Ron Brookmeyer Named Interim Dean
FOR THE TEACHERS IN THE LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT elementary school classrooms that participate in Generation Xchange (GenX), the middle-age and older adults who spend at least 10 hours a week providing academic assistance and support to struggling students are a welcome addition, to say the least.
Janae Hubbard Joins FSPH as Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Program Manager
MAI VANG (MPH '11) says the idea of running for public office hadn’t occurred to her when she left her hometown of Sacramento in 2008 to enroll in the Fielding School’s joint MPH/MA in Asian American Studies program. But through her graduate education, Vang — the eldest of 16 children born to Hmong refugee parents from Laos — grew determined to return to make a difference for her community, both from outside and within the political system.
The MPH in Health Policy and Management is a one-year program designed for individuals with a previous academic or professional doctoral-level degree who have already worked in health care for several years and wish to refine their health services skills and knowledge. Physicians, dentists, attorneys, social scientists, and other professionals enter this program to gain an understanding of the complexities and process of the health care system.
CARLOS CHAVEZ (MPH ’18) already had an established career at health insurance provider Anthem Inc. when he decided to enroll in FSPH’s Executive Master of Public Health (EMPH) to fill in gaps in his health policy and management knowledge. The program made it possible for Chavez to take classes toward his degree on weekends while continuing in his full-time job. But right before he was about to graduate, Chavez realized he wanted to tack on another skill that seemed to be in heavy demand.
Each summer, Fielding School students gain hands-on experience practicing public health locally, internationally and in between. For many, these internships provide the first opportunity to apply classroom lessons and to weigh potential public health career paths. On the pages that follow, eight such students recount their recent summer training and how it has influenced their post-graduation plans.
THE U.S. SPENDS MORE THAN $10,000 PER PERSON on health care per year, approximately twice as much as the average spent by comparable high-income countries. There is ample evidence we aren’t getting our money’s worth. The rate of amenable mortality — premature deaths that could have been avoided with effective and timely health care — is higher in the U.S. than in any comparable high-income country, and more than 50 percent higher than in France, Australia, Japan and Sweden.
AFTER A $1 MILLION GIFT from Tom and Edna Gordon and the Don S. Levin Trust established the Paul Torrens Chair in Healthcare Management at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, Tom Gordon vowed that he was just getting started. Determined to find others to join him in honoring Dr.
SCROLLING THROUGH INSTAGRAM IN AUGUST 2020, DR. KRISTEN CHOI (MS ’18), assistant professor in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and the UCLA School of Nursing, came across an ad that would dramatically alter how she’d spend her days.