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DrPH - Doctor of Public Health

The Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) degree at Berkeley School of Public Health is conferred in recognition of a candidate’s command of a comprehensive body of knowledge in the field of public health and related disciplines, and of the candidate’s proven ability to initiate, organize and pursue the investigation of significant problems or interventions in public health. The focus of this degree is the development of transdisciplinary knowledge about the determinants of health and the scientific and professional leadership skills to translate this knowledge into effective health interventions.

Those who earn this degree are expected to occupy leadership positions that have major influence on public health research, policies, programs, systems and institutions. Such leadership may be in diverse traditional and nontraditional settings at the international, national, state, or local levels and in the public, private and academic sectors.

Applicants must hold a master’s or doctoral degree in the health sciences or in another related field or non-US equivalent degree. Applicants must also have a minimum of two years or more of professional public health experience post-master’s degree showing progressive responsibility and evidence of leadership potential.

Curriculum

The DrPH program is a full-time campus-based program of study designed to be completed in three or four years for those applicants with an MPH from a CEPH-accredited institution and at least two years of postgraduate professional public health leadership experience. Any students with deficiencies in coursework equivalent in content to the MPH at UC Berkeley must take prerequisite courses either before starting the program or during the first year of the program.

Students will participate in an integrative doctoral training program that incorporates knowledge and skills from all divisions of the School of Public Health as well as the Schools of Education, Public Policy, Social Welfare and the Haas School of Business. The required course work consists of 4 full-time semesters (48 units) and a minimum of 12 units of dissertation research credits. This course work encompasses a thorough grounding in leadership, research methods and the application of these methods to the analysis of public health and policy issues. Students must fulfill all the course requirements from the Council on Education for Public Health CEPH specific competencies listed in the student handbook. Due to the diverse experience each student brings to the program, it is expected that students will also select courses and independent studies that advance their knowledge and ultimately their proficiency in all of the core and breadth knowledge areas listed below.

Breadth

  • Health Politics and Policy Analysis
  • Public Health Interventions
  • Global Health Sciences
  • Research Design and Methods

Core

  • Management
  • Public Health Ethics

Each student is also required to complete a research and/or professional residency in a public health setting that will provide the opportunity to advance knowledge and skills, identify data for dissertation research, conduct analyses and participate in decision making. Examples include: positions with local, state, or national legislatures, international agencies, city, county and state departments of public health or health services, policy think-tanks, multi-hospital systems and large health maintenance organizations.

As part of the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, DrPH students are eligible to take elective classes at other schools within the University including the Haas School of Business, Goldman School of Public Policy, City Planning, Journalism and others.

The DrPH program is a full-time professional degree program with a residency requirement. For this reason, the program is not recommended for persons who want to continue to work full-time. Overall, the program averages 3-4 years in length. There are no online or night courses available. The first two years of the program are primarily devoted to required coursework.

Employment

UC Berkeley DrPH graduates are employed in leading universities, policy research centers and “think tanks” across the country and internationally.

The DrPH is a professional degree program designed primarily for students interested in occupying leadership positions in the field. However, the program includes coursework in research methods, academic mentorship and completion of a dissertation involving the conducting of original research on a problem of public health importance. A number of graduates of the DrPH have gone on to accept university teaching positions or positions as full time researchers in academic or other scholarly settings. Although there is no specific “academic track” within the DrPH, students interested in teaching and research should choose as electives additional coursework in theory and research methods and undertake a dissertation consistent with such a career choice.

DrPH Admissions

Applicants must hold a master’s or doctoral degree in the health sciences or in another related field or non-US equivalent degree and have a minimum of two years or more of professional public health experience post-master’s degree, showing progressive responsibility and evidence of leadership potential. Questions about the applicability of a prior master’s or doctoral degree towards this requirement should be directed to the program office.

A Statement of Purpose is required, that explains how the DrPH program would help build on prior experiences and contribute to his or her career goals. Identify possible topics and research areas you may want to focus on for the dissertation project.

DrPH applicants are also required to provide a writing sample. Writing samples should be no more than 7,000 words in length and examples can include: publications in peer-reviewed journals on which you were the sole or first author, papers written for a graduate course, media pieces, or reports written for public agencies.

We recommend submitting a GRE if you have no other evidence of quantitative, verbal, or analytical abilities in your application.

Note: The average entering student has a verbal score above the 86th percentile and a quantitative score above the 66th percentile.

Official transcripts from all institutions (including community college and graduate coursework) are also required, with a minimum B average (3.0) or equivalent (work completed in the last two years of a bachelor’s degree program and in all post-baccalaureate coursework.

We look at an application in its entirety to determine a person’s strengths and relative fit to our program; available advisors, areas of research interest and academic history are important considerations as is research work experience. Letters of recommendation are also carefully reviewed.

  • DrPH Dates, Deadlines and Timeline

    Go to the Berkeley Public Health Graduate Admissions Dates and Deadlines page for general application information and instructions.
    Some dates and deadlines are specific to the application process for the DrPH program:

    December 2: Application deadline

    January: Admission committee begins review of applications. Members of the committee may contact applicants during this review period to arrange for phone interviews. Interviews for admission are conducted on an ad hoc basis – not receiving a request for an interview is not indicative of an admissions decision and vice versa.

    Late February/Early March: First round of communication of offers are sent. Candidates are offered admission during this time are able to attend a Spring Visit Day in mid-March.

    March (Late)—April (Late): Subsequent rounds of communication of offers and final decisions made during this period, after Spring Visit Day.
    The academic year begins in the fall; spring admission is not permitted.

  • For applicants who have been offered admission

    The DrPH Program typically hosts a Spring Visit Day in mid-March for those candidates who have been offered admission during the first round of offers.

    The UC Berkeley Graduate Division and the DrPH Program do not allow for deferred admission. We recommend that you update your CV, obtain at least one new letter of recommendation and reapply.

  • Non-admitted and Waitlisted Candidates

    Some applicants who are not admitted are encouraged to reapply the ensuing year to allow for additional coursework and/or relevant research experiences.

    Waitlisted candidates will receive information about their final status on or before June 1. Some of our best students were originally on the waitlist for admission before receiving their offer of admission. We regret the inconvenience and ask for your patience during this process.

Faculty

The faculty listed here teach the DrPH seminars and provide mentoring and advising to all DrPH students. In addition, faculty throughout the School work with DrPH students as advisers, mentors and Qualifying Exam and dissertation committee members.

Sometimes faculty are unable to respond to prospective students’ queries about mentorship prior to admissions decisions because the admissions committee is responsible for making recommendations for admitted students’ assigned advisors. Applicants with an interest in working with a particular faculty member should indicate this in their applications.

Directors

Core Faculty

Olumayowa Adebayo

Olumayowa Adebayo is a first year DrPH student. Her formative years were marked by an acute awareness of the public health challenges in her community, particularly among women and children, which steered her away from an initial pursuit of a medical career towards a preventive and health-promoting approach. She holds a bachelor’s degree in physiology and completed her Master’s degree in Public Health with a concentration in reproductive and family health. Her career began as a program officer managing a project aimed at empowering women through financial literacy, gender socialization, and family planning. Most recently, she has worked as a research consultant, supporting the implementation and coordination of reproductive health research programs. Olumayowa is dedicated to tackling health disparities and improving service delivery, with a strong focus on maternal and child health. Her research interests also align with these areas, aiming to develop evidence-based strategies to enhance health outcomes for women and children.

Christine Board

A southern California native, Christine Board was drawn to public health from a young age through childhood experiences in her community and family. She received her BA in public health from UC Berkeley in 2015, and an MPH in Epidemiology from Berkeley in 2021. Her career in healthcare began working in healthcare administration, with a focus on health equity and reducing gaps in disparities through clinical quality improvement, education, and data equity. Currently, she works as a data analyst for a clinical research team looking at the health care delivery for type 2 diabetes patients and the impacts of social and clinical determinants on short and long-term health outcomes. She has a passion for applied social epidemiology that has been driven by her love for narrative, and she believes the ability to share our stories and have our voices valued, is an integral part of health equity and our health and healing. Her primary area of interest lies in illuminating the systemic inequities that have harmed communities, not only to reduce health disparities but to improve overall wellness and the quality of life these communities deserve. Understanding that historically data has not been collected to serve the communities it has been taken from, she hopes to join those pioneering a movement on the decolonization of data. In her free time, she enjoys dancing, being outdoors and gathering in community.

Paulina Castro Nava

Paulina Castro Nava (she/her) is a first-year Doctor of Public Health student. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Human Biology from Stanford University and her Master of Public Health and Certificate in Public Health Economics from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Through years of conducting community-based participatory research in food justice and supporting a federally-qualified health center through a pandemic, she developed her commitment to co-create healthier communities to cultivate health equity. Most recently, she served her hometown of Ventura County, California as the first Climate Change and Health Equity Coordinator, developing multilingual health education, collaborating with community organizers, and implementing clinician trainings to bridge the public health, community-based, and medical to establish a foundation for addressing the climate crises as a health equity imperative. Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2023, she understands the importance of and advocates for an accessible health system with investment in the socio-ecological determinants of health. She enjoys hosting reflective journaling sessions with friends and reading (especially Octavia Butler).

Joyce Cheng

Joyce Cheng is a mother of three. Joyce started her career in the non-profit community health sector in 2006 and held a leadership role since 2020. She brings lived and in-field experience in serving communities of color. Joyce serves as the Executive Director and Community Researcher at the Chinese Community Health Resource Center to lead a mission to build a healthy community through culturally and linguistically appropriate preventive health, disease education and management, research, and advocacy. She serves as Co-Principal Investigator, Co-Investigator, Community Advisor for national- and state-funded research studies.

As the Director of Community Outreach at the Chinese Hospital, Joyce leads collaborative efforts within the integrated health system and among local partners. Amid the COVID pandemic, in collaboration with San Francisco City and community-based partners, Joyce oversaw the operations of the primary COVID-19 testing site in San Francisco Chinatown, where over 25,300 screenings were administered between January 2021–February 2023.

As Senior Community Advisor at the University of California, San Francisco, she advocates for community engagement and participation while ensuring scientific rigor. Moreover, as Board Member of local- and state-level committees, Joyce seeks opportunities to improve the ways communities are engaged through research.

Furthermore, as a Doctor of Public Health student, Joyce aims to strengthen her training in community engagement partnership and research, equitable health information delivery as well as to explore cross-sectoral partnership and innovative systems thinking. Joyce is passionate about mentoring youth and early professionals, leading collaborative efforts, and incorporating artistic expressions into her work.

Priya Gangolly

Priya Gangolly is a first-year doctoral student. She has predominantly focused her career on the health technology industry, specializing in building trust and credibility for social networks and building online products to improve population health. As an early member of Facebook’s Health team, she collaborated with government agencies across Asia, South America, and the US on products addressing global health challenges, and developed campaigns with the CDC to counter online misinformation during the pandemic. At other tech companies, she established online communities for patients and physicians to interact and share evidence-based information and research, alongside initiatives addressing emerging public health issues like loneliness and burnout. Her previous professional experience includes Stanford Children’s Hospital, the United Nations Foundation, and the Department of Health & Human Services where she assessed ethical considerations of vaccine mandates. Priya’s research interests are network effects, online health information seeking behavior, algorithmic bias, digital wellbeing, human-centered design, and ethics of emerging health technologies. She holds a BA in Psychology and Healthcare-Social Issues from the University of California, San Diego, and an MPH in public health communication and marketing from George Washington University. She enjoys travel, tennis, and volunteering with rescue dogs.

Amy Garfinkel

Amy Garfinkel is a first-year DrPH student. She is passionate about developing, implementing, and evaluating programs that increase access to nutritious food, support community food systems, and engage communities in experiential learning opportunities about food and nutrition such as cooking and gardening. Her experience ranges from implementing farm to school programming at the school district level to supporting farm to school programs statewide at the California Department of Food and Agriculture. She received her BA in Social Welfare and MPH in Public Health Nutrition from UC Berkeley.

Pritika Khatri

Pritika Khatri, a DrPH student at UC Berkeley, hails from the serene rural Himalayas of Nepal, bringing over 10 years of experience in health research, policy, and global health. With a background in MPH and Nursing, she currently manages multiple clinical trials on cardiovascular diseases in Virginia, collaborating closely with cardiologists and nephrologists. Her role includes site selection, protocol development, regulatory compliance, CRO management, and team coordination.
Previously, as a Research Fellow for Southeast Asia at the World Health Organization, she worked at the intersections of gender and intersectionality in health policy, conducting comprehensive scoping reviews and developing study modules to address health disparities, working in Bengaluru, India. Additionally, as a Quality Assurance Officer for Save the Children International, she supervised Nepal’s first paperless tuberculosis survey, covering 57,000 people in 99 clusters.

Pritika’s roles reflect her broad impact on global health. As a Program Manager for the Harvard Lown Scholar Program, she played a pivotal role in establishing and managing a health center in Nigeria, providing health services to more than 60,000 people across nine communities.

Her research interests include utilizing data science and artificial intelligence to explore health disparities, particularly in sexual and reproductive health and rights in low- and middle-income settings. Beyond academia, she loves hiking, reading non-fiction, writing poetry, and is an avid dancer.

Frederick Mubiru

Frederick Mubiru will be joining the DrPH program at UC Berkeley in the Fall,2024. He is a Global Health professional with over 20 years of experience, holding a BSc and MSc in Population and Reproductive Health from Makerere University, Kampala. He is also a certified Project Management Professional (PMD Pro by Humentum) and has earned a Global Health Leadership certification from the University of Washington-Seattle.

Prior to UC Berkeley, Frederick served as a Technical Advisor at FHI 360’s Scientific and Technical Evidence Advancement Department, leading research utilization and knowledge management for projects such as USAID Research for Scalable Solutions (R4S), BMGF SMART HIPs, USAID MOSAIC, and Knowledge SUCCESS. His work also included advocacy for new family planning and HIV prevention technologies like Hormonal IUD, DMPA SC for Self-Injection and D-Ring and Ca-Prep, and exploring private sector distribution channels for reproductive health commodities. Earlier, as Director of the USAID-funded Uganda Family Planning project (APC), Frederick oversaw the scaling up of high-impact community-based family planning initiatives and implemented critical adolescent health programs across 25 districts of Uganda.

His leadership and membership extend to several global and local communities of practice, including the Implementing Best Practices Consortium, FP Insights, Scale-Up Community of Practice, and the East African FP/RH Community of Practice. Proficient in English and Luganda, and conversant in basic German and Swahili, Frederick’s career spans diverse international settings, including Uganda, Mozambique, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Nepal, Ghana, Kenya, and the USA. His pragmatic approach, dependability, passion for inclusive development programming, and logical decision-making make him a respected leader in public health.

Frederick enjoys networking and collaborating on charity and developmental activities through Rotary International, his neighborhood, and church communities. He also enjoys jogging in natural environments, following global news and events, and sports such as soccer and athletics.

Chinwe Obudulu

Chinwe Obudulu is a registered dietitian with diverse experience working alongside medical and public health practitioners, researchers, entrepreneurs, and policy makers to implement nutrition and health initiatives. Struggles with childhood obesity drove her initial interest in dietetics, and she has since aligned her career with understanding the determinants that influence food choice and reducing health disparities. As the daughter of Nigerian immigrants, Chinwe is passionate about providing health education grounded in cultural understanding and in using food and nutrition to support physical, mental, and social wellbeing. She began her dietetics career working with communities under the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education, Head Start, and the Ryan White HIV/AIDS programs.

Chinwe was part of the inaugural class of Biden-Harris Administration White House interns within the Office of Science and Technology Policy where she gained an interdisciplinary perspective on public policy and health. Most recently, Chinwe has worked as a Nutritionist at the USDA facilitating the development and implementation of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Nutritional Sciences from the University of Texas at Austin and a Master of Science from the University of Texas Medical Branch. She enjoys traveling, cooking, being active (running, weight lifting and Pilates), drawing portraits, writing, comedy shows, and trying to learn how to dance (so far, to no avail).

Lucia J. Rodriguez Alvizo

Lucia J. Rodriguez Alvizo is a public health professional driven by her lived experiences. Her work is deeply influenced by her roots in Arandas, Jalisco, where she aims to leave a lasting impact akin to the indelible mark of red dirt on white clothes. As an immigrant, Lucia draws inspiration from her mother’s resilience in navigating complex systems to achieve health and well-being. She honors the knowledge gained from her own experiences and those around her. Lucia works passionately to bring her full self into everything she does, including her experience navigating her mental health and grief. Her mission is to ensure that health systems are as diverse and dynamic as the populations they serve. Through her work, Lucia hopes to ensure everyone is able to achieve their highest level of health possible and thrive in a life they find fulfilling. Community, growth, and finding moments of joy are important to Lucia in navigating the cycles of life.

Pamela Williams

Pamela Williams was born and raised in the Bay Area and currently hails from South San Francisco. Following the completion of her undergraduate degree, she lived in Namibia as a Peace Corps HIV/AIDS Prevention and Community Health Volunteer. Since then she worked as research staff for UCSF, San Francisco General Hospital, and Stanford University. She also completed a MSc in Global Health from UCSF. Most recently she’s worked as a data analyst for a global health supply chain program that provides procurement support to strengthen local capacity in HIV supply chains in over 25 countries. In the DrPH program, Pamela plans to pursue the study of reproductive health, specifically, non-hormonal, reversible, male contraception.

Larissa Benjamin

Larissa Benjamin is a third year DrPH student. Larissa was born in Detroit, MI to parents from divergent socioeconomic and racial backgrounds who were brought together by their shared commitment to fighting social inequality. Larissa holds a BS in Evolutionary Anthropology and English from University of Michigan, and an MPH from UC Berkeley in Health and Social Behavior with a specialty in multicultural health. She is a proud former Kaiser Permanente Public Health Scholar, and a current APHA KP Community Health Scholar and Perez Research Fellow. She has 5 years of work experience in health and science communications, and 3 years of experience as a Project Policy Analyst at UC Berkeley School of Public Health on health equity-centered projects (PIs Herd and Mujahid). She is a Graduate Student Researcher with Dr. Mujahid’s social epidemiology group PLACE and works on the Social Determinants Core (PI Mujahid) of the newly NHLBI-funded RURAL cohort study in the Southeastern US. Larissa’s dissertation research uses mixed methods to explore how historical and structural factors drive neighborhood-level exposures to cardiovascular risk in rural communities in this region.

Ravneet Gill

Ravneet Gill is a third year DrPH student at UC Berkeley. Her research focus is on breast cancer prevention among low income and geriatric women within the diverse Asian American subgroups in the United States. She is a proponent of preventive oncology and her professional pursuits are guided by the glaring need for reformation in health equity and the role of data disaggregation in addressing persistent cancer health disparities.

Ravneet holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biology and a Master’s in Public Health. Her professional experience includes over seven years of post-graduate work experience in the managed care industry, leading cancer prevention programs for Medicaid, Medicare, and ​​Dual-Eligible beneficiaries.

Ravneet loves traveling, visiting museums, and trying different cuisines from around the world. She loves to cook, write, hike, and spend time with family and friends.

Caleb Harrison

Caleb Harrison is a third-year DrPH student. Prior to coming to Berkeley, he worked as the lead epidemiologist at a local health department, overseeing disease surveillance and program evaluation efforts. His research interests include evaluating policies that seek to reduce health inequities in rural settings. Caleb’s time outside of work and studies is usually spent cooking or engaging in outdoor recreation with his wife and two kids.

Marisol De Ornelas

Marisol De Ornelas (she/her) joined the UC Berkeley’s DrPH program Fall 2022 and is an American Public Health Association and Kaiser Permanente Community Health Scholar. Marisol attended Boston University where she received a Bachelor of Science in Health Sciences and a Master of Science in Public Health. She brings over eight years of experience in public health research and project management. Marisol’s research focuses on assessing interventions on perinatal and mental health outcomes among underserved populations. She is a Graduate Student Researcher at the UC Berkeley’s Wallace Center for Maternal, Child, and Adolescent Health. Outside of her scholarly work, you’ll likely find her cooking Venezuelan arepas, reading the “Ideas” section of the Atlantic, or outdoors on an adventure!

Rouselinne Gómez

Rouselinne Gómez is a third-year student at UC Berkeley in the Doctor of Public Health program. He is a Medical Doctor who graduated from the Autonomous University of Nuevo León and earned his master’s degree in Public Health from the National Institute of Public Health (INSP) in Mexico. Prior to entering the DrPH program, he worked as a researcher in the Health Economics Unit at the INSP in Mexico. His research focused on influencers for health system navigation for the Mexican Public Healthcare system. During his time as a doctor he worked providing care for rural communities in Chiapas, Mexico. Rouselinne is currently interested in working on sexual and reproductive health issues.

Mounika Parimi

Mounika Parimi is a Doctor of Public Health student at UC Berkeley. She was born and raised in Bengaluru, India, and immigrated to the US as a teenager. Mounika received her Bachelor of Arts in Music and Biology from the University of Redlands and a Master of Science in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Mounika has previously worked as a researcher studying the immunology of type 1 diabetes at the City of Hope in Duarte, California, and as a Fulbright scholar at the Center for Regenerative Therapies in Dresden. During her Master’s, Mounika’s work focused on the association between diabetes during pregnancy and congenital abnormalities. Most recently, Mounika has worked as a consultant and project manager with the Real-World Insights department of IQVIA in the United Kingdom. In this role, she has co-designed and managed several retrospective cohort studies in the UK/EU setting for various non-communicable diseases (including cardiovascular disease, asthma, and cancer). Her current research interests include post-partum health and women’s health over the life course, especially among racial and ethnic minority communities. Mounika is a graduate student researcher at UC Berkeley’s Wallace Center for Maternal, Child, and Adolescent Health.
In her personal life, Mounika is an avid cook, singer, and enjoys weekend hikes with her spouse and toddler.

Marlena Robbins

Marlena Robbins is a third year doctoral student researching the cultural, social, and policy aspects of psilocybin use within Native communities, highlighting differences between urban and rural perspectives to inform educational frameworks, culturally informed psychedelic assisted therapy models and public health policy. Robbins is a graduate student researcher at the Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics (BCSP), focusing on evaluations and data analyses to refine the program’s structure. Her collaboration with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) led to the development of a tribal engagement toolkit, showcasing the significance of psychedelics in spiritual and recreational contexts among Native American communities. Recently, Robbins was invited to join the Federally Recognized American Tribes and Indigenous Community Working Group for the Natural Medicine Health Act with the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies. This role enables her to advocate for the protection of sacred plants against commercialization and cultural misappropriation.

Cara Schulte

Cara Schulte is a third-year doctoral candidate at UC Berkeley, where her research focuses on the intersection of climate change, global health, and human rights. She is a fellow with the Berkeley School of Law Human Rights Center and the Chowdhury Center for Bangladesh Studies. In addition to her full-time doctoral research, Cara currently works as a researcher for Climate Rights International and as a research assistant to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Climate Change and Human Rights. She is also a graduate student instructor in Global Health Ethics and a guest lecturer in Human Rights Research and Practice. Cara earned her MHS in Environmental Health Science and BA in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University. She is a member of the Delta Omega Honorary Society in Public Health.

Morgan Vien

Morgan Vien joined the DrPH program at UC Berkeley School of Public Health in fall 2022. Her research is focused on the intersection of precision public health, public-private partnerships, and regulations and legal considerations to improve population health. Additionally, Morgan is a research associate and works on public health and healthcare projects with the team at Health Research for Action (HRA), a research center at Berkeley Public Health. Morgan received her MPH in Health and Social Behavior from UC Berkeley and her BS in Public Health Science with minors in Biology and Sociology from Santa Clara University. She enjoys spending time with family and friends, playing piano, traveling, and creating arts and crafts.

Brian Villa

Brian Villa is a third-year DrPH student. He received his B.A. in South and Southeast Asian Studies, MPH in Health and Social Behavior, and MSW in Strengthening Organizations and Communities from UC Berkeley. He is currently the Research Projects Director for Professor Emily Ozer’s research lab and serves as a core member of the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) and UC Berkeley Research-Practice Partnership. One of the projects he supports explores the impact of youth-led participatory action research (YPAR) on school decision-making processes. Prior to graduate school, he taught Ethnic Studies at a High School in San Francisco through the Pin@y Educational Partnerships. He also worked as the Community Health Program Manager at the RYSE Youth Center in Richmond, CA. Brian enters the DrPH program as a APHA/KP Community Health Scholarship recipient and is excited to continue his work on YPAR, adolescent mental health, racial justice, health equity, and healing-centered liberatory approaches. He enjoys cooking, playing sports, and writing music.

Brian Wylie

Brian Wylie completed his undergraduate degree at UC Berkeley, professional training in occupational therapy at USC, and his MPH in epidemiology at Harvard. During and since then, he completed a Fulbright in South Korea, developed health and wellness programs for the Los Angeles YMCA, and worked for the California Department of Public Health in infectious disease prevention and the San Francisco Department of Public Health in opioids and chronic pain management. When not working or studying, he’s usually out with his poodle Lucy, being active (running, lifting, cross country skiing), or listening to live music. Also, Go Bears!

Juan Carlos Bordes

Juan Carlos Bordes (he/him/any) is a fourth-year DrPH candidate. Their background as a clinician in occupational therapy has led them to work in various adult healthcare settings, including hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and acute rehabilitation hospitals. Being an occupational therapist has allowed Juan Carlos to engage with individuals navigating the healthcare system, their support systems, and the multiple team members involved in patient care and collaborate with hospitals and healthcare professional organizations on various inclusion efforts. These experiences provided a foundation that led Juan Carlos to seek to make an impact through public health. Some of Juan Carlos’ goals during the DrPH program are to promote health equity and anti-racism within healthcare, with a particular interest in optimally addressing healthcare workers’ emotional health and well-being. In their spare time, Juan Carlos enjoys spending time with his niece and nephews, going on long walks around the Bay, engaging in mindfulness activities, and spending quality time with friends.

Brittany Campbell

Brittany Campbell is a fourth-year DrPH student bringing 7 years of experience working on projects that center cancer health equity and community engagement at the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations and the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. Prior to attending UC Berkeley, she was awarded a NCI Diversity Supplement to understand patients’ experience navigating care following a positive genetic test result in the safety-net setting. This project led to her current research interests at the intersection of cancer survivorship, mind-body wellbeing, and healing from racial trauma. She received her Master of Public Health from Saint Louis University and Bachelor of Arts in International Studies from the University of Missouri. She is a proud St. Louis, Missouri native who enjoys music, dancing, and bringing people together in the spirit of healing and connection.

Purba Chatterjee

Purba Chatterjee is a fourth year Dr PH student. Purba grew up in India; her formative years were spent in Chennai and Kolkata. Purba came to the US to pursue her undergraduate studies. She has a Bachelor’s in Economics from University of California Los Angeles and a Master’s in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Purba has over 15 years of public health program management experience. She has worked on HIV/AIDS and other non-communicable diseases projects in Uganda, India, and now Kenya. After completion of the DrPH program, Purba plans to pivot to global mental health research with a focus on the impact of stigma on access to mental health care in low and middle-income countries. She is passionate about partnering with the community to build capacity, address stigma, and increase access to treatment for common mental health disorders. In her current role as the Associate Director of Global Equity, UCSF Dept. of Ob/Gyn, Bixby Center, she oversees operations and administration for HIV/AIDS affiliated research studies in Western Kenya and co-leads global health equity initiatives. Aside from work, Purba enjoys going on long hikes with her husband, daughter, and son. She is also an avid traveler, loves to cook, and enjoys practicing yoga!

Renee Clarke

Renee Clarke is a fourth year DrPH candidate with over 10 years of experience in the healthcare industry. Renee completed her Master of Public Health in Maternal and Child Health at the University of South Florida and holds two bachelor’s degrees in nursing and health sciences. Prior to University of California, Berkeley, she served in a variety of clinical settings including Emergency Management, Neonatal Intensive Care, Women’s Health as a Registered Nurse. Her passion has always been service leadership and eliminating health disparity gaps among women, infants, and children. Renee’s interest in improving health outcomes extends nationally and internationally. She has served in places such as Niger (Africa), Milot, Haiti and St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. Quality improvement, evaluation, implementation and decreasing health disparities has always been a cornerstone of her experiences. Renee was born in the twin island of Trinidad and Tobago and enjoys traveling, learning new cultures, outdoor activities and spending time with friends and family.

Yao Doe

Yao Doe joins the DrPH program from fall 2021 at UC Berkeley. He was born and raised in Ghana. He Attended Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana where he completed his BSc. Chemistry. Upon completion, he worked as a laboratory chemist for a year and then moved to medical school in Ukraine. After graduating from medical school, he did his residency in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in Kyiv, Ukraine. Following the completion of his residency, he returned home where he worked as head of the OB/GYN department of a hospital in Ghana and a medical director of a hospital in Togo.

Besides working as a medical doctor, he took active roles in community outreach programs such as screening for breast and cervical cancer, HIV prevention, vaccination programs, chronic-care home visits in underserved communities, and vesicovaginal and rectovaginal fistula repair in sub-regions of Ghana.He also introduced an innovative program that employed the use of prophylactic misoprostol (an inexpensive and easy to use medication that needs no refrigeration) for postpartum hemorrhage and he provided training for midwives and nursing assistants in various regions in rural Togo and this led to drastic reductions in postpartum hemorrhage and subsequent reductions in the evidence of maternal mortality and hospital referral rate in rural areas of Togo. Being thirsty for more knowledge, he moved to the United States to further his studies in Public Health at the University of New Haven, where he obtained his degree in Master of Public Health.

Yao’s primary interest is in maternal and child health, especially the prevention of maternal morbidity and mortality in developing countries. He likes playing soccer, going on road trips, and listening to classic country music.

Blake Erhardt-Ohren

Blake Erhardt-Ohren is a fourth year DrPH student. She is passionate about improved access to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services, particularly abortion services, for forcibly displaced populations. Prior to joining the program, she spent three years at Pathfinder International, where she provided monitoring and evaluation support to SRH projects around the world. During her master’s program, she worked at CARE USA, assisting with the Supporting Access to Family Planning and Post-Abortion Care (SAFPAC) project in emergency settings. She holds a BA in History from UC San Diego and an MPH in Global Health from Emory University. In her free time, Blake enjoys hiking, cooking, and traveling.

Olufunke Fasawe

Olufunke Fasawe is a fourth year DrPH candidate from Nigeria. She joined the program from the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) where she worked as a Senior Director, Primary Health Care (Global), Director of Programs (Nigeria) and Technical Lead for the Sexual, Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Program (Nigeria). She has over ten years’ experience in global health working on program design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation cutting across HIV/AIDS, Routine Immunization, Sexual and Reproductive Health, Maternal and newborn health, Cervical Cancer, and health systems strengthening. Prior to starting her career with CHAI, she worked with the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS in Geneva as a health economics consultant conducting economic modeling for HIV programs and. She also interned at the World Health Organization Headquarters in Geneva during her Masters program. Olufunke holds a Master’s degree in International Health Management, Economics and Policy from SDA Bocconi, Milan, Italy; she earned her Bachelor of Dental Surgery degree from the University of Lagos, Nigeria. She loves to play tennis and enjoys running outdoors. She is passionate about gender equity and promotion of universal health care in developing countries.

Bhavya Joshi

Bhavya Joshi, joined the DrPH in the fall of 2021. As a Global Public Health Fellow, Bixby Summer 2022 Fellow, and the Human Rights Center Fellow 2022, Bhavya’s research focuses on understanding reproductive needs of marginalized populations in countries affected by crises. As a women human rights advocate and educator, Bhavya supports women rights defenders from across the globe to build their capacity to use international human rights mechanisms for advocacy and activism at national, regional, and international levels. Before joining the program, she managed, implemented, and evaluated public health projects in South Asia for more than 5 years. Within India, she has worked in 18 out of 28 states. Bhavya received her MA in International Law and Human Rights from the United Nations mandated University for Peace, Costa Rica and is finishing her second MA in Peace, Security, Development and International Conflict Transformation from University of Innsbruck, Austria. Her bachelor is in Political Science from Delhi University, India. She is a travel enthusiast and is fond of outdoor sports, drinking coffee and experimenting with cuisines.

Silvana Larrea

Silvana Larrea is a fourth-year DrPH candidate at UC Berkeley. She is a Medical Doctor from the National Autonomous University of Mexico and received her MPH in Epidemiology from the National Institute of Public Health (INSP) in Mexico. Prior to starting her graduate program in UC Berkeley, she was a Program Officer for the Poverty, Gender, and Youth department in the Population Council Mexico office. In the Population Council, she provided technical support for the Council’s research portfolio: design, implementation, and evaluation of interventions and developing new proposals, IRB protocols, briefs, donor reports, and manuscripts. She is also a co-investigator in diverse research projects related to migration and health, with a focus on sexual and reproductive health. Her research interests include sexual and reproductive health, migration and health, and inequalities in health. Her dissertation research focuses on the challenges and opportunities of accessing and using sexual and reproductive health services for in-transit migrant women in Mexico.

Solange Madriz

Solange Madriz, MA, MS is a fourth-year doctoral student as well as an Academic Coordinator at the Institute of Global Health Sciences at University of California, San Francisco. She has designed, implemented and monitored global health programs in diverse settings including Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, Paraguay, India and the United States. Her research focuses on global health and professional development of health professionals in low-resource settings. In addition to her research activities, Ms. Madriz teaches graduate level courses on global health for public health practitioners and medical providers. From 2015 to 2018, Ms. Madriz led the implementation of a maternal and newborn health quality improvement project in all the secondary health facilities of the states of Huehuetenango and Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. During the COVID-19 pandemic Ms. Madriz led the educational program to train over 100 community-based organization members as case investigators and contact tracers working for the San Francisco and California Departments of Public Health. She lives with her husband and 2-year old daughter in the Mission District of San Francisco. Ms. Madriz obtained her undergraduate degree from the Central University of Venezuela and a MA in International Studies from the University of San Francisco followed by a MS in Global Health from the University of California, San Francisco.

Wan Nurul Naszeerah

Lt. Wan Nurul Naszeerah (she/her) is a fourth-year Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) student with Designated Emphases in New Media (Berkeley Center for New Media) and Development Engineering (Blum Center for Developing Economies) at the University of California-Berkeley. As a Digital Transformation of Development (DToD) Fellow, Wan is passionate in enhancing public health preparedness through infoveillance and infodemic management in Southeast Asia. Born and raised in Brunei, Wan is currently developing a human-centered digital intervention against vaccine misinformation for the Malay-speaking communities in Southeast Asia.

This professional endeavor stems from her personal experience as a native speaker of the Malay language, for which social media technologies have not been equitably developed to moderate the spread of vaccine misinformation and to sufficiently address the emerging issues of vaccine hesitancy in this region. Hence, she has been collaborating with data scientists as well as developing her computational skills, specifically in Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing, both of which are increasingly integrated into today’s public health preparedness and research. She believes that global health equity can only be achieved when there is equity in public health technologies.

Prior to becoming a Cal student, Wan had served as an infantry-trained military officer in Brunei, where she was involved in training, operations, research, and communications in the context of military medicine and health. In 2015, Wan had also graduated from the Yale School of Public Health, where she was trained in infectious diseases epidemiology and global health as Yale’s Global Health Research Fellow. She identifies as a first-generation graduate in her Malay family. She currently lives in the Bay Area with her supportive husband and sweet toddler.

Nadia Anahi Rojas

Nadia Rojas (she/her) is a fourth-year DrPH candidate and a proud Bay Area native. She received her MPH from UC Davis and BA from UC Berkeley with a double major in Ethnic Studies and Integrative Biology. Before attending the DrPH program, Nadia worked at ChangeLab Solutions, a national nonprofit in Oakland, CA, where she developed tools and resources for community-based organizations, policymakers, and public officials across subject matters on upstream policy interventions. Nadia also worked at the School of Public Health at Berkeley, where she led the data collection and management of various projects evaluating Berkeley’s soda tax. Nadia is a DACA recipient and a strong advocate for the undocumented community. She co-founded Graduates Reaching a Dream Deferred Northern California (GRADD NorCal), where she was instrumental in organizing conferences throughout California for undocumented youth interested in attending graduate school. Nadia’s dissertation focuses on the association between sleep, physical activity, and cognitive function among Latinas in California’s Central Valley. Her additional interests include research that will reduce health disparities and promote equity among communities that have been marginalized, including the undocumented population. Nadia enjoys eating lots of vegetables and loves salsa and bachata dancing.

Ida Wilson

Ida Wilson is an Oakland native and DrPH candidate. She received a Master of Arts in Applied Anthropology from San José State University and a Bachelor of Science in Anthropology from UC Riverside. Ida has served as a Project Manager for the Center for Critical Public Health at the Institute for Scientific Analysis for several NIH- and Tobacco Related Disease Research Program-funded projects that investigated substance use among young adults in the Bay Area and in rural counties in Northern California. In addition to her duties as Project Manager, she also served as the Coordinator for the Center’s Internship program. Ida’s current research focuses on framing police violence as a public health issue by examining the experiences of Black and Latina women. Her additional research interests include health inequities, as well as the use of critical perspectives in examining public health issues by exploring the ways in which socio-structural systems contribute to health inequities for marginalized populations.

Emily Winer

Emily Winer (she/her) is a fourth year DrPH candidate. Emily’s doctoral work is focused on the impact of using participatory, arts-based methods when engaging youth in research. Her other research interests include youth mental, social, and emotional health, the built environment and health, and the role of the arts in public health research and practice. Before coming to UC Berkeley, Emily worked at the International WELL Building Institute as one of the developers for WELL, a global certification for advancing health and wellbeing in buildings and communities. Emily’s work focused on the promotion of mental health through design and policy strategies at the building, organizational, and urban scale. Emily holds a BA in Psychology from Carleton College and an MPH from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. Outside of the DrPH program, Emily enjoys baking, ceramics, yoga, and spending time outdoors.

Mikail Aliyu

Mikail Aliyu is a fifth-year DrPH student at UC Berkeley. He graduated from the University of Lagos, Nigeria with a degree in pharmacology. He started his career in the pharma industry working with Sanofi, where he focused on increasing access to essential medicines at primary health care level in anglophone West and East African countries. Mikail later received his MPH from the University of Leeds, in the UK, and moved into management consulting as a Program Officer at The Palladium Group. Before UC, Mikail managed a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation-funded investment called the Technical Support Unit (TSU) project. Through this grant, he provided technical support to the Federal Ministry of Health in Nigeria to create an enabling environment for women and girls to access better reproductive health and family planning (RH/FP) services. He worked closely with government officials and decision-makers to facilitate the creation of enabling structures and processes for accountability, priority setting, and coordination of RH/FP services—this involved strategy design, policy development, and implementation. Notably, he supported the development and execution of the Nigerian Family Planning Blueprint. Mikail is passionate about reducing barriers and addressing sociocultural norms that hinder access to reproductive, maternal, child and adolescent health, and nutrition using system thinking and context-based approaches. In his spare time, he enjoys traveling, sports and trying new food.

Samanta Anríquez

Samanta Anríquez (she/her/hers) is a fifth-year DrPH student, who came sponsored by the Fulbright commission in Chile (2020–2021). She served in Chilean public health services for 6 years, focusing in Primary Care and Family Practice in extreme zones, where she has been the director of a family health center in the Chilean Patagonia. She has a medical specialization in Public Health and a MSc of Epidemiology, both from the Universidad Católica of Chile, where she focused her research on Chronic Multimorbidity and Primary Care Models. She has advocated for Health and Human Rights as a volunteer in Amnesty International while being a medical student at the Universidad of Chile and later worked with Medical Residents Union in Chile. She is currently a fellow at the UC Berkeley Human Rights Center, where her work with Amnesty International Chile focuses on the reparation of Human Rights violations in the Chilean social outbreak in October 2019. She is the mother of two beautiful girls who joined her, and her husband in this adventure.

Ifunanya Dibiaezue

Ifunanya Dibiaezue is a fifth year DrPH student. She is a Public Health Professional with over 7 years of experience in maternal and child health, communicable and non-communicable disease prevention, nutritional awareness and training programs, and public health policy development. She holds a Bsc degree in Biomedicine from the University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK, and a Master of Public Health (MPH) from the University of York, York, UK. While working as an Assistant Program Officer in Africare under the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves Project, Ifunanya helped increase the earning capacity of over 1000 women cooks, reduce indoor air pollution and reduce the incidence of respiratory diseases by 65% in Lagos State, Nigeria. In addition, she has helped improve the health of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in Southern Nigeria. She has coordinated over 25 HIV testing and counseling programs, and training campaigns with over 70 clinical staff to improve the overall quality of care for PLWHA. She is also very passionate about promoting healthy lifestyles among women. She is the founder of ActivEaters, an organization that focuses on improving the quality of health of women through diet, exercise, and behavior change.

Amanda Mazur

Amanda Mazur is a fifth-year DrPH student at UC Berkeley. She received her MS in Global Health Sciences from UCSF and a BS in Biological Science and BA in International Relations from the University of Calgary. Before attending UC Berkeley, Amanda worked at UCSF on projects in adolescent sexual and reproductive health and coordinated international behavioral health research projects focusing on HIV adherence and stigma reduction, detection and treatment of common mental disorders in community rural health clinics, and understanding intersectional stigma related to HIV and cancer. Prior to starting graduate studies, she worked with the United Nations Development Programme in Zimbabwe to accelerate achievement on the UN Millennium Development Goals. Her research interests include global mental health, sexual and reproductive health, and understanding how systems level approaches can address health outcomes in low-resource settings.

Julia Ryan

Julia Ryan is a fifth year DrPH student with a passion for improving sexual and reproductive health in vulnerable communities globally. Over the past seven years, she has worked on a broad range of quantitative and qualitative research projects at academic institutions, non-profit organizations, and governmental agencies. Most recently, she spent three years as a qualitative research coordinator focused on HIV prevention in sub-Saharan Africa with the Women’s Global Health Imperative at RTI International. Prior to that, she worked on reproductive health research with UNC Project in Malawi, vertical HIV transmission with USAID, Ebola response with the WHO, and Zika response with the CDC. Julia received her BA in Health and Societies with a concentration in Public Health at the University of Pennsylvania, and her MSc in Reproductive and Sexual Health Research from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). She grew up in Boston and Philadelphia and loves hiking with her dog, reading, and snowboarding.

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