchen.

Resources

• Follow Inyang on LinkedIn
• Learn more about Inyang’s research 
• Learn more about the CDC Foundation 
• Learn more about the American Public Health Association 

Support the show

Join The Public Health Career Club: A global membership community where public health professionals connect, learn, and support each other in building meaningful and impactful careers.

Go from feeling confused, alone and overwhelmed, to feeling confident and in control of your life and career!

Tell us what you thought of this episode - send us a text!

 In this episode, we're talking about the New York State Public Health Corps (NYSPHC) Fellowship program - an opportunity for you to get hands-on public health experience. Whether you are a public health student, a new grad, or transitioning into the field, and are looking to gain hands-on public health experience, this fellowship program is something worth looking into. 

In this episode, Sujani sits down with 2 fellows currently in the program to give you a glimpse of what you can expect in this paid fellowship program and to hear about their journey. 

After hearing from the two fellows, Sujani and the Assistant Director of the program discuss the fellowship in more detail and cover frequently asked questions.

We hope this episode inspires you to explore the NYSPH Fellowship Program further and take action - whether that's reaching out for more information or submitting an application.

What You'll Learn from this Episode:

• About Rachel Jagger and Shani Fields' public health journey. 
  • Why they chose to apply to the fellowship, how they discovered the program, and their application process.
  • A day in the life of both Rachel and Shani - what they do on a day-to-day basis in their role.
• What is a fellowship? What is the New York State Public Health Corps Fellowship Program?   
  • Erin tells us that the NYSPHC Fellowship program is a paid training program.
• How someone would get involved with the program if they’re interested, and the application process
• The types of opportunities available for interested candidates; where fellows are placed.
• Who can participate, and what are the qualifications to become a Fellow?
• The type of training Fellows are required to complete.
• Some of the projects Fellows can get involved in.
• Who are mentors and how do they get involved?

 
Featured on the Show:

• Fellowship Program Overview
  • The FAQ Page
  • Application link
  • Counties that are currently hiring (PDF updated regularly)

Support the show

Join The Public Health Career Club: A global membership community where public health professionals connect, learn, and support each other in building meaningful and impactful careers.

Go from feeling confused, alone and overwhelmed, to feeling confident and in control of your life and career!