Megan Cole Brahim.
What stands out to you about BU School of Public Health? Boston in general?
BUSPH really lives up to its “Think. Teach. Do.” motto in ways that no other school of public health does. I love that, as a school, we are committed to and excel across research, teaching, and practice.
The BUSPH community is also made up of incredibly caring, kind, dedicated, and supportive faculty, staff, and students who are all passionate about making the world a better place. This creates a work and learning culture that I feel very fortunate to be a part of – again, something that I think is often difficult to find elsewhere.
Finally, I’ll add that what initially drew me to BUSPH was the unique institutional commitment to health equity across research and practice. Equity sits at the center of most all of the work done by our faculty and students, and I’m continuously amazed and hopeful about all of the important work being done in our community to advance health equity.
It’s also a privilege to be part of the greater Boston community, and of the Massachusetts community more broadly. Particularly on the policy front, it’s exciting to be part of a relatively progressive state that’s been a national leader in health care reform, which allows lots of opportunity to study promising health care innovations here in Boston and across Massachusetts.
Why public health?
I’ve always had a strong interest in health, a passion for justice, and excitement about policy. For me, a career in public health is a vehicle for improving health and creating a more just system with more just health outcomes, by informing policy.
What inspires your research/work?
Stories and experiences – some my own, many of friends and family, and most of people I meet in passing or may never know myself. Access to health care and health should never depend on your race, income, gender, immigration status, or zip code, but it does. The stories and lived experiences that underlie this reality are heartbreaking and impossibly frustrating. But it inspires me to do research that will hopefully one day result in fewer of such stories.