Public Health SPOTlight Podcast

This episode is from inside PH SPOT’s membership community: The Public Health Career Club.

You’ll get to listen in on a training session where career club members got a chance to ask Sujani questions. In this episode, we share one of those questions: How did you start PH SPOT? / How can I start a side hustle?

What You’ll Learn from this Episode:

• How Sujani started to see herself as someone who could build solutions to solve problems.
• The story of the first side hustle she launched: a not-for-profit organization
• How and why PH SPOT was built
• Why PH SPOT is incorporated federally
• How to get started with your idea
• About The Public Health Career Club, PH SPOT’s membership community.

Today’s Guest:

Sujani Sivanantharajah is the founder and CEO of PH SPOT.

Sujani Sivanantharajah is a public health professional trained in Epidemiology. Her gift and passion lie in building relationships and using these relationships to create and cultivate spaces for people to find meaningful partnerships that can serve their communities. In 2017, this passion led her to build PHSPOT.org, a platform and community for public health professionals around the world to build their dream careers.

Sujani holds a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree from the University of Saskatchewan and an Honours Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Toronto.

Featured on the Show:

• The Public Health Career Club
• Not Your Average Productivity Course: Get more done in less time, without hustling - A 5-week course for women in public health

Thank you to McKool Coaching for sponsoring this episode. Marissa McKool helps women in public health stop overworking and get more REST.

Support the show

Join The Public Health Career Club: the #1 hangout spot and community dedicated to building and growing your dream public health career.

In this episode, Sujani sits down with Dr. Marissa Robinson, coordinator of the Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative at the US Department of Health. They discuss Marissa’s education and career, her interest in HIV and the Black community’s access to health, and harnessing charisma in your professional life.

You’ll Learn

• How Marissa’s personal experiences shaped her interest in the social determinants of health, specifically with HIV and the Black community’s access to health
• Marissa’s experience at Spelman College, a historically Black college for women, and what factors she considered when making choices about education
• Tips on dealing with rejection, self doubt, and other barriers in your career
• How charisma is essential in leadership and public health and why it is especially important for women of colour to develop this skill

Today’s Guest

Dr. Marissa Robinson is a strategic-leader, visionary, and disruptor within the field of Infectious Disease. She focuses on HIV/AIDS research, educating the need to increase opportunities and diversity amongst the public health workforce. She currently leads as the Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S. (EHE) initiative Coordinator at the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health within the Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy.

Dr. Robinson is a DMV native and is trained in infectious disease epidemiology. She has conducted extensive HIV/AIDS research for over a decade. She began her federal career when she joined the United States Peace Corps as a Community Health and Malaria Prevention volunteer in Togo, West Africa. After returning to the US, Dr. Robinson worked at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) in the HIV/AIDS Bureau (HAB) on global infectious disease surveillance supporting the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) initiative. Following her time at HRSA, Dr. Robinson joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) where she conducted and maintained data analytics for a Nursing and Midwifery initiative on behalf of PEPFAR for 13 African countries. After her time at CDC, Dr. Robinson joined the CDC Foundation on the Teens Linked to Care pilot program with the CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health which focused on substance use and sexual risk among youth in rural populations.

Dr. Robinson completed her Doctor of Public Health degree as a Goldseeker Scholar at Morgan State University’s School of Community Health and Policy. Her dissertation was entitled “A Qualitative Exploration of Preexposure Prophylaxis Among Black Women Attending a Historically Black College and University in the Northeastern United States”. Dr. Robinson completed her doctoral fellowship training at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Pre-Doctoral Clinical Research Training Program. Dr. Robinson received her Master of Public Health with a concentration in global health, infectious diseases, and a certificate in socio-contextual determinants of health from Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health and her Bachelor of Arts in psychology and public health from Spelman College.

Resources

• Follow Marissa on LinkedIn or Twitter or send her an email
• Learn more about Spelman College
• Listen to The "It" Factor

Support the show

Join The Public Health Career Club: the #1 hangout spot and community dedicated to building and growing your dream public health career.

In this episode, Sujani sits down with Patrice Sirmons-Davis, the founder of PSD Consulting Group. They talk about Patrice’s journey from working in direct clinical care to public health, the values of gathering other perspectives when reflecting on your skills and career, and how PSD Consulting Group came to be.

You’ll Learn

• How Patrice found her way from patient advocacy to nursing to public health
  • How Patrice’s experience in direct clinical care shone a light on frustrations she had with the current healthcare system
  • What difficulties Patrice encountered when transitioning from a clinical role to a public health role
  • Tips for those in clinical roles who are thinking of changing professions
• How to recognize your skills and joys and the values of having outside perspectives affirm your skill sets
• How PSD Consulting Group aims to integrate traditional healthcare with public health
  • What motivated Patrice to create her own consulting company
  • Patrice’s experience with creating her own company
• How Patrice’s own career journey motivated her to also do career coaching for early professionals
• Tips for those in the early stages of building their careers on overcoming financial barriers and where their sets of skills could bring changes in healthcare

Today’s Guest

Patrice Sirmons is the Owner and Principal Consultant at PSD Consulting Group. She started her career in public health in 1999 as a patient advocate in a community clinic. Since then she has worked at community health centers, ambulatory surgical centers, a county health department, and a nationally ranked hospital system, however, her true love is public health.

She now works as a consultant and healthcare operations strategist. In this role, she works with community and healthcare organizations to create operational and program solutions that improve outcomes for the organizations and the people they serve.

Her interests include addressing health disparities and barriers, integrating public health into traditional healthcare practices, and community health planning and policy development. She has demonstrated areas of expertise that include program development and evaluation, clinical operations and process improvement, and project management.

Patrice holds a Master of Public Health from Des Moines University and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Ohio University. She is a licensed Registered Nurse and a Board Certified Nurse Executive - Advanced.

Resources

• Follow Patrice on LinkedIn
• Learn more about Patrice and the PSD Consulting Group

Support the show

Join The Public Health Career Club: the #1 hangout spot and community dedicated to building and growing your dream public health career.

In this episode, Sujani sits down with Kristi Sprowl, the Community Impact Director at the American Heart Association. They talk about finding your niche in public health, building from your experiences, and ways to champion and innovate the profession of public health.

You’ll Learn

• How Kristi found her way into public health through nursing
• Why Kristi decided to pursue a Doctor in Public Health degree and how a doctorate can offer more flexibility and opportunity
• Tips on how to find the right career path for you including exploring as much as you can and finding the right mentors and community
• How knowing your “why” and centering yourself helps you avoid burnout and accomplish your goals
• Interviewing tips and how to springboard from prior jobs and experiences to a new position
• The importance of servitude and taking action outside of the workplace
• How the workplace is changing and where innovation can take place in the public health field

Today’s Guest

Kristi Sprowl is a Los Angeles native, health enthusiast, and Public Health Practitioner through rigorous academic training. She received her Bachelor of Science degree at California State University, Dominguez Hills in Community Health and her Master in Public Health degree at the University of Arizona where she received numerous awards for her research efforts related to public health issues affecting women. Kristi moved to Atlanta to pursue her public health career on a larger scale and joined Emory University conducting public health clinical research and worked as a Senior Health Educator at the Fulton County Board of Health where she planned and implemented community public health education programs, community outreach campaigns and public awareness initiatives with clinics, schools, and other stakeholders across Georgia’s largest county. Kristi now works as a Community Impact Director at the American Heart Association, leading and directing health initiatives in the Metro Atlanta region to drive local policy change. Kristi was recently accepted into the Doctor of Public Health program at the University of Georgia's 2021 cohort for working executives. She was awarded as a 2021 Health Equity Fellow at the University of Georgia and now representing as a 2022 Urban Leaders Fellow for Dekalb County in Atlanta’s metro region. Her future goals include teaching at the collegiate level, conducting research around leadership training and assessment for BIPOC professionals, and advancing programmatic efforts around social determinants of health and racial inequities.

Resources

• Follow Kristi on LinkedIn
• Learn more about the American Heart Association
• Learn more about the McNair Scholars Program
• Read about the de Beaumount data about stress and burnout in public health professionals

Support the show

Join The Public Health Career Club: the #1 hangout spot and community dedicated to building and growing your dream public health career.

In this episode, Sujani sits down with Shaniece Criss, an associate professor at Furman university and community leader. They discuss how Shaniece’s passion for media and performance led her to public health and how to incorporate your own interests in order to create a job that is fulfilling for you.

You’ll Learn

• Shaniece’s three spheres of influence and how they have affected her career
• How Shaniece found her way into public health through an interest in media and performance
• Shaniece’s experience going into an MPH straight from an undergraduate degree and the differences she saw between those who had previous work experience in the health field
• What made Shaniece decide to pursue further education after her MPH
• What the “golden handcuffs” are and how to take and incorporate aspects of certain professions/interests that bring you happiness to create your own perfect career
• What made Shaniece interested in academia and where she hopes to progress to in the future
• The importance of being involved in boards and councils and how that can further public health in your community
  • How you can start to get involved in various boards and organizations
• What a day in the life of an associate professor looks like

Today’s Guest

Dr. Shaniece Criss is a multifaceted, enthusiastic leader who works in the areas of higher education, research, government, and health media. In academia, she is an Associate Professor in the Health Sciences Department at Furman University and a community-engaged qualitative researcher addressing health equity and health communication. As a founding member of the Big Data for Health Equity Research Collaborative, she works with university researchers from across the U.S. to investigate how societal issues impact health. At Furman, she partners with the Institute for the Advancement of Community Health and serves as a Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach.

Dr. Criss is an elected official on Travelers Rest City Council and serves on the board of directors for Prisma Health and South Carolina Hospital Association. She also serves as a community advisor for the Jolley Foundation and Greenville County Schools. Most recently, she created the Dr. Shaniece Instagram account to educate others about public health. For her professional and community endeavors, she was recognized as one of eleven leaders from across the state with the “Women Vision SC” Award from ETV. In addition, she was named a “ChangeMaker” by Multiplying Good, inducted into the Greenville County Schools Hall of Fame, and received the UNCF Mayors’ Ball Community Award.

With a passion to implement effective interventions and policies, she earned her doctorate from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Master of Public Administration from Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where she was awarded a Presidential Public Service Fellowship. She has a Master of Public Health from Emory University and an undergraduate degree in communication from Oglethorpe University. As a public health practitioner, Dr. Criss served as producer and host for a national television show for the Ministry of Health in Guyana during her Peace Corps service. She also held positions at ICF International, Centers for Disease Control, and CNN.
Resources

• Follow Shaniece on Instagram
• Learn more about the Peace Corps
• Learn more about LiveWell Greenville

Support the show

Join The Public Health Career Club: the #1 hangout spot and community dedicated to building and growing your dream public health career.