Turning a Passion for Public Health into Action

Connect for Health is run out of the Lifespan Community Health Institute, and you can either volunteer at Hasbro Children's Hospital or Rhode Island Hospital. Essentially, you act as a volunteer social worker for patients who are referred to us by their child’s pediatrician or their own primary care physician. The goal is to address basic social needs that can improve their long-term health. For instance, we might direct them to the nearest food pantry, help them navigate the SNAP application process or assist with applying for Section 8 housing. One of the most common tasks is helping people obtain subsidized heating and utilities during the winter.

In essence, we’re meeting people where they are and addressing their immediate needs. I worked one-on-one with patients and their families, which was incredibly rewarding and aligned perfectly with what I hope to do in medicine—working with vulnerable and underserved communities. That experience really reinforced my commitment to service.

At the same time, health policy has also become a major focus for me, particularly through my research. I’ve been looking at the impacts on dual-eligible beneficiaries—people who are both low-income and elderly—a particularly vulnerable population. I’m also interested in how policy affects beneficiaries of color, another marginalized group in the U.S.

In addition to my work at Connect for Health, I got involved with the Brown Undergraduate Journal of Public Health (BUJPH). In 2021, former Brown alums Grace Reed ’22 and Maddie Noh ’22 started the journal, and they selected me as the first-ever managing editor. I held that role during my sophomore and junior years, where I focused on crafting the editorial process, ensuring strong collaboration between editors and reviewers and maintaining the integrity of our publication process.

By my senior year, I became the editor-in-chief, and our goal was to grow the journal every year. One of the highlights was being featured during Brown’s celebration of National Public Health Week, where we had the chance to showcase the work of several students. My time with BUJPH was a unique and entrepreneurial experience—it was brand new, and we were pushing boundaries. We were trying to establish ourselves both within the School of Public Health and the broader community.

I’m really excited to see where the journal goes in the future. Even Dean Jha acknowledged BUJPH at this year’s Dean’s Awards Ceremony, which was a nice validation of all the work we put in and a sign of how much we had grown.

Was it your plan from the start—to begin with a public health degree and transition into medicine?

I always knew I wanted to go into medicine, but I wasn’t initially set on public health. When I applied to Brown in 2019, I actually applied as a history and biochemistry concentrator. I wanted to do both, but when I took a closer look at the classes and course requirements, I realized it wouldn’t be feasible to do both while also taking full advantage of Brown’s open curriculum—which is something that drew me to the school.

So, I started looking for alternatives, and one concentration that stood out to me was public health. It was convenient in a way because it unified my two interests—social science and natural science—within the context of medicine.

I’ve always had an interest in health policy, partly because of my family. My dad is a primary care physician and my mom is a research scientist working on pharmaceutical drugs, so a lot of our dinner table conversations revolved around health policy. I knew that if I went into medicine, I’d want to focus on that realm because, personally, I wouldn’t be able to build a career in medicine without addressing the systemic and community-based factors that influence it.

My first public health class, “Healthcare in the U.S.” with Ira Wilson, was what really sold me—that’s when I knew this was the concentration for me.

Tell us about your work at CAHPR and the Center for Gerontology and Healthcare Research.

After my junior year, I joined the Health Data Science Fellowship, and that's how I first met Professor Andy Ryan, the director of CAHPR. I had already been working with Professors David Meyers and Amal Trivedi for a while, but Andy arrived at Brown during the fellowship. At the end of the program, he suggested we set up a meeting to talk about possible collaborations, and that eventually led to the position I’m in now.

One thing that sets CAHPR apart is its commitment to policy action. Andy, David and  Professor Yashaswini Singh, for example, translate their research into policy briefs and work with stakeholders and policymakers to bring about real change. Turning academic research into actionable insights that impact real-world policy is something I’m really drawn to. It’s the kind of work I see myself doing in the future as a physician and policymaker, conducting unbiased research that informs policy in meaningful ways.

I’ve only been at CAHPR for a few months, but I’m really excited for the year ahead. There’s so much to learn, and the experience so far has been fantastic. As a research assistant, my time at CAHPR would not be as productive, enriching, or enjoyable without great faculty mentors like David, Yashaswini and Andy and incredible staff like Arlene Correa, Haroon Janjua, Jay Shroff, Nandita Radhakrishnan, Megha Reddy and Alex Philips. I find the center's work on translating academic research into health policy action important and exciting, and I look forward to continuing to learn from such a talented team.

In gerontology, I’m working with the same people I collaborated with during my undergrad, working on projects like studying dialysis facility ownership in the U.S., particularly how physician ownership might impact the quality of care.

I’m also working on a project that continues what I started in undergrad. It looks at the effect of recent CMS regulations on Medicare Advantage plans, especially those targeting dual eligibles—people who qualify for both Medicaid and Medicare. We’re evaluating how this regulation has affected the market, and it’s still a key part of my work.

Do you envision setting up a career in Chicago after medical school? Heading back to the midwest? What about staying in New England?

I'm honestly not sure yet—I haven’t thought that far ahead. One thing about medicine is that it’s hard to plan too far in advance because you find out the next step, and then figure out the path from there. So first, I need to see if and where I get into medical school, then where I’ll do my residency and if I want to pursue any fellowship training after that.

From an academic standpoint, New England stands out to me because there are so many research institutes that focus on health policy, which is an area of interest for me. So staying in New England is definitely a possibility.