The Public Health SPOTlight Podcast: stories, inspiration, and guidance to build your dream public health career
PH SPOT
All episodes
Best episodes
Top 10 The Public Health SPOTlight Podcast: stories, inspiration, and guidance to build your dream public health career Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best The Public Health SPOTlight Podcast: stories, inspiration, and guidance to build your dream public health career episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to The Public Health SPOTlight Podcast: stories, inspiration, and guidance to build your dream public health career for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite The Public Health SPOTlight Podcast: stories, inspiration, and guidance to build your dream public health career episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
Entrepreneurship: from idea, to launch, to exit, with Thiv Paramsothy
The Public Health SPOTlight Podcast: stories, inspiration, and guidance to build your dream public health career
01/18/23 • 37 min
In this episode, Sujani sits down with Thiv Paramsothy, an entrepreneur and founder of several companies including his newest startup, Hera Fertility. They talk about innovation in healthcare, Thiv’s experiences with creating his startups, and offer advice for public health professionals with ideas for change and an interest in entrepreneurship.
You’ll Learn
- How Thiv found his way into public health
- Where Thiv’s love for technology first started
- Thiv’s experience with promoting the adoption of electronic medical records in Ontario
- What challenges arise with implementing new changes in healthcare
- What opportunities in E-health are available for public health professionals and how sometimes, we have to create our own spaces
- Advice for public health professionals with big ideas for change and an interest in entrepreneurship
- How a solid team and support network is essential in creating new products and services
- What Adracare is and what motivated Thiv to form the company
- A quick peek into Thiv’s newest startup, Hera Fertility
Today’s Guest
Hi 👋🏾 I'm Thiv. I love working with or founding startups to make real change happen in healthcare. My life's mission is to help patients, and providers get the care they need from the health system. The last startup (cofounded) was a telehealth practice management software (Adracare) that was sold to WELL Health Technologies. I'm on to my next startup - Hera Fertility - to revolutionize fertility financing. UWaterloo Alumni. When I'm not working, doing something with basketball or trying to be funny.
Resources
- Follow Thiv on LinkedIn
- Learn more about BlueDot
- Learn more about DoctorCare
- Learn more about Adracare
- Learn more about Thiv’s newest startup, Hera Fertility
Join The Public Health Career Club: the #1 hangout spot and community dedicated to building and growing your dream public health career.
Navigating a Virtual/Remote Workplace During COVID-19 with Erin and Julia from CanWaCH
The Public Health SPOTlight Podcast: stories, inspiration, and guidance to build your dream public health career
03/31/20 • 57 min
Show Notes
This is the first episode Sujani sat down to record since COVID-19 became a pandemic. And we know that it is a tough time for every single one of us. We are new to physically distancing ourselves from families and friends, and holding game night and coffee chats over a video call are just not the same...and we now have to adjust to having children and the entire family at home 24/7, and for some, the transition to working from home has been tough. We will be the first to say that we don’t like this way of living and wish things were different. But, it’s so important for us to sacrifice these things, and to bear some of this pain because it does save lives!
Given this current situation, and acknowledging that we may not be mentally ready to focus on building our careers the same way, we wanted to change things up for the next couple of podcast episodes (or more). These episodes will focus on slightly different topics ranging from tips to help you cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as fun behind the scenes reflections of PH SPOT to give you a bit of “entertainment” listening. If you have other ideas do email them to us, and we will incorporate them into a future episode. Once we feel that we are ready to get back to our regular show, we will start rolling those episodes out!
In this episode, Sujani sits down with two members from the Canadian Partnership for Women and Children’s Health (CanWaCH). CanWaCH catalyzes Canadian collaboration among 100 Partners who are improving women’s and children’s health in 1,000 communities worldwide.
The interesting part is that CanWaCH is a completely virtual workplace with 22 employees across Canada. Given they have been working in virtual workplace for a number of years now, we reached out to them so that they could offer up all of the lessons they’ve learned to help you, your organization and employees manage working in a virtual environment as a cohesive team. I talk to two individuals from CanWaCH’s team – Julia Anderson who is the Chief Operating Officer and Erin Jex, the Gender Equality Officer at CanWaCH.
You'll Learn:
- About the physical environment that Julia and Erin work from to give us a picture of their workspaces (Julia lives with 8 other people, and Erin has 1 other person)
- The makeup of the CanWaCH team, and their environments
- Whether COVID-19 has changed anything for them or their team, with respect to working from home
- The technology and tools that their team uses which enables them to work collaboratively and efficiently (and tips around this)
- The challenges they still face, despite having been a virtual workplace for a number of years
- As management, the importance of setting your intentions right from the beginning and reiterating it (constantly); and equally important is the trust you must build with your team
- Onboarding a virtual team member; how orientation is set up for these employees
- Tips and considerations to build relationships with your team members given the absence of regular face to face interactions
- The silver lining in working from home, and what they enjoy about a virtual workplace
Join The Public Health Career Club: the #1 hangout spot and community dedicated to building and growing your dream public health career.
Fuelling your leadership drive in public health with Nadia Akseer
The Public Health SPOTlight Podcast: stories, inspiration, and guidance to build your dream public health career
03/24/20 • 44 min
Show Notes
Leadership is fascinating. From the way movements are formed by a single individual to how that single individual is able to inspire change amongst others. Undoubtedly, we can argue that leadership is very important in public health.
In thinking about how we, as public health practitioners, can ensure that leadership is a skill that we constantly think about building on, we want to have conversations with our peers so that we can not only be reminded of our roles as leaders, but also to learn from and be inspired by them.
In this episode, Sujani speaks Dr. Nadia Akseer, an Epidemiologist-Biostatistician who has spent over 10 years leading research and analyses of clinical and population health datasets in the areas of reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health, as well as nutrition in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Ethiopia and other low- and middle-income countries.
In 2018, Nadia was identified as a Canadian Women Leader in Global Health, and in March 2019, she was awarded the 2019 Emerging Public Health Leader Alumni Award from the Public Health Alumni Association of the University of Toronto.
We speak about the leadership drive Nadia possesses, when she decided she wanted to become a leader in her space, and whether you need to be in a management position to be a leader, amongst other topics. And of course, I couldn’t let her go without asking about her multiple meetings with Bill Gates, to present and collaborate on some of her work.
You’ll Learn
- The leadership drive, and what it is
- What leadership means to Nadia
- How and when Nadia decided that she wanted to become a leader in this space she was passionate about
- Whether one needs to be in a management position to be a leader (hint: absolutely not)
- Natural born leaders versus people given the right opportunities to become a leader
- How Nadia goes about seeking new opportunities (as she is someone who thrives on being challenged and stimulated)
- A glimpse into the career path she took: from Biostatician at SickKids, to Global Health Research at SickKids, then to Harvard, and now at Gates Ventures
- How her view of leadership has changed over time
- Verbal Communication and its importance in good leadership
- A leader Nadia looks up to: Dr. Zulfiqar Butta
- Reflections from her meetings with Bill Gates to present her research and work together on countries that have managed to reduce child stunting
Join The Public Health Career Club: the #1 hangout spot and community dedicated to building and growing your dream public health career.
The importance of volunteering and how they shape your public health career, with Christina Ricci
The Public Health SPOTlight Podcast: stories, inspiration, and guidance to build your dream public health career
06/08/22 • 36 min
In this episode, Sujani sits down with Christina Ricci, an epidemiologist with the Public Health Agency of Canada and an avid volunteer. They discuss the importance of volunteerism and what motivates Christina to keep volunteering.
You’ll Learn
- How Christina got into the field of public health
- Christina’s volunteering journey and what motivated her to continue seeking out volunteer roles
- How Christina’s early volunteer experiences shaped her interest in public health and vice versa
- What some of the most rewarding volunteer positions have been for Christina and what skills she learned - both expected and unexpected
- Why it is important for Christina to continue volunteering, even after she landed a full-time public health job
- How to identify and land volunteer experiences, both formally and informally
- How to integrate volunteer work into your resume
- Factors to consider before taking on a volunteer role
- Tips on how to balance volunteer work with other work and play
- Advice from Christina for students and early career professionals as it relates to public health volunteer work
Today’s Guest
Christina is an Epidemiologist with the Public Health Agency of Canada and completed her Masters of Public Health in Epidemiology at the University of Toronto. Outside of work she volunteers with various universities doing systematic reviews, as a program manager for an NGO improving disability services access and disability inclusion stigma in West Africa as well as with the United Nations to name a few. She has also started her own program for newcomers to Canada to connect them to resources through webinars and workshops.
Resources
- Recommendations from Christina on where to look for volunteering opportunities
Other PH SPOT resources:
- Share ideas for the podcast: Fill out this form
- Never heard of a podcast before? Read this guide we put together to help you get set up.
- Be notified when new episodes come out, and receive hand-picked public health opportunities every week by joining the PH SPOT community.
- Contribute to the public health career blog: www.phspot.ca/contribute
- Upcoming course on infographics: phspot.ca/infographics
- Learn more about PH Spot's 6-week training program
Join The Public Health Career Club: the #1 hangout spot and community dedicated to building and growing your dream public health career.
From Canada to the US for a PhD in Mental Health at Johns Hopkins University and exploring careers outside of academia, with Kira Riehm
The Public Health SPOTlight Podcast: stories, inspiration, and guidance to build your dream public health career
05/18/22 • 46 min
In this episode, Sujani sits down with Kira Riehm, a psychiatric epidemiologist and a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Epidemiology at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. They discuss Kira’s journey and interest in mental health and things to consider when pursuing education in the U.S.
You’ll Learn
- What kicked off Kira’s interest in pursuing a career in mental health
- What Kira’s journey has been like so far and where she hopes to go next
- What things to consider if you are thinking of pursuing education in the U.S. versus in Canada
- An overview of the Johns Hopkins PhD in the Department of Mental Health program including:
- What coursework is like
- The specialties of being the only mental health department in a school of public health
- What Kira’s research interests are and what she has worked on in the past
- Kira’s postdoctoral experience and what research she is currently working on
- What it was like for Kira being a Canadian student doing her PhD in the U.S.
- What financial resources are available for Canadian students looking to pursue higher education abroad
- Advice from Kira for public health students, especially for those looking at studying abroad or pursuing research experiences
- Tips from Kira on how to plan out a career path
Today’s Guest
Kira is a psychiatric epidemiologist and a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Epidemiology at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. The primary aim of her research is to understand the causes, correlates, and consequences of mental health disorders among adolescents. Drawing on a wide variety of data sources, she designs research studies that involve the application of rigorous epidemiologic methods to answer pressing questions about youth mental health and substance use. Her work has been published in JAMA Psychiatry, Pediatrics, American Journal of Preventive Medicine, and American Journal of Public Health.
Resources
- Learn more about Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's PhD in the Department of Mental Health program
- Learn more about the Canadian Institutes of Health Research's Doctoral Research Awards
- Learn more about Kira and her research
- If you have any further questions for Kira, you can contact her by email
Other PH SPOT resources:
- Share ideas for the podcast: Fill out this form
- Never heard of a podcast before? Read this guide we put together to help you get set up.
- Be notified when new episodes come out, and receive hand-picked public health opportunities every week by joining the PH SPOT community.
- Contribute to the public health career blog: www.phspot.ca/contribute
- Upcoming course on infographics:
Join The Public Health Career Club: the #1 hangout spot and community dedicated to building and growing your dream public health career.
Public Health Resources Series: Public Health Insight Podcast, with Leshawn Benedict
The Public Health SPOTlight Podcast: stories, inspiration, and guidance to build your dream public health career
03/16/22 • 49 min
In this episode, Sujani sits with Leshawn Benedict, a cofounder of Public Health Insight. They talk about Leshawn’s story of his involvements in different public health fields as well as what Public Health Insight is and how they're achieving their mission.
You’ll Learn
- How Leshawn became interested and involved in the field of public health
- Advice for students thinking about applying for grad school and planning for future career prospects
- Leshawn’s experiences learning about the public health environment of Thailand
- Leshawn and his co-founders’ motivations for starting Public Health Insight
- How Public Health Insight has evolved and grown
- What the benefits of engaging in extracurricular public health endeavors and personal initiatives on top of “formal” work are
- Findings from Leshawn’s article “Podcasting as a Tool for Health Communication? The Public Health Insight Podcast and Emergent Opportunities”
- How podcasting can be used as an effective form of communicating public health information
- Leshawn’s biggest learnings, surprises, and challenges when starting a podcast
Today’s Guest
Leshawn Benedict is a Community Manager for a Global Health Community of Practice with over 250 members across 35 countries, focusing on addressing implementation gaps and current issues facing Neglected Tropical Disease programs. He received his Honours Bachelor of Science from the University of Toronto, majoring in Biochemistry and Biology, and completed his Master of Public Health and Master of Science (Global Health Management) degrees at Western University and McMaster University. Leshawn has a keen interest in project management and student mentorship. He is also the Founder of Public Health Insight, a public health organization committed to leading and innovating modern solutions to support evidence-informed public health communication, education, and knowledge translation.
Resources
- An interview with Leshawn about the MSc. Global Health Management program at McMaster University
- Read “Podcasting as a Tool for Health Communication? The Public Health Insight Podcast and Emergent Opportunities”
- The Public Health Insight website
- Listen to the Public Health Insight podcast
Other PH SPOT resources:
- Share ideas for the podcast: Fill out this form
- Never heard of a podcast before? Read this guide we put together to help you get set up.
- Be notified when new episodes come out, and receive hand-picked public health opportunities every week by joining the PH SPOT community.
- Contribute to the public health career blog: www.phspot.ca/contribute
- Upcoming course on infographics: phspot.ca/infograph
Join The Public Health Career Club: the #1 hangout spot and community dedicated to building and growing your dream public health career.
Science communication in public health, with Neal Goldstein, Epidemiologist and author of Pandemics for Babies
The Public Health SPOTlight Podcast: stories, inspiration, and guidance to build your dream public health career
03/09/22 • 35 min
In this episode, Sujani sits down with Neal Goldstein to talk about his career as an infectious disease epidemiologist and author. They discuss Neal’s career from working as an engineer to becoming a public health expert and his experience writing a book designed to explain complex scientific ideas to younger audiences.
You’ll Learn
- The importance of communication skills in the public health field
- Tips that Neal has for developing or practicing communication to different audiences
- Neal’s experience going from working as an engineer to an infectious disease epidemiologist
- What skills he took from his previous career were useful in his current career
- What new skills he needed to succeed in his current career
- What the book “Pandemic for Babies” is about
- How Neal and his co-authors came up with this book idea
- Neal’s experience as an academic and researcher writing a book targeted to younger audiences
- Neal’s process for distilling complex topics so they can be understood by children
- Surprises Neal discovered about communication when writing for different audiences
Today’s Guest
Neal D. Goldstein, PhD, MBI is an Assistant Research Professor of Epidemiology. With a background in biomedical informatics, he focuses on computational approaches in complex data settings, especially electronic health records and disease surveillance, to understand infectious disease transmission among vulnerable populations. This has been demonstrated through his work with blood borne pathogens (HIV and hepatitis C), COVID-19, vaccine preventable diseases, and healthcare associated infections.
Resources
- Neal Goldstein's website
- You can purchase “Pandemics for Babies” from the publisher or from Amazon
- You can purchase “Germ Theory for Babies” from the publisher or from Amazon
Other PH SPOT resources:
- Share ideas for the podcast: Fill out this form
- Never heard of a podcast before? Read this guide we put together to help you get set up.
- Be notified when new episodes come out, and receive hand-picked public health opportunities every week by joining the PH SPOT community.
- Contribute to the public health career blog: www.phspot.ca/contribute
- Upcoming course on infographics:
Join The Public Health Career Club: the #1 hangout spot and community dedicated to building and growing your dream public health career.
Public Health Resources Series: Public Health Connect, with Harman Sandhu and Aditi Garg
The Public Health SPOTlight Podcast: stories, inspiration, and guidance to build your dream public health career
02/16/22 • 46 min
On this episode, Sujani sits down with Harman Sandhu and Aditi Garg from Public Health Connect (PHC). They discuss what PHC is and how it supports students and early-career professionals to succeed in the workforce.
You’ll Learn
- What Public Health Connect (PHC) is and what problem space it focuses on
- The history of PHC
- What services are offered through PHC including networking events
- What the monthly opportunities round-up posted by PHC is
- How the team’s own experiences inform the varied opportunities the round-ups include
- The diversity of public health opportunities that are out there
- The current trends of public health jobs
- Where else to find jobs for those looking to work
- What the hidden job market is and how to tap into it
- The benefits of networking in seeking career opportunities
Today’s Guest
Harman Sandhu is a public health policy and research professional who is currently completing a PhD at the University of Toronto. Prior to PhD studies, Harman worked in the Government of Ontario conducting race-based data analyses, disseminating research, and managing projects. He has published research on mental health stigma, smoke-free policies, and cannabis legalization. Harman co-founded Public Health Connect (or PHC) in 2020 as a volunteer-run community organization focused on supporting aspiring public health students and early-career professionals in Canada. He holds an MPH and BSc from McMaster University.
Aditi Garg is a clinical research professional and health economics and epidemiology-based PhD trainee who currently oversees smoking cessation clinical trials in the Division of Cardiac Prevention and Rehabilitation at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. Prior to her current role, Aditi worked in both academic and professional settings in both national and global landscapes with organizations such as Swiss Paraplegic Research Institute conducting population health data analyses and managing projects in areas of chronic disease prevention and management. She has published research on disability and rehabilitation policy, global health, and smoking cessation policies. Aditi also held an executive position as the Co-Director of Research and Marketing with Public Health Connect (or PHC) in 2021 as a volunteer-run community organization focused on supporting aspiring public health students and early-career professionals in Canada. She holds a masters degree in health economics and policy and BSc from the University of Waterloo.
Resources
- Dalla Lana’s DrPH Program
- Public Health Connect’s Linktree including monthly opportunities round-up
- Research article mentioned by Harman
Join The Public Health Career Club: the #1 hangout spot and community dedicated to building and growing your dream public health career.
New year. New you. New job? Introducing a new mini series & Career Workshop.
The Public Health SPOTlight Podcast: stories, inspiration, and guidance to build your dream public health career
01/05/22 • 21 min
This year, January 14th to be exact, PH SPOT celebrates 5 years. It’s unbelievable that 5 years have gone by already. Sujani created PH SPOT in 2017 after seeing a gap online for a career development resource dedicated specifically for public health professionals. Since graduating from her public health degree, Sujani spent countless hours between 2013 – 2016 guiding public health students and new grads one-on-one with their careers. As this was not a scalable solution, nor a sustainable one she decided to create PH SPOT to reach, inspire and support a larger number of public health professionals. The platform also ensured that a more diverse set of experiences and advice was being shared. In today's episode Sujani tells you about the different programs and products PH SPOT has built over the years, and on a more exciting note, introduces the new mini-series on the podcast that will run throughout January and a bit into February, called NewYear. New You. New Job?, as well as a Career Workshop!
What You'll Learn from this Episode:
- Three pillars that PH SPOT's products and programs are focused on: studying public health, getting hired in public health, upskilling for a competitive edge (mainly focused on health communications)
- The types of content found on the Blog and the Podcast, the downloadable tools and resources available for each of the three pillars, and the virtual programming (courses and workshops offered)
- And update on the podcast and how we will have a weekly release in 2022
- The new mini-series in January focused on getting you hired in public health. Topics of discussion will include informational Interviews, setting yourself up with LinkedIn for job success, and resumes/CVs.
- One of the most exciting launches of 2022: Jumpstart your public health career Workshop.
Featured on the Show:
- The PH SPOT Career Blog
- The Public Health SPOTlight Podcast
- PH SPOT Resource Page
- Infographics 101 Self-Paced Course and Live Workshop (request a quote)
- Beginner's only: Build a public health website course
- Jumpstart your public health career Workshop - join the waitlist for the next cohort.
Join The Public Health Career Club: the #1 hangout spot and community dedicated to building and growing your dream public health career.
Trusting your instinct, with Public Health lawyer Dawn Hunter
The Public Health SPOTlight Podcast: stories, inspiration, and guidance to build your dream public health career
06/14/23 • 49 min
In this episode, Sujani sits down with Dawn Hunter, a public health lawyer and Director of the Southeastern Region of the Network for Public Health Law. They discuss Dawn’s career journey and experiences, what public health law entails, and combining instincts and strategy to get your dream job.
You’ll Learn
- How Dawn found her way into public health and law
- How public health law differs from health law
- Tips on how to tell if a career is right for you
- Tips on following your instincts and making career changes to find what suits you best
- Dawn’s experience pursuing a JD and MPH at the same time and what motivated her to do both
- What a role as a public health lawyer may entail
- What the Network for Public Health Law is and what kind of work they do
- Career advice on interviewing, drawing strengths from professional and personal experience, and thinking with intention
Today’s Guest
Dawn Hunter, JD,MPH, CPH., is Director of the Southeastern Region of the Network for Public Health Law. Dawn’s work focuses on research, analysis, implementation, and capacity building related to the use of law and policy to improve health outcomes and advance racial equity. She is particularly interested in the development of racial equity action plans and implementation strategies at the state and local level and leads an ongoing assessment of declarations of racism as a public health crisis and related efforts to address health inequities. In the past year, she has been collaborating with partners in the Collaborative for Anti-Racism and Equity. Dawn also focuses on strategies to improve health outcomes through civic engagement and served as the lead author of the Health & Democracy Index. She also conducts training on equity in public health messaging through the Becoming Better Messengers initiative.
Resources
- Follow Dawn on LinkedIn
- Learn more about the The Network for Public Health Law
Join The Public Health Career Club: the #1 hangout spot and community dedicated to building and growing your dream public health career.
Show more best episodes
Show more best episodes
FAQ
How many episodes does The Public Health SPOTlight Podcast: stories, inspiration, and guidance to build your dream public health career have?
The Public Health SPOTlight Podcast: stories, inspiration, and guidance to build your dream public health career currently has 163 episodes available.
What topics does The Public Health SPOTlight Podcast: stories, inspiration, and guidance to build your dream public health career cover?
The podcast is about Career, School, Community, Wellness, Podcasts, Self-Improvement, Education, Job, Health, Business, Higher Ed and Careers.
What is the most popular episode on The Public Health SPOTlight Podcast: stories, inspiration, and guidance to build your dream public health career?
The episode title 'Can your strengths change?' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on The Public Health SPOTlight Podcast: stories, inspiration, and guidance to build your dream public health career?
The average episode length on The Public Health SPOTlight Podcast: stories, inspiration, and guidance to build your dream public health career is 37 minutes.
How often are episodes of The Public Health SPOTlight Podcast: stories, inspiration, and guidance to build your dream public health career released?
Episodes of The Public Health SPOTlight Podcast: stories, inspiration, and guidance to build your dream public health career are typically released every 7 days.
When was the first episode of The Public Health SPOTlight Podcast: stories, inspiration, and guidance to build your dream public health career?
The first episode of The Public Health SPOTlight Podcast: stories, inspiration, and guidance to build your dream public health career was released on Jan 26, 2020.
Show more FAQ
Show more FAQ