Q: What universities have you attended, degrees earned, and graduation years?

Truman State University (Kirksville, MO): BS in Psychology, Minor: Biology, 2018; Goldfarb School of Nursing at Barnes Jewish College (St. Louis, MO): BS in Nursing, 2019; University of Alabama at Birmingham: Master of Public Health, graduating December 2025

Q: Which program within the Department of Environmental Health Sciences are you currently enrolled?

I am in the MPH program, concentration in Health Policy and Organization, with an emphasis in Maternal and Child Health. I hope to complete the Global Health certificate program also.

Q: What is your anticipated graduation date from your current program?

December 2025

Q: Tell me about yourself (where you grew up, how you got into public health, how you ended up at UAB, etc.)

I am from a rural town in Missouri, where my family still lives and farms. From a young age, I knew I wanted to work in healthcare and that passion drove me to nursing. Throughout the past five years, I have been working in Neonatal ICUs both as a staff nurse and traveling nurse in different cities. I had the opportunity to learn from a lot of parents and health workers around the US and I saw the impact of different cultural regions and health policies by state or hospital system as they affected families’ experience. Seeing these variances and getting to know the folks that they were impacting encouraged me to get involved volunteering for organizations like Nurses for Newborns in St. Louis and wondering about the policies that help or harm the families of newborns that I care for. All of these experiences and more helped me to find public health and UAB, where I have had the opportunity to learn exactly what I had hoped to find.

Q: Why did you choose to study Environmental Health Sciences? And why at UAB?

During my time travel nursing, and in my interim periods traveling the world, I have had the ability to talk with mothers from all walks of life about their pregnancy and the impacts of work, policies, family distance, or their health on the experience that they had with their newborn. Experiences vary so much by culture and place, which is fascinating and made me wonder if policies that are focused on the health of families would be able to make a large impact on the care provided in hospitals and in the community. That curiosity and the great reputation of UAB as a health leader in the South, with a well-known Maternal and Child Health concentration, brought me here.

Q: Is there a faculty member who has made an impact on your academic journey during this program?

Dr. Meredith Gartin and the Global Health certificate program have had a positive impact on my academic journey here at UAB and have influenced my plans for after completing my MPH. Talking with Dr. Gartin and taking her classes has increased my knowledge and appreciation of other cultures.

Q: Have you been involved in any interesting projects or organizations during your time here?

Last fall, my advisor, Dr. Andrzej Kulczycki reached out after we had our introductory zoom call and asked if I would be interested in taking on a project by helping him in the research for an encyclopedia chapter he was writing. Through this opportunity, I was able to utilize the skills that I am learning in my program and dig into research in a subject that I really care about, maternal mortality. Working on this publication, I was able to build important skills and learn from a faculty member that I admire, gaining skills as a writer and researcher.

Q: What’s been your favorite class in the School of Public Health and why?

This semester, I am in GHS 603- Immigrant, Migrant, and Refugee Health with Dr. Gartin. It is my favorite class that I have taken so far at UAB. I have had an interest in global public health and in immigration within U.S. cities for a long time, but this class has really allowed me to grow in my understanding of migration throughout the world. We have built on our understanding of the fears, stressors, or joys that migrants can face in their journey to another place, and in the policy implications that can affect that experience. This class has further encouraged me to pursue a career that is immigrant or refugee-minded after graduation.