From Village Veterinarian to Aspiring Policy Maker: An SPH Student’s Journey to Transform Rural Albania.
Ana Maria Cibuku on Talbot Green. Photo: Megan Jones
From Village Veterinarian to Aspiring Policy Maker: An SPH Student’s Journey to Transform Rural Albania
Ana Maria Cibuku left a government job in Albania to pursue an MPH in health policy and law at the School of Public Health with the goal to return and reshape how her country supports rural communities.
Ana Maria Cibuku grew up between two worlds: the historic village of Berat, Albania, where her grandparents had a small farm and she spent the summers of her childhood caring for a variety of animals; and the coastal city of Patras, Greece, where her parents immigrated and she attended school.
Ana Maria as a child at the beach near her home in Patras, Greece. Photo courtesy of Ana Maria Cibuku.
Ana Maria as a child with a bouquet of kittens in her grandparents’ village in Albania. Photo courtesy of Ana Maria Cibuku.
Ana Maria Cibuku with a fox cub in the Department of Exotics at Turin Hospital. Photo courtesy of Ana Maria Cibuku.
Ana Maria Cibuku with a rabbit while practicing at Turin Hospital in Albania. Photo courtesy of Ana Maria Cibuku.
Each year, Cibuku would mail lists to her grandmother of the animals she hoped to see on the farm the upcoming summer—“one donkey, one cow, one calf, 10 rabbits”—and her grandmother would ensure her wishes were granted. The holidays of her dreams set her on a path that would take her from veterinary school at the Agricultural University of Tirana to food safety inspection in Albania’s capital, and eventually to the School of Public Health.
Ana Maria Cibuku practicing veterinary medicine at Turin Hospital in Albania. Photo courtesy of Ana Maria Cibuku.
Ana Maria Cibuku with a bird while practicing at Turin Hospital in Albania. Photo courtesy of Ana Maria Cibuku.
Ana Maria Cibuku with a calf while working as a veterinarian in a village in rural Albania. Photo courtesy of Ana Maria Cibuku.
Ana Maria Cibuku during her laboratory internship in Vienna, Austria. Photo courtesy of Ana Maria Cibuku.
Ana Maria Cibuku giving an interview for a European Union food safety project as a veterinary inspector at Albania’s National Food Authority. Photo courtesy of Ana Maria Cibuku.
Ana Maria Cibuku giving a speech at Albania’s National Food Authority as a new government official. Photo courtesy of Ana Maria Cibuku.
Now, as an MPH student studying health policy and law, Cibuku is contemplating her impact on a larger scale than any individual animal or one food safety regulation. She wants to see systemic change—the kind that requires a seat in Parliament.
Cibuku’s drive to bridge tradition and innovation runs in the family. When her parents returned to Albania during the 2008 economic crisis in Greece, her mother, a chef, opened a restaurant featuring traditional Albanian food and fresh ingredients from the village. Today, Chef Inesa Cibuku is recognized by the Slow Food Foundation for contributing to the global grassroots “slow food” movement to preserve agricultural heritage and promote sustainable, affordable local foods.
While her parents were launching their restaurant, Cibuku was discovering the limits of a veterinary career in the village and the potential of a pivot to policy. During an internship in Vienna in the milk hygiene department of the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, she realized a veterinarian with access to research labs, decision-making influence, and policy-making power, could fix regulatory issues that a traditional clinician never could. She hung up her stethoscope and set her sights on a seat at the table.
In a conversation with SPH, Cibuku shared her journey from the clinic to the capital, how she landed in the U.S., and what she wants other international students to know about taking the leap to study in Boston.
Ana Maria Cibuku pets a donkey in a village in rural Albania. Photo courtesy of Ana Maria Cibuku.
Ana Maria Cibuku in Berat, Albania. Photo Courtesy of Ana Maria Cibuku.
Q&A
With Ana Maria Cibuku, MPH student
SPH: You had a successful career in Albania as a veterinarian and then as a food safety inspector. Why did you decide to study health policy?
Cibuku: I became a coordinator of the animal-derived food sector in Tirana, and I was responsible for very big issues in the capital city regarding food safety. But these issues were not solely in my hand. [It clicked] that, okay, now I have to do something about policy. Because this is where it is. Unless I am part of the Parliament, I cannot change anything else. This is my maximum potential.
I found a non-profit organization in Tirana called the Albanian-American Development Foundation, AADF, that were giving out scholarships for young Albanian people to study and experience life in the U.S., fully funded, and to bring this experience back to Albania and make Albania a better place. That was exactly what I was looking for! I went there. Competition was very high because America is the land of possibilities, the American dream. But to me, the biggest dream is the village dream. I just wanted an opportunity to broaden my horizons, my academic and my professional values and skills in order to make my childhood dream come true, to make an easier life for the village. I am forever grateful to AADF for making me come closer to my final dream. Because without them, I couldn’t afford to be here.
SPH: When you were looking at graduate programs, what drew you specifically to Boston University?
Cibuku: I was thinking about everything: the city that I was going to live in, the state, the weather. But most importantly, I was thinking about ranking, recognition, prestige. Because I want, when I go back eventually, to have [people say], “Oh, she comes from Boston University, okay.” I did research on the best public health schools in the United States, and Boston University was always coming up on top [of the] rankings. One of my professors [in Tirana] did his academics at Cornell for veterinary medicine, and he was one of my biggest influences to choose Boston University. I trust his judgment.
SPH: You have already accomplished a great deal, but you have repeatedly mentioned you still have very long road ahead of you—what is your ultimate goal professionally?
Cibuku: Eventually, I want to become part of the Albanian Parliament. I am a very ambitious young woman. I want to be the Minister of Agriculture or the Minister of Health in Albania. I am aiming too high, I know. I have a very long road ahead, but the road to the village is always long, and I’m never getting tired of doing it.
SPH: You have been in Boston for just a few weeks, but the journey to get here started many months ago. Based on your experience to date, what advice would you give to other international students considering an MPH at SPH?
Cibuku: I would say to anyone that is in my position that Mary [Murphy-Phillips] is going to come and take you by the hand. And when I say Mary, I mean her personally, and the School of Public Health, because I feel she represents it. Don’t worry about it. You are going to one of the top universities in America.
Another thing that helps me a lot every day is something very small [that] professors tell us, “We want you to succeed. Ask for help because we want you to succeed. Go to writing sessions because we want you to succeed.” Professor [Timothy] Callaghan said for a quiz that we have coming up, “I’m going to let you have one attempt, not because I want to punish you, but because I want to see if you need help, so that we give you help early because we want you to succeed.”
A lot of international students, we leave home to come here, we are alone, we don’t have family, we don’t have friends yet—it’s very difficult. To me, this is like my father, like family—only family tells you, “We want you to succeed. Come on! Don’t let yourself down.” And I’ve heard [this] repeatedly, I hear it every day in each lecture, in the speech of the dean welcoming us, [from] everyone. The motto for BU could be, “Come to us because we want you to succeed.”
And I also want to highlight for international students [who] come here, we are always told back home in small countries that when you go to America, it is very difficult because there is too much competition. But it is more difficult when you are from a country with a very small population—here, it’s such a huge pack that nobody cares. Just come, do your thing. There is space for everyone. Everyone wants you to succeed because lots of people need help here. Don’t be afraid to come.
