‘I Didn’t Know What I Was Doing Was Public Health’.

Catherine Ettman Chief of Staff and Director of Strategic Initiatives in the Office of the Dean

Hometown: Miami Beach, Florida

Breakfast: “Every morning I make myself an egg and cheese tortilla.”

Extracurricular: “I’ve run into at least a half dozen SPH people on my way to and from yoga. ‘I never see you out of a suit!’ they say. I also do hip-hop yoga: one cannot take herself too seriously when she’s doing the warrior pose to Beyoncé.”

What was your background before coming to SPH?

I caught the bug for politics and policy when I interned in the House of Representatives in high school. After college, I worked for the Democratic National Committee in the Chair’s Office, for Debbie Wasserman-Shultz.

When I was in DC, people said, “If you want to see policy actually happen and see how you can change lives, leave DC and go to the states.”

I had read about Senator Wendy Davis, and I was really inspired by her filibuster and her advocacy for women’s rights. At an event in DC, I met her and said, “I would love to intern for you.” She said, “Intern? We have paid positions. Women always undersell themselves! Apply for one of those.” I was sold.

I applied for a paid position, and the next day she said, “How soon can you move to Texas?” I gave my notice and bought a one-way ticket to Texas, where I slept on the floor of a co-worker until I lived in the closet—fun story, literally a closet.

How did you then get to SPH?

I didn’t realize that what I had been doing was public health until I started reading the Dean’s Notes. I knew it was a bad sign when I was in Washington, DC, interviewing for positions in politics—what two years before would have been dream jobs—and instead of focusing on those interviews I was reading about social determinants of health. I looked back and I realized that I had been doing public health all along, I just didn’t know what it was called. In taking this job, it was an extension of my passion for public policy, and it was about changing the conversation and contributing to the policy world through a different avenue.

You do a lot of traveling in your role. What has been your favorite trip?

Dean Galea is invited to speak about his work and to participate in panels and committees all over the country and the world. One of the things that I do is to work on capitalizing on his time so that he can meet these professional obligations and advance the School’s agenda in the same trip. One of my favorite days of travel reflected just that. Dean Galea was in Washington, DC, to serve on the Council for the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. We were at the time trying to make sure that we as a school were responsive to the growing national conversation around firearms, and to make sure that the excellent work that was being done around the issue at the School found the right audience.

So, we worked with the BU Federal Relations Team and set up a full day of meetings for him with the top offices that are involved in legislation on gun violence. We met, for example, with  Senators [Elizabeth] Warren’s and [Richard] Blumenthal’s offices  to talk to them about BU’s research on the topic.

It was really inspiring to see the staff members’ eyes light up when he shared the research that BU is doing in the area. “How many people in the US do you think know someone who has been shot? How many people do you think know somebody?” And he said, “99 percent.” People were shocked at first, and then nodded. As a result of those meetings, we now have connections with Congress members and senators, and we got to say that we are a resource, we can help, and you can reach out if you have any questions. That was just a really cool day, getting to be back in my old stomping ground, to be back on the Hill, but in this different capacity, and to say, “How can we help you? How can we provide information?” That is what I think we are doing here as a school: providing the science that can inform policy and it is a privilege to help the dean translate our science in this way, serving as a bridge between SPH and the world that can benefit from what we do.

What has been the best or most rewarding moment in your time at SPH?

The first that comes to mind is the day after the election. I think it’s safe to say that collectively we were all surprised by the election outcome. The next morning, I was on the phone with Kara [Peterson, director of communications] and Dean Galea, and we were asking how we could help the School process and respond to what this surprising outcome would mean, particularly given our mission towards disadvantaged populations.

That morning, we put together all of the pieces, coordinating across departments, coordinating with the Office of Communications, coordinating with room booking to make sure that we had Hiebert Lounge booked out … and then walking into that room and seeing what must have been at least 400 or 450 people—it was packed, I have never seen Hiebert that full, and I was pulling up chairs, making sure that everybody had a seat, talking to people, hugging people, processing.

What we thought would be a one-hour conversation turned into two hours or two and a half. One of the coolest things was to see professors respond, to have a student say, “What is going to happen to Roe v. Wade?” and to have George Annas, the nation’s leading expert on bioethics and health ethics, stand up and say, “This is the repercussion,” and to have someone ask, “What will happen with the ACA?” and have Jon Kingsdale and Wendy Mariner stand up and talk about the legal implications. To have students ask, “How can we respond?” and have David Jones stand up to talk about Public Health Post as an outlet for translating science for policy makers.

One of our mottos in the Dean’s Office is “no scramble.” We want to be deliberate and graceful in how we run this office. It’s important to be prepared so that, when things happen, we can be ready to respond quickly and flexibly, with finesse. That day exemplified that for me. It’s because we have these infrastructures in place, because we have this great team on board, that we were able to respond quickly and make something big happen.

In that room, I was so deeply grateful to be a part of a community that is driven by social justice, and respect, and dignity for all. In that moment, I felt like this is where I want to be.

—Michelle Samuels