MLK, Jr. Fellow Krista Idowu Pursues MPH to Become ‘Holistic Global Health Advocate’.
MLK Jr. Fellow Pursues MPH to Become ‘Holistic Global Health Advocate’
Krista Idowu, a wife and mother of two from Georgia, recorded music, produced films, and led a mental and spiritual wellness community before moving to Boston earlier this fall to pursue her public health dreams with the help of a full-tuition scholarship through BU’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Fellowship.
Krista Idowu left her career in the arts, and her lifelong home in the Atlanta area, to begin the on-campus MPH program at the School of Public Health this fall. A recipient of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Fellowship, Idowu is studying program management and global health on a full-tuition scholarship.
Each year, Boston University recognizes a select number of matriculating graduate students with the scholarships for their demonstrated commitment to the social justice principles espoused by BU alum Martin Luther King, Jr. As fellows, they receive up to three years of full-time tuition and a living stipend to support their pursuit of higher education.
Idowu, like King, grew up in Georgia in a predominantly African American community rich with cultural traditions. Some of those traditions formed the basis of her film work, such as when she produced and consulted on a National Geographic-sponsored documentary celebrating danceline culture at historically Black colleges and universities. She has also contributed to projects that emphasize both the challenges and triumphs of the Black community, consulting, for example, on a documentary titled “Legacy Lives On” which explored the journey to financial wellness of three millennial women from different social backgrounds.
“If you go to MLK Drive in almost any city, it is going to be one of the most sadly dilapidated areas,” says Idowu. It breaks her heart, she says, to see African Americans experiencing homelessness, substance use, and poverty. She recalls her frustration upon visiting friends and family in the hospital and seeing a McDonald’s in the lobby. “What are we doing?” she remembers asking herself. She noticed that regardless of whether a neighborhood is high or low income, most African American communities in Atlanta have limited access to healthy foods. “You might have one or two mom-and-pop places that try to serve healthy foods and have healthy options, but for the most part, you’re going to have hot wings, you can have fast food, you can have fried stuff, so [this] definitely helped to inform my desire to help in public health,” she says. “We are promoting health in theory, but our practices are off.”
The tipping point came for Idowu when she gave birth to her second daughter. She gave birth to her first daughter in a traditional hospital setting, which left something to be desired, she says. For her second daughter’s birth, she visited a birthing center in Atlanta where she had a “phenomenal” experience. Well-aware of the higher rates of maternal morbidity and mortality among African American women, she recognizes the value of this type of holistic care, but laments that many people do not have access to it or even know it exists. She decided she wanted to change that.
While initially Idowu thought she might become a naturopathic doctor, after speaking with a friend who works for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, she learned that addressing the root causes of the healthcare issues she cares about is the domain of public health. Looking back at her journal entries over the years, she realized her spirit had always pointed in the direction of working in public health and global health.
Back in 2011, Idowu recognized a need for a community-based mental and spiritual support group and founded one. The group, Nakedize, began with about 17 friends in Freedom Park in Atlanta. They would gather outside on blankets, have brave and vulnerable discussions, and practice different activities intended to “deepen their faith, connect with others, and access their true selves.” There were finger painting sessions, water balloon fights, poetry days, and the group grew to support a diverse membership that included runaway youth and former gang members. Various nonprofits took an interest in partnering on their work, such as Hosea Helps (formerly Hosea Feed the Hungry and Homeless), an organization founded by Hosea Williams, one of King’s contemporaries. Hosea Helps allowed Nakedize to host several community wellbeing events at the organization’s care center.
While the community has since dissolved, the spirit of the experience stayed with Idowu. Since beginning her studies at SPH, she has developed a more nuanced understanding of the issues she wants to tackle in her career. “I realized that the more I learn, the more I recognize what I don’t know,” she says. “I knew that solving public health issues would not be an easy task, but I was not aware of how deeply rooted everything was. After taking the foundational class, I realized that there are systemic issues. I learned for the first time about social determinants of health. I had never heard that phrase because I am coming from media.”
In addition to Veronika Wirtz’s Foundations in Global Health [GH760] class, Idowu has also found Alan Sager‘s Planning and Regulating to Fix Healthcare [PM832] class particularly enlightening and rewarding.
“My classes have provoked me to have to do work without knowing how to do it yet. I am learning in the process,” she says. “Being here has helped to define and clarify my goal. I want to become a ‘holistic global health advocate’ and what I mean by that is I want to strategize with healthcare leaders, decision makers, and providers to empower people to thrive holistically and live healthy, fulfilling, and wholehearted lives.”
Idowu also wants to help decolonize global health by helping leaders in low- and middle-income countries to bridge the gap between their often limited access to resources and inherent capacity to solve their own public health problems. “I believe that as I continue taking courses at BU, my interests will continue to evolve, develop, and unfold,” she says.
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