Currentlyworking as a Research Scientist at the TORCH Lab in the Division of Epidemiology in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Utah Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine.
I received my Master of Public Policy from the Program of Public Affairs and my PhD from the Department of Population Health Sciences, with an emphasis in Health Systems Research at the University of Utah in 2024.
Brief autobiography
Before entering the MPP / PHS PhD program, I earned a bachelor of sciences in exercise and sports sciences from the University of Utah, with a minor in the sociology of health and medicine. While in the dual degree program, I worked as a teaching assistant in the Program of Public Affairs and as a research assistant for the Department of Population Health Sciences. In that work, I gained significant experience researching immigration-based health care disparities, early childhood nursing programs, COVID-19 vaccine uptake, and mental health care. This work helped me further develop my interests in mental health care and health care disparities, which I pursued in my dissertation research under Fernando Wilson. After graduating, I began work as a research scientist in the TORCH lab at the University of Utah School of Medicine, where I study veterans’ neurological and mental health.
My experience in the program
I entered the first cohort of students in the dual degree program in 2018. There are a lot of points of synergy in studying public policy and health services research simultaneously. The PhD program gave me many research skills I would not have learned studying public policy alone. Studying public policy gave me an understanding of the legal and regulatory structure of health care systems that the population health sciences program, alone, would not have given me. I loved the way that studying both sharpened my focus on health services research with real world policy applications. I completed my masters capstone on the transportation accessibility of Utah mental health care facilities by public transit under the direction of Phillip Singer. This was just the beginning of an interest in health geography.
In my research assistant work with Dr. Wilson, I gained significant experience applying statistical methods to theories, both of which I had learned separately in my coursework. In particular, we studied health care disparities impacting immigrants, women, racial and ethnic minorities, and veterans.
All these things lead me to my dissertation topic. I studied variability in racial/ethnic mental health care disparities. Although I also studied variation over time, I was particularly interested in geographic variation in those disparities, and in the role geography-related variables played in the disparities. I examined area deprivation, drive time to care, residence in historically or currently racially segregated areas, health care provider shortage areas, rurality. To keep my work relevant to both health services research and public policy, the outcomes I examined were 1) clinically appropriate mental health care utilization and 2) receipt of financial assistance for mental health care through legally-required charity care programs. The work was done using electronic health records data from University of Utah Health. You can see that I integrated many of the interests I developed during the dual degree program.
My favorite course
My favorite courses were Public Policy Theory & Application taught by Lina Svedin (and which I later TA-ed for with Morgon Lyon-Cotti as the professor), Health Economics from Norm Waitzman, and Comparative Health Systems from Rachel Hess. These three courses were really where I learned most about the way that public policy shapes health care systems and health outcomes. They provided me with the foundation of my understanding about how and why health care systems function.
Some of my research experience
The bulk of my research experience came from my work as a research assistant. One favorite project was using secondary data and systematic review to examine relationships between health and employment in veterans. Another favorite was examining mental health status and the mental health care system in Utah. I did significant work mapping Utah mental health care facilities that provide specific mental health services, trying to understand the geographic distribution of those services across the state. Also for that project, I examined unique data describing substance use disorder stigma and its predictors in Utah.
What I enjoyed most about the program
I loved the coursework and dissertation phases of the program for different reasons. Having been in school for a long time, I’m very comfortable in a classroom and really enjoyed learning directly from experts. The self-directedness of the dissertation phase was uncomfortable and new for me—although that’s part of the point. I benefitted a lot from learning how to work more independently on my own ideas, with support from experts instead of instruction from them.
How I’m prepared for my next step
My next step is as a research scientist researching veterans’ health. I think the most important things the dual degree program did were 1) giving me a foundational understanding of public policy, health care systems, and research methods, and 2) teaching me how to add to that foundation on my own. In other words, I learned how to learn more. As I go forward in my work and inevitably find myself in need of researching in new areas or applying new methods, I’m confident that I can learn what I need to make it happen
My advice for future students
My advice for other students would be to meet everyone you can in the department—students, postdoctoral trainees, staff, professors—and talk to them about what they’re interested in. This can really help you understand the almost unimaginably wide world of possible research work in population health sciences and, from there, narrow in on what you’re interested in.
