Alumni Spotlight
Sarah Harward - Class of 2023
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what you have done since graduating from BYU’s MPH program?
During my last semester in the MPH program, I got a job at SelectHealth on their Quality Provider Performance team. This team partnered with health clinics all over the state of Utah to help primary care doctors work on certain metrics in preventative, population-level care, such as rates of immunizations, cancer screenings, and well-child checks. Then, I was offered a position right after graduation at Primary Children's Hospital. I currently work on the Pediatric Network team there. My title is Business Operations Coordinator; I do program management for several behavioral health projects and initiatives. I help organize steering committees that address pediatric behavioral health. I get to work with a lot of amazing leaders at Primary Children's such as executive directors, medical directors, and behavioral health providers. The Pediatric Network team is focused on population health, which I learned I had a huge interest in while I was in my MPH program at BYU. The teams I am a part of develop strategies to address pediatric mental and behavioral health issues in the community, which means I get to work with several community pediatric practices as well.
There is also another really cool organization I get to work with through Primary Children's. The program is called Nurse Family Partnership (NFP), which is a home visitation program for at-risk mothers. The program pairs nurses with moms who are early in their first pregnancy and have Social Determinants of Health needs. I get to facilitate monthly meetings with health departments who are doing an amazing job at delivering NFP to these at-risk mothers, who are often teenagers or young adults with little support. Intermountain is able to help fund these programs, which is why I get to be involved. It's an amazing program and I feel lucky to get a front row seat to see these people who are driving incredible results in the lives of vulnerable moms and babies!
Why are you working in the field/position you are working in?
It has always been my dream to work at Primary Children's! I grew up being a patient there because I had Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis. For the longest time I wondered what work there was at Primary Children's that was not clinical, but that had a focus on community health and wellness in general. I found my answer in hospital leadership and population health! I am passionate about delivering care not just to individual children as they come to the hospital, but to large populations of children throughout the community. I was excited to find that Intermountain is heavily involved in work like that, and that they have a large community health focus (as any non-profit hospital will).
What knowledge, skillsets, and experiences are necessary for success in your current position?
Program management, definitely! Being able to organize timelines, Gantt charts, and budgets, etc., has been important. My epidemiology and biostatistics classes taught me to look at studies and outcomes more deeply-- it's important in my job to identify root causes and consider what is contributing to certain outcomes. Above all, I would not be in this position if it weren't for my administrative internship at Primary Children's that I did between my first and second year of the MPH program. During this internship, I learned what I was really passionate about and I was able to learn about opportunities at Primary Children's and identify what teams I wanted to be involved in after graduation. I also made connections with leaders at the hospital that helped me get to where I am today, and continue to help me in my position now.
How has your master’s influenced your life since graduation and prepared you for your work and career?
My master's changed the way I see the world! Because of what I learned in my master's, I pass less judgement when I see people who are different than I am or are choosing to live different lifestyles. One of the most valuable lessons I learned from my program is that there is a lot more going on underneath the surface than what we are seeing on the outside with people, and public health can get at the "why" of their behavior and lifestyle. That has been an incredibly valuable lesson both in my personal life and work life. From my master's, I learned that differences and conflict don't always need to be a bad thing, and that has helped a lot in my career so far too.
Cassidy Weaver - Class of 2023
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what you have done since graduating from BYU’s MPH program?
I'm from St. George, UT and served a mission in Calgary, Canada. I did my undergraduate in Public Health with a minor in Sociology at BYU before continuing at BYU for my MPH. I met my husband when we were both students and we're currently living in Provo and enjoying life with our rescue pup, Ruthie. Since graduating from the MPH program last year, I've started two new part-time jobs and prepared to apply for Ph.D. programs next month.
Why are you working in the field/position you are working in?
I'm currently working multiple part-time jobs, some more closely related to my MPH degree than others. I love the diversity of experiences I get to have by being involved with multiple organizations. I work for UVU as an adjunct professor in their Community Health department, at the BYU Wheatley Institute as their Event Coordinator and as the Community Engagement Partner for Living Room Conversations, a non-profit organization I became acquainted with during my MPH program. Because my long-term goal is to become a university professor, my adjunct professor position is the most closely related to the work I plan to do, and I love teaching. My other two positions, while not directly related to my long-term goals, have provided me with tremendous experience and I've loved the connections I've gained from them.
What knowledge, skillsets, and experiences are necessary for success in your current position?
I utilize the knowledge, skills, and experience I gained during my MPH degree regularly in my positions. For one of my positions, I'm currently working on a grant proposal, directly utilizing what I learned in my Community Building class about grant writing. To be successful as professor I've learned it's important to be attentive and committed to my students and be competent and confident in what I'm teaching. I seek to model my teaching after professors I've had in the MPH program who were most impactful to me.
How has your master’s influenced your life since graduation and prepared you for your work and career?
I attribute my positions with UVU, Living Room Conversations and the Wheatley Institute to my experience in the MPH program and my master's degree. I was introduced to LRC during my MPH program when I worked with professors Jeff Glenn and Cougar Hall on a research project utilizing the LRC conversation model to introduce facilitated conversations to the BYU campus community.
I will forever be grateful for my experience in the BYU MPH program not only because of the job experiences it has provided me with, but also because of the friendships I have gained through it and the support I received from professors encouraging me to pursue further education.
Not a specific question asked, but my #1 advice to current MPH students is to take advantage of the wonderful professors involved in the program. They are so kind and willing to help you have a positive experience in the program. Some of the greatest experiences I had during my time at BYU were working with professors on research projects outside of specific coursework.
Heidi Niedfeldt - Class of 2020
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what you have done since graduating from BYU’s MPH program?
I graduated with my MPH in 2020 (aka right at the beginning of COVID). It was a crazy time to enter the workforce! I got a full-time position at Weber-Morgan Health Department in the tobacco prevention and control program (TPCP). However, even though TPCP was my official position, I actually worked for my first full year primarily in COVID mitigation. It was certainly a wild ride, but also one that provided a lot of skill development and opportunities. After a year I was promoted to Program manager of the TPCP program. I have been a manager for over 2 years now and I absolutely love my team. Recently I also became the manager over the Health Equity and COVID grants. All-in-all I'm managing about 4 million dollars of grants for the Weber and Morgan areas. My teams are responsible for building community partnerships, improving health equity among underserved populations, enforcement of tobacco laws among retailers, collaborating with school districts on evidence-based risk and protective factor programs, and many other things. Our focus is almost entirely upstream/prevention based and I wouldn't have it any other way!
Why are you working in the field/position you are working in?
I will be the first person to tell you that tobacco was not my goal subject area after I graduated with my MPH. However, it is such a necessary and relevant issue in our communities and I have really enjoyed the work. One of the best parts of my job is that we focus heavily on risk and protective factors. This upstream work means that even though I am being funded by tobacco grants, that the work we are doing is impacting way more than just substance use. The programs we use also impact mental health, academic success, community laws and norms, and many more factors. I love that I get to help change people's futures by giving them tools today.
What knowledge, skillsets, and experiences are necessary for success in your current position?
The first thing that came to mind is the ability to collaborate. It sounds so obvious! However, after years of public health work, I can tell you that it is easy to be territorial of your work, your communities, and your programs. However, being territorial is also the fastest way to keep public health work from progressing. Public health is nothing without partnerships. If we are working as individual entities, whether government, non profit, etc..., we are never going to make real progress in improving the health of our communities. We can only succeed if we let go of our silos and work in conjunction with our other community partners. This sort of collaboration can be hard with every organization having their own priorities and objectives, but it is absolutely necessary if we hope to make lasting change.
How has your master’s influenced your life since graduation and prepared you for your work and career?
I use the skills I gained during my MPH all the time in my work! Whether it is finding evidence-based programs, creating logic models, doing community assessments, or whatever else it may be, I am regularly reflecting back to my MPH. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to get my MPH, and I am grateful for the skills and connections I made there that continue to help and support me to this day!
Marco A. Verdeja - Class of 2019
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what you have done since graduating from BYU’s MPH program?
I currently work as an Equity and Inclusion Consultant for Community Health at Intermountain Healthcare, overseeing strategy development and implementation for system-wide Community Health equity initiatives in areas such as immunizations, insurance and health access, avoidable disease and injury, and healthcare anchor work. I also support locally based community health efforts in Utah and Millard Counties.
Previously, I worked for three years as a general practitioner and in emergency medicine in Mexico, where I developed a keen sense of the need for population-based health approaches. I moved to the U.S to receive my master’s in public health degree from Brigham Young University and graduated in 2019.
Why are you working in the field/position you are working in?
I find great satisfaction in improving healthcare access and addressing health disparities for populations who may be underserved, underinsured, and burdened by increased barriers. Supporting equity, inclusion, diversity, and access initiatives across a large healthcare system allows me the fulfillment of seeing population-level needs met, particularly for those most at risk across large geographies and though an array of public health intended measures.
What knowledge, skillsets, and experiences are necessary for success in your current position?
First and foremost, being mission-driven with the intent to ensure the conditions for all individuals and populations to be healthy as your goal. An understanding of program and initiative development is important; from the assessment and research phases, to the partner identification, strategy development, implementation and action, measurement and tracking and eventual evaluation. Community partnership development and trust-building is also key to maintain and leverage important connections and align efforts.
How has your master’s influenced your life since graduation and prepared you for your work and career?
Every class in my master’s program has been useful in various ways throughout my career. I think this speaks to the nature of public health minded work that typically is multi-faceted, collaborative, and interconnected. Not only the classwork but also the close connections available with professors as mentors has been invaluable to me. The opportunities to gain experience as a teaching assistant, a research assistant to various professors and in various topics prepared me and gave me an advantage. The opportunities to engage community partners in projects with my MPH professors and the opportunity to support research later published in scientific journals is another way in which the MPH experience can help prepare you for a fulfilling and meaningful career.
Jonathan Anderson - Class of 2008
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what you have done since graduating from BYU’s MPH program?
After graduating, I began working for the Utah Department of Health (UDOH) as an Epidemiologist in Communicable Disease Epidemiology. I worked there for five years until I accepted a position at Intermountain Healthcare (IH) as a Data Analyst, and I am currently an Analytics Manager at IH. While working at UDOH I enrolled in the University of Utah’s Health Promotion and Education PhD program as a part-time student and graduated in 2020. During my time as a student at the U of U I also earned a Teaching in Higher Education certificate and taught as an adjunct faculty for several years. At IH I earned a Healthcare Quality Improvement certification and routinely coach/consult healthcare leaders who participate in a quality improvement training sponsored by IH.
Why are you working in the field/position you are working in?
Working in the Analytics Department for a healthcare organization gives me the opportunity to use data as I work closely with nurses, physicians and other leaders to improve the health for people in our community. It is very rewarding.
What knowledge, skillsets, and experiences are necessary for success in your current position?
Technical skills include the ability to use data and visualization tools such as Tableau, R, and Python, along with database querying using Structured Query Language (SQL). A basic understanding of statistics is also helpful. Communication skills are important. Data analysts should be able to speak to leaders and others in the organization who aren’t familiar with data to help them understand and interpret it. Lastly, I strive to learn about and gain leadership attributes to help our team be the best we can be.
How has your master’s influenced your life since graduation and prepared you for your work and career?
I was blessed with caring professors who mentored and guided me as I tried to figure out my path. I had an incredible cohort of classmates who were thoughtful, supportive, and stay in touch to this day. The people I rubbed shoulders with at BYU inspired me to pay it forward when I can and give of my time and perspective if others have questions about their education and career journeys.
Earning an MPH helped me see the doors that can be opened through education...there is always something for me to learn and a purpose in the learning process. I didn’t have a clear idea of what I wanted to do after MPH graduation - I had no idea I would end up in Analytics - but the MPH program helped me better understand what I enjoy, what I’m good at, and test areas new areas. It qualified me to enter the job market with skills that were valued and set me up to move on to earning a PhD.