The Voice of Emerging World Leaders at BU School of Public Health
Reflecting on my 1.5 years in the Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) program, I realize it did more than develop my critical thinking about programs, policies, and leadership. It also taught me to approach life as a project, balancing scope, time, and budget. I learned this the hard way, mostly through survival. I survived managing […]
My palms were sweaty. My heart was racing so fast it felt like it might outrun me. My throat was dry, and I kept rehearsing and re-rehearsing my opening line, as if saying it one more time would make the fear disappear. That’s what happens to me every time I am asked to speak in […]
This year has brought challenges for me and for many others in public health. Toward the end of the Summer, I learned that the Training Grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), which had been the funding source supporting my education and research, would be ending due to the nationwide budget cuts […]
I was naïve when I started my PhD. I still remember my first-round interview: someone asked, “Do you know the challenges you may face during the PhD?” I said yes. I knew it would be tough, and I was ready. I’d worked with faculty for years and supported doctoral students. Now, I’ve lived through reverse […]
Walking into my first Emerging Women Leaders meeting (now Emerging World Leaders), I felt every inch of my difference. I was the only man in the room and a member of a historically underrepresented minority navigating a new professional landscape. I didn’t come to challenge the space — I came to learn. My goals were […]
Starting new things is challenging because it involves uncertainties. Change and the process of adapting to it are difficult as they require leaving the familiar for the unfamiliar and transitioning from the known to the unknown. This could be beginning graduate school, starting a new family or job, or moving to another city or country. […]
I have felt far from alone these last long eight months. I have, like many people, struggled with the question of how I can help. How, in times of crisis, can I make a difference? I often feel foolish to think I can do something, but complacent to believe I cannot. In reality, our problems […]
"When you grow up you will be a conservative.". My father often says this to me, an almost 30-year-old liberal, academic researcher, living in a blue state on the East Coast. This statement has always confused me, especially as my father has always encouraged me to be a strong, independent thinker who challenges the status […]