Public Health Epidemiology Conversations

This episode is a special featured episode for the American Public Health Association's Epidemiology Section and my guest today is Dr. Noel Barengo. Dr. Barengo is a medical doctor with a Masters of public health and a PhD. He received his academic training in Finland, Switzerland, and Sweden. He currently works in Miami Florida as an assistant professor at Florida International University College of Medicine. His global public health experience includes starting a public health NGO that served populations in both Finland and Nigeria. He has also worked in non-communicable diseases in Argentina, Colombia, and Paraguay. He is an active member of the American Public Health Association in both the Physical Activity Section as well as the Epidemiology Section. So, let's jump right into that interview with Dr. Barengo.

Dr. Ogunsakin is an infectious disease physician who has been practicing in the state of Georgia for over twenty years treating patients who have had a wide variety of infectious diseases including HIV infection, bone and joint infections, complicated skin infections, and multi drug resistant bacterial infections. In addition to his medical degree, Dr. Ogunsakin has completed his MBA, as well as his MPH. He is also a member of my Developing Your Public Health Career Strategy program. He shares his journey into public health, why he decided to enroll in my program, and how it has helped him. He also shares his passion for global health and a bit about his plans for the future.

In this episode, I'm honored to introduce you to my special guest, Dr. Rania Milleron. She is a multidisciplinary professional in public health with a passion for policy and advocacy, as well as biomedical science, with expertise in vector borne infectious disease. She is also an author, which she will discuss in more detail during the interview. Dr. Milleron completed her Master of Science degree in Infectious Disease Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health, and her PhD in Molecular Genetics of Infectious Disease Vectors from The University of Texas. Dr. Milleron is also a member of my Developing Your Public Health Career Strategy program. She talks about her experience in great detail such as how she found the program, her decision to join, and how it has impacted her so far. She provides feedback and several examples. She has a very diverse background! She is fascinated by the interdisciplinary nature of public health, a field that is more cooperative than individualistic. Because of this, she explains how she is able to wear many hats such as microbiologist, program specialist, or epidemiologist. It also means that she is able to work with a wide variety of collaborators in government, academia, or commercial industry, as well as work with a variety of stakeholders such as physicians, scientists, or data analysts. If you are someone who is struggling to transition into public health from a different field, or trying to figure out what to do with your degree in public health, then I encourage you to pay close attention to Dr. Milleron's story and message. She is a great example of how to successfully interconnect your diverse experiences with public health.

In this episode, I introduce you to Tamiko Prescod, as she discusses her journey into public health, shares her experience, and offers encouragement. Tamiko has a BS in biology, and recently completed her MPH. Her background includes work in retail pharmacy, clinical laboratory support, and clerical support at a local government agency. She has passion, drive, and determination, which stood out to me when I first met her early in 2018. She was one of the first people to enroll in my program, Developing Your Public Health Career Strategy. I've had the honor of coaching and guiding her through that program, and getting to know her very well in the process. It has been amazing to watch her grow over this last year, watch her progress, witness her accomplishments, and I'm excited to see where she goes from here!

The ultimate goal of the podcast is to share tips and strategies that help you enter or transition into the field of public health. In this episode, I'd like to share a little about my business plans for 2019, as they relate to the podcast, the workshops, and the Developing Your Public Health Career Strategy program.

Since this episode will publish on Christmas Day, and I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to wish you a merry Christmas and happy holiday season.

This episode is a review of the podcast for 2018. I will share with you the three countries where the podcast is most popular, and also count down the top 10 most popular episodes of 2018. Can you guess which episode is at the top of the list?

In this episode, I give you a few tips in preparation for the changes that will take place very soon. There are a few things you want to do to make sure that you don't miss out on anything!

In this episode, I share the key takeaways from the 2018 American Public Health Association's (APHA) conference in San Diego. I had originally planned to just share my thoughts, but decided to reach out to other attendees and gather feedback from our community as well. So, I will first go through the collective feedback, then share five of my personal takeaways from the conference with you. There is so much more that I took away from the annual meeting, but I just focus on five for now. I will spend time processing my notes, applying what I learned, and feeding off of the information for months to come. I hope you enjoy this episode. I want to say a special thank you to everyone who participated in providing feedback for this episode, and to everyone that I met at the conference. You are all amazing and I sincerely appreciate you for being a part of this podcast community.

This is a special APHA Epidemiology Section featured episode, with Toby Levin, PhD, MPH. Be sure to listen to the full episode, as Dr. Levin discusses her journey from into public health and her work as an epidemiologist in the county health department. She talks about lab work, academia, and so much more.

In this episode, I talk about reviewing progress, assessing where you are, and setting career goals for next year. During the last quarter of every year, I begin the process of setting goals for the next year. This year, I thought it would be a good idea to share some of this with you all, and help you take advantage of this ideal time to conduct a self-evaluation and make some decisions about the new year for yourself regarding your career in public health.

At the time this episode is published, I'm attending the American Public Health Associations annual meeting in San Diego CA, along with about 12,000 other attendees. Meeting in person with your peers and colleagues is a powerful experience and something that I encourage all of you to make a priority.

Meet Dr. Anthony Pothoulakis, a cardiologist who is passionate about prevention. He strongly believes that we all have a serious job to do in defending the obesity-diabetes-artery disease epidemic. In order to reduce the rates of obesity and diabetes, we cannot rely only on doctors, nurses, hospitals, and universities. We must all work together, as a community, to fight against sugars and prolonged sitting and have a zero-tolerance policy for high blood pressure, high LDL, and smoking. He goes on further to say that we must band together and fight the enemy in our schools, or workplaces, and in our homes every single day. Join me in this episode where Dr. Pothoulakis discusses these principles and introduces his new book, Arteries in Harmony. This episode is a great example of healthcare and public health coming together to provide a power tool that has the potential for great impact on population health.

This episode is a special featured episode for the APHA Epidemiology section. My special guest today is Dr. Cathy Troisi. She shares her journey into public health, including her rich experiences in the fields of infectious disease epidemiology and academia. She offers some advice and tips for students, recent graduates, and anyone interested in a career in public health.

Are you planning to attend the American Public Health Association's (APHA) conference? I've reviewed some tips from a few schools of public health, and would like to share with you the tips that I believe will be the most helpful for anyone who is planning to attend the APHA's annual meeting. All of these sources shared great tips, but I had to narrow things down to a select few to cover on this episode.

Today I'm excited to introduce you to Misozi Houston, a program coordinator providing programs to reduce poverty and increase access to health education. She is a public health professional with a passion for community health that goes way back to her childhood. She has used her personal and professional experiences, across a diverse background including restaurant management and nursing, to transition into public health, demonstrating powerful leadership qualities that I truly admire! I first mentioned Misozi back in episode #13, where I discussed my face to face meeting with her at the public health conference in Georgia and I even shared a photo of us on the show notes page for that episode. She had been following the podcast for a while at that point, and it was a great opportunity to meet in person. We've kept in touch a bit over time and I've been able to watch her grow tremendously over this past year. I am delighted that she accepted my invitation to join me on this episode to share her journey and insights, and I think so many of you will find this episode to be very helpful, insightful, and encouraging. www.drchhuntley.com

In this episode, I share with you a brand new public health promotion initiative that I've started, and explain why. This will be an excellent example of what I encourage all of you to do on almost every single episode of this podcast, and also an example of how I implement the strategies that I teach in my coaching program.

I am happy to introduce you to Angela Arder, who was one of the early members of the Developing Your Public Health Career Strategy Program. She has a background in healthcare, hospital administration, and government customer service. She is educated, caring, and passionate about public health. However, life has often interrupted her career goals and plans….but has not stopped her. She said she didn't realize that she needed a strategy, but just assumed things would fall into place and automatically happen for her once she completed her degree. She talks about the heart-breaking realization that it takes even more effort. Focused effort. We will be discussing her reasons for enrolling, how she has benefited, some of the challenges she's faced and how she's been able to overcome those challenges. She also shares some advice to anyone listening who may be in a similar situation as she was in before developing her public health career strategy. DrCHHuntley.com

Hurricane Florence recently hit the Carolinas, here in the United States, and caused devastating damages from high winds, flooding, and local tornadoes. For several days leading up to the storm, we all watched and waited as meteorologists tracked the storm system and kept us all informed. I live in South Carolina and I have family members and close friends throughout South Carolina, as well as North Carolina. We were all engaged in preparedness activities on some level. In this podcast episode, I focus my discussion on my experience with the elderly population around me during this weather event. Additionally, I share with you my key takaways from this experience, including some ideas and tips that you can apply in a preparedness program for your area as well.

We have all experienced the paralyzing effect of information overload at some point, right? In this episode, I share tips for avoiding information overload and staying focused.

I'm very excited to introduce my guest on this episode, Niya Allen-Vatel, who is truly an expert in her field! She has been featured in Forbes, Glassdoor, Yahoo Finance, Big Interview, and xoNecole. She was gracious enough to come on the show and provide guidance and very insightful tips for everyone, and I appreciate her for being so generous. Niya is a 3x-certified résumé writer, career transition coach, and brand strategist helping ambitious leaders build their brands to boost credibility, increase opportunities, and establish themselves as an expert in their niche. She is the owner of the premier career branding service, Career Global, based in New York City.

Today we are going to do something a little different. As we wrap up the summer, I thought it would be a good time to share with you some of the fun stuff I did over the summer. You guys always hear me discussing strategies and work and goals, but I did spend a lot of time with my family over this past summer and I'd like to share some of that fun stories with you in this episode today.

Today's topic is inspired by a similar type of question that I've been asked quite a bit lately. As you know, whenever that happens, I think there are likely even more people with the same question so I tend to address the topic on a podcast episode. The questions are typically like this, "I have a masters' degree in public health and also a bachelor's degree in sociology; what can I do with that?" Or "What ideas do you have about potential jobs for me?" "What are your thoughts about that?"

Karen Akins joins me to discuss her passion-driven project, a documentary about the negative impact of sugary drinks among children in rural Mexico. The documentary is scheduled to be complete around spring/summer of 2019. We plan to have Karen come back to the show next year to discuss the film once its closer to the point of release, because there will be a great opportunity to participate in an educational health promotion campaign within your own local communities. In this episode, we spend most of our time discussing International Quit Soda Day, which will be October 20, 2018. Listen carefully as she tells her story, and you'll be able to hear her passion for the various causes she describes and how that passion has been the driving force (something I'm always encouraging all of you to connect with. If you haven't listened yet, be sure to check out podcast episode #16, which is all about finding your passion for public health.) I also want you to listen for the opportunities to get involved in raising awareness of the impact of sugary drinks in both of the health promotion projects that she will be describing during the interview.

Thank you to all members of this community and faithful listeners of the podcast. This is a major milestone and accomplishment that I'm very excited to reach. My goal for creating the podcast was to mentor and help those who were interested in public health careers, sharing tips and strategies for entering or transitioning into the field. I am proud to have accomplished that in this first year, and look forward to continuing to do more of the same in the episodes to come. In this episode, I share the winner of our giveaway in celebration of this milestone, the top five episodes of this first year (which surprised me a bit), and I provide you with a glimpse of what's to come on the podcast. Be sure to listen to the full episode, and to subscribe to the podcast so that you receive the newest episodes automatically every week as soon as they are published.

My goal for creating the podcast was to mentor and help those who were interested in public health careers, sharing tips and strategies for entering or transitioning into the field. I was focused on giving, and didn't expect to receive so much in return. In this episode, I share five surprising benefits of my first year of podcasting.

This episode is a bit different, and comes as a result of my reflection over this first year of podcasting. I'm asking several questions, even though I can't hear your responses. The questions are really for your benefit, not mine. They will hopefully spark the kind of energy that will help you explore your thoughts and motives and perhaps lead you to discover a bit about your own public health career journey. I strongly encourage you to listen, and think about the questions and the message that I share in this episode. DrCHHuntley.com

People often use the terms interchangeably, but they are different. The goals of mentoring and coaching are essentially the same, to help the individual develop skills and achieve success. Mentoring and coaching work together to help you achieve success. However, the way that mentoring and coaching function are different. Understanding these differences will help you explore available resources, understand what resources are best for you, and may also help you as you network with other professionals. After listening to this episode, I encourage you to visit the home page (DrCHHuntley.com) and request a demo of all of the available resources offered on my website.

Communication skills are important for all professionals, especially those in public health. Good communication will help you present research, relay information to community members, coordinate with co-workers, and build relationships within the public health field. Developing your communication skills has many rewards. Be sure you document your experiences that involve the use of these skills.

We are quickly approaching the 1-year anniversary of the Public Health Epidemiology Careers Podcast! In this episode, we'll offer three ways that you can help us celebrate.

Volunteering is a great way to gain experience, network within your community, and get closer to the public health career you desire. Unfortunately, some people have difficulty fitting in the time or energy to volunteer. But it doesn't have to be overwhelming or complicated! In this episode, I address a common myth about volunteering and share an alternative way of approaching the idea of volunteering.

This episode is brought to you by the American Public Health Association's (APHA) Epidemiology Section, where I serve as a part of the leadership team. Learn more about the APHA Epidemiology Section. Dr. Oscar Alleyne is the Senior Advisor of Public Health Programming at the National Association of County Health Officials (NACHO), which provides leadership and support for 2,000 county and city health departments across the country. He specifically focuses on infectious disease, informatics, public health preparedness, and pandemic and catastrophic response.

The annual meeting of the American Public Health Association (APHA) is coming up later this year, so this is a good time to seriously consider attending. In this episode, I discuss what the APHA is, what happens at the annual meeting, and how it can help you grow your public health career.

This episode summarizes a discussion from our community, where a member wanted to learn more about the role of an epidemiologist. She has just completed her undergraduate degree in life sciences and is interested in pursuing her master of public health, specifically in epidemiology. She asked for feedback, comments, and feedback from other epidemiologists in the group. This was a popular discussion, and one that I felt everyone could benefit from in the form of this podcast episode. It is so important to have an understanding of the role of epidemiology, even if you're not an epidemiologist.

In this episode, I answer a question submitted by one of the members of our community. The question comes from someone who is about to start a DrPH program. The program is a hybrid program, with the majority of the coursework being delivered online. Her questions are regarding the anticipated struggle to manage time between work, home, and school.

In this episode, I'm happy to share with all of you an interview with Eric Pevzner as we discuss some important and very interesting details about the CDC's Epidemic Intelligence Service, (EIS) program. There is a great deal of information covered in this episode, which is why the show notes page for this episode is so comprehensive and includes links to find out more about what is discussed in the interview. CAPT Pevzner is Chief of the Epidemiology Workforce Branch in the Division of Scientific Education and Professional Development, and Chief of the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Program. He is also a Captain in the Commissioned Corps of the United States Public Health Service.

This episode is a little different, as I share discussion responses to public health topics in one of our community groups. Not only do I share the questions, responses, and comments from members of the group, I also provide my feedback as well. At the end, I summarize and present takeaway messages and tips for taking action.

This episode will help you understand how the program, Developing Your Public Health Career Strategy was formed, the purpose of the program, and who the program is designed to serve. This is an important episode for everyone to hear, both students and graduates. If you've already completed your degree in public health, but have been facing challenges getting into the field, then you definitely want to listen to the full episode. You'll be able to hear in my voice just how important this is to me and how much I care about this topic.

Practicum is a supervised field experience, part of a master's degree program. Maximize this experience and lessons learned, whether you've already completed it or it's in your future. This is your journey, and you should own this experience as a part of it. In this episode, I share a bit about my practicum experience with the Office of Minority Health conducting a diabetes prevention program. I also share just a few examples of how I benefited from my own practicum experience, but there are many more ways to benefit beyond what I mention. If you are required to complete a practicum as a part of your degree, then I encourage you to listen to this episode and enroll in the workshop that is designed to help you understand and prepare. See the link below for registration information.

In this episode, I share my thoughts about some common public health career challenges that so many people are facing. Not only do I discuss the challenges, but I also identify some strategies to address these challenges.

Motivating you to rise up, take action, and advance toward your public health career goals means that we can collectively impact public health around the world. That is why I'm sharing insights, as well as providing tools and resources to help as many of you as I can. The five tips that I discuss in this episode will really help you move forward. Below are some highlights, but please be sure to listen to the full episode.

This episode is a little different from the usual flow, and includes a story about a conversation I recently had with my mother and what I learned from it. I took away a lesson from it that I share on this episode, because I think you may benefit from it as well. At the very least, it might make you smile.

During the first 98 days of this year, I lead a team of amazing people in the American Public Health Association's (APHA) health promotion campaign, the 1 Billion Steps Challenge. My team, DrCHHuntley and Friends, finished in 6th place out of 392 teams! We are super proud of that accomplishment. What I learned through this experience was far beyond anything that I had imagined when I started. In this episode, I share my journey and the lessons learned along the way. As I share these lessons and my story, I encourage you to consider leading a health promotion campaign and provide you with some resources to get started.

This week April 2 – 8, 2018, is National Public Health Week (NPHW), which is an initiative of the American Public Health Association. The theme this year is Healthiest Nation 2030, Changing Our Future Together. The first of our series of workshops will be available this week, and the timing of these workshops couldn't be better, as the purpose aligns well with the surgeon general's opening keynote message of NPHW. After hearing the Dr. Jerome Adams, I was so encouraged and inspired that I changed the planned episode for this week for the one you're listening to now. If you were not present to hear his speech and did not attend the live webcast, then I encourage you to find the recording at some point and listen to his message.

In this episode, I introduce you to Dr. Laurie Elam-Evans, who shares her journey into public health, as well as insights and helpful strategies and tips. Dr. Elam-Evans is the Lead Health Scientist and Team Leader for National Immunization Survey (NIS) Team at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where she has worked for over 27 years accumulating a wealth of public health knowledge and experience. She is also the current Chair of the American Public Health Association (APHA) Epidemiology Section. Be sure to listen to the full episode and explore the resource links shared below.

In this episode, I introduce you to Dr. Cynthia Hickman. She is an active researcher, public speaker, and nutritional health educator. At an early age, she knew she wanted to be a nurse and she shares her journey through nursing and explains how she was a natural educator and developed a passion for nutritional health. After a rewarding career in nursing, including 25 years of nursing experience, Dr. Hickman pursued and accomplished her PhD in Health Services. Her plans are to explore teaching opportunities outside of nursing, without abandoning her nursing foundation (as she says: "once a nurse, always a nurse"). She is very active with research, nursing organizations, speaking, and sharing information.

Public Health Epidemiology Careers Podcast Born out of my experiences, I am "being the change that I want to see." In this episode, I speak clearly and boldly so that people who choose to connect with me fully understand my purpose and motivation. I provide answers, clarity, and direction. Answers to these questions: Why do I care about helping other people get into public health careers? Why do I host this public health careers podcast? Why do I create public health career guides and free resources? Why do I offer public health career coaching programs? Clarity about purpose, who this podcast and resources are for (and who it's NOT for). Direction in terms of 4 specific action steps for action-takers. This time, you're going to have to listen to the full episode and at the end I give the 4 Action-steps for Action-takers. I am "being the change that I want to see." After listening to this full episode, there will be no question about my purpose, enthusiasm, passion, focus, heart to serve, desire to teach, my happy upbeat spirit, my positive and motivating outlook, or my natural tendency toward encouraging and empowering and inspiring others!

In this episode, I introduce you to Christian Vigil, as he shares a great story of the global public health initiatives with Medical Education Cooperation with Cuba (MEDICC). He shares his amazing journey into public health, and how he combined his personal experiences growing up, his education, and his passion to see positive changes in health throughout his community. Christian talks about the robust health system in Cuba, and how MEDICC is taking action to help foster collaborations between the Cuban health system and communities within the United States. You definitely don't want to miss this episode!

This episode is a quick message to share some ideas about how you can begin to apply the knowledge that you're learning as a student, right now. You don't have to wait for the perfect volunteer opportunity or internship to come along before applying what you're learning in your coursework. Listen to this brief episode for some quick tips and ideas to get you started. Tips covered in this episode include ideas for: Health Promotion Program Assessment and Evaluation Raising Awareness Sharing Knowledge Occupational Health and Safety Let me know if this episode sparks some ideas for you!

A large portion of my audience includes people who have completed their degree but struggle with getting into the field of public health for one reason or another. Questions about how I became an epidemiologist were (and still are) the most common questions I received on LinkedIn, because people really wanted to know how I managed to get into the position that matched my degree. That is one of the main reasons I started this podcast. I place a big emphasis on motivating students and encouraging them to "own" their journey through graduate school (instead of just surviving) and to develop a broader view of the possibilities within public health, regarding careers. Recently, I've decided to focus on a better way to help those of you who have already completed your degree, but face challenges getting into the field of public health. Instead of working one on one, I developed a program that can help several at once and begin to foster a new community where you can start to encourage one another, network, and begin to achieve your career goals. I polled members of the podcast group on Facebook, and found interesting results. The number one career challenge that people who had already completed their public health degrees faced was lack of experience or skills needed to get into the field. The second biggest challenge, which was very close to number one, was the belief that public health job opportunities are limited. Please listen to the full episode for more details.