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.

  • Health Politics and Policy Analysis
  • Public Health Interventions
  • Global Health Sciences
  • Research Design and Methods
  • 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 1: 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.

    March (Early): 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

Larissa Benjamin


Larissa Benjamin is a second 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 earned a BS in Evolutionary Anthropology and English at University of Michigan and went on to work in health and science communications for 5 years at American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Washington, DC. She completed her Masters in Public Health at UC Berkeley in Health and Social Behavior with a specialty in multicultural health as a Kaiser Permanente Public Health Scholar. For the 3 years, she worked as a staff Project Policy Analyst at UC Berkeley School of Public Health on health equity-centered research projects (PIs Herd and Mujahid) ranging from managing PLACE (a social epidemiology research group under PI Mujahid), COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, police violence, and cardiovascular health disparities in a newly NHLBI-funded rural cohort study in the Southeastern US. Larissa’s research explores the political economy and structural drivers of cardiovascular health inequities in this region.

Ravneet Gill


Ravneet Gill is a second 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.
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 second-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 six years of experience in public health research and project management. Marisol’s most recent work focuses on assessing perinatal health and social care interventions that aim to promote maternal and child health, 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 second-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, especially with adolescents.

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 Diné (Navajo) from the Yeii Dine’e Táchii’nii (Giant Red Running into Water People) clan. She holds a master’s in American Indian studies – Indigenous rights and social justice. Her thesis, titled Art as a Spiritual Expression for Indigenous Well-being, focused on advocating for art within the fields of Indigenous mental health and community wellness. She has developed and implemented expressive arts programming for Community Bridges, Inc., a substance abuse and behavioral health nonprofit. She has served as the assistant director and grant writer of Cultural Coalition, Inc., focused on providing community engagement through unique cultural programs dedicated to the education, promotion, and development of Indigenous artists in Arizona. She is a doctoral student at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health – Interdisciplinary Studies, focusing on the advancement of sacred plant medicines in tribal nations. She is an Indigenous science student fellow of the Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics. Her qualitative research title, Multi-generational Perspectives of Psilocybin Mushrooms in Tribal and Urban Indigenous Communities of the North and Southwest United States, will inform the protocols of psychedelic-assisted therapy from multi-generational Indigenous perspectives on psilocybin mushrooms.

Cara Schulte


Cara Schulte is a second-year doctoral student researching the impacts of climate change on human health. She currently works with the UC Berkeley Global Environmental Health Equity Lab and Climate Rights International. She also serves as a graduate instructor for the undergraduate Climate and Health 101 course and a graduate-level Global Health Ethics course. 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 public health, technology including artificial intelligence, and healthcare to improve population health, particularly by addressing cardiometabolic conditions. Additionally, Morgan is a staff research associate and works on research and project management activities 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 second-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) is a third year DrPH student. His background as a clinician in the field of occupational therapy has led him to work in a variety of healthcare settings including nursing homes, acute rehabilitation hospitals, and inpatient hospitals. Being an occupational therapist has given Juan Carlos the opportunity to engage with individuals navigating the healthcare system, their support systems, the multiple team members involved in patient care, and collaborate with hospitals and healthcare professional organizations on DEI efforts. These experiences provided a foundation which 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 on the impact of optimally addressing the emotional health of healthcare workers. In his spare time, he enjoys spending time with his niece and nephews, going on long walks, mindfulness activities, and watching Drag Race, Star Wars, among others.

Brittany Campbell


Brittany Campbell is a third-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 third 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 third 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 third year DrPH student. She is passionate about improved access to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services, particularly abortion services, for forcibly displaced and immigrant 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 with her partner and two dogs, birdwatching, and traveling.

Olufunke Fasawe


Olufunke Fasawe is a 3rd 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 joins 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 third-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 co-investigator in diverse research projects related to migration and health, with a focus in sexual and reproductive health. Her research interests include sexual and reproductive health, migration and health, and inequalities in health. Her dissertation research focuses on 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 second-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 third-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 Anahi Rojas is a third-year DrPH student 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 is currently focused on advancing research on the Latine population and aging. 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 raw vegetables and loves salsa and bachata dancing.

Ida Wilson


Ida Wilson is an Oakland native and third year 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 third year DrPH student. Emily’s doctoral research is focused on the use of participatory, arts-based research methods with youth, as well as youth mental health and wellbeing. 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 fourth-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 fourth-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 fourth 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 Marr Chung


Amanda Marr Chung is a 4th year DrPH candidate. Her current research focuses on the integration and sustainability of vertical health programs. Most recently, she was the UCSF Project Director and PI for an HIV grant to support the Zimbabwe Ministry of Health and Child Care in transforming the Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision program into an integrated, sustainable program that is government led and owned. Amanda is also an Evaluation Specialist for the UCSF Malaria Elimination Initiative and is currently working with the Thailand malaria program. She received her Master’s degree in Community Oriented Public Health Practice from the University of Washington and her AB in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Princeton University. She has over 15 years of experience in global health in the areas of program management, leadership development, and monitoring and evaluation for HIV, eye health, immunizations, maternal, newborn, and child health, and malaria. She is passionate about frontline delivery channels, community interventions, and capacity strengthening and has a keen interest in women’s health. Aside from work, she loves to cook, bake, travel, and pursue many outdoor activities, including running, cycling, backpacking, and alpine skiing. She also dabbled in ice climbing with her partner and is looking forward to the day when they can go with their two sons.

Amanda Mazur


Amanda Mazur is a fourth-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.

Betsy Pleasants


Betsy Pleasants is a fourth year DrPH candidate. She received her Master’s in Public Health in the Maternal, Child, and Adolescent Health (MCAH) program at UC Berkeley in the Spring of 2019. She currently works with the Wallace Center for MCAH Research, the Bixby Center for Population, Health, and Sustainability, and the Fung Fellowship (School of Engineering, UC Berkeley). She is interested in mixed methods approaches to researching and intervening upon sexual and reproductive health issues, particularly in access to reproductive health information and services. She is an Emerging Scholar in the Society of Family Planning’s 2022 cohort, working on her dissertation Understanding r/abortion: A mixed methods study of a Reddit-based online community for abortion in 2022.

Sai Ramya Maddali


Sai Ramya Maddali is a fourth-year doctoral candidate. She has received her MPH in Epidemiology from Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health and BS in Biology from UC Riverside. Her research interests include the multi-level determinants of racial/ethnic health inequities over the lifecourse, neighborhood health effects, theories in Social Epidemiology, and mixed methods research. Sai is a part of the Policies and Life-course approaches to Achieve Community Equity (PLACE) research group at UC Berkeley. Prior to joining the DrPH program, Sai was the Senior Research Associate at Upstream USA and supported the development and evaluation of Upstream’s contraceptive care initiatives in Delaware, Massachusetts, Washington, North Carolina, and Rhode Island. Additionally, Sai also supported UCSF’s Sustainable East Africa Research in Community Health (SEARCH) universal test and treat program in Kenya and Uganda as a Research Analyst. In Sai Ramya’s personal life, she is an avid backpacker, rock climber, and baker and can be found wandering the Californian coast with her spouse and dog.

Chris Rubeo


Chris Rubeo is a third-year doctoral candidate at UC Berkeley in the Doctor of Public Health program. His work has primarily focused on designing programs that enable healthcare providers to meet their patients’ basic needs like nutritious food, affordable transportation, and quality housing. As a researcher at the Center for Care Innovations, he uses human-centered design and quality improvement methods to provide technical assistance to healthcare organizations across California. He is an avid cook, loves to rock climb, and continues to pursue his own musical projects.

Julia Ryan


Julia Ryan joins the DrPH program 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 running, reading, and snowboarding.

Auwal A.A. Abubakar


Auwal Abubakar joins the DrPH program in fall 2019. Prior to joining UC Berkeley, he worked for Bauchi State Government in Nigeria as the Incident Manager of the Polio Emergency Operations Center (EOC). At this coordinating center, he was responsible for oversight and managed the state’s Polio Eradication Initiatives (PEI) and Routine Immunization (RI) programs. He also participated in the coordination of the Primary Health Care Systems Strengthening program.

He received his undergraduate degree in Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) from University of Maiduguri in Nigeria, and postgraduate degree in M.Sc. Epidemiology and Biostatistics from SRM Institute of Science and Technology in India.

He began his career as a physician providing clinical care and management of HIV/AIDs clients in a tertiary health hospital in Bauchi State Nigeria. During the one year period on this program, he experienced first-hand the limitations and inadequacy of the Nigerian health sector, which oftentimes left him feeling helpless. Most painful to him were the needless cases of children and women who lost their lives due to poor access to life-saving medical interventions and preventive medical services in their communities. He realized quickly that if impact was to be made at scale, he would need to venture into public health and contribute to resource mobilization, program management and health systems strengthening.

Auwal’s primary interest is in the area of HIV/AIDs, Maternal, Neonatal, and Child Health (MNCH). He loves music, traveling, reading, networking, and watching movies.

Andrea Jacobo


Andrea Jacobo is a third-year DrPH student at UC Berkeley. She received her Masters of Public Health from The University of Memphis and Bachelors of Science in Exercise Physiology from the University of Miami. Prior to her attending UC Berkeley, Andrea implemented various evidence-based nutrition and physical activity programs in community settings and serving youth to older adults. Along with program implementation, Andrea co-facilitated a community of practice focused on addressing the root causes of health disparities in Memphis through policy, systems, and environment. Andrea’s areas of interest are addressing health inequities through community-centered, people-centered approaches including human-centered design thinking as a tool for community organization and capacity building. She has a passion for community health, culture & arts, and food. In her spare time, Andrea loves to work out and teach group fitness classes to help promote wellness and write poetry to catalyze social change!

Alma Juarez-Armenta


Alma Juarez-Armenta is a third-year DrPH student at UC Berkeley. She received her Masters of Public Policy from The University of Chicago and her Bachelors of Arts in Economics and Political Science from the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico (ITAM). Before attending UC Berkeley, Alma was awarded a Metcalf Fellowship at the Center for Global Health at UChicago, where she performed cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis for different solutions to alleviate the arsenic poisoning problem in Bangladesh. For the last year, she worked as an advisor to the Health Minister in Mexico, studying the negative effects of conditional cash transfers on the population’s health. Her research interests include quantitative methods and evaluation of public health policies. During her DrPH, Alma hopes to further analyze and develop public policies regarding gender-based violence towards the reduction of femicides in Mexico.

Daryl Mangosing


Daryl Mangosing (They/He/She) was a fourth-year DrPH Candidate at UC Berkeley whose interests lie at the intersection of LGBTQ+ health disparities, community-engaged research, mixed-methods, public health discourse, and Critical Theory. For their doctoral studies, Daryl is interested in sexualized drug use (i.e., recreational or illicit drug use to facilitate and enhance sexual activity) and health outcomes among the sexual and gender diverse community in the context of HIV prevention. They were a Berkeley Public Health Graduate Fellow ‘22 in the Institute for the Study of Societal Issues (ISSI) at UC Berkeley. Prior to Cal, they have worked at the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies and Prevention Research Center in the Division of Prevention Science at UCSF, where they drove communication efforts and disseminated HIV prevention and public health research. On the side, they volunteer as a reviewer for conference abstracts, including for APHA Annual Meeting and Expo and the International AIDS Conference, as well as occasionally for a few peer-reviewed journals. As a queer Filipinx from Guam, Daryl received their MPH (Health Communication) from Tufts University and their BA (Health Sciences) from Berea College. Otherwise, Daryl also enjoys going out for nature/urban walks and good food and drinks; plays video games on PlayStation; excessively sends emojis and GIFs when texting; and serves as the human parent for an enigmatic Burmese cat, Sienna.

Amia Nash


Amia Nash is excited to start her fourth year of Berkeley’s DrPH program. She attended Santa Clara University for her undergraduate education where she was a public health major and triple minor in biology, sociology, and religious studies. Her diverse coursework challenged her to think critically about the intersections between public health and social justice. Amia earned her Master of Science in Community Health and Prevention Research from Stanford University School of Medicine. Her thesis focused on the ethical considerations for community-based research with homeless populations. Her past research was at the Stanford Center for Youth Mental Health and Well-being where she conducted qualitative research focused on the mental health needs and concerns of Asian-American adolescents and parents in Palo Alto. In 2019, Amia was nominated by the Santa Clara County Behavioral Health Department for a Community Hero Award for her policy and advocacy work focused on adolescent mental health. Amia is currently a graduate student researcher with UC Berkeley’s Innovation 4 Youth lab focusing on youth-led participatory action research (YPAR) in school settings and the use of research evidence in school district decision-making processes. Her research interests include YPAR, adolescent mental health, and social-emotional learning.

Jennifer Jarin


Jennifer Jarin received her BSN and MS in Community/Public Health Nursing (Environmental Health Specialty) from the University of Maryland, Baltimore. She also received an MA in Geography from the University of California, Davis. She specializes in issues of “place and health,” particularly regarding environmental justice and health equity.

She began her career as a pediatric intensive care unit nurse, and she worked for Baltimore City’s Reducing Asthma Disparities program. She later became a nursing instructor for UMSON and UCD BIMSON where she has facilitated university partnerships with Head Start programs. She has conducted place-based research at the UCD Center for Regional Change and the UC Berkeley Institute of Urban and Regional Development. She utilizes social justice-oriented critical theory and socio-spatial methods to examine how systemic racism impacts health. She is looking forward to concluding her Doctor of Public Health degree at UC Berkeley.

Julie Miller


Julie Miller is a fifth-year in the DrPH program. Julie’s interest in public health began as a high school student when she became inspired by the potential for nutrition to reduce, reverse, and prevent diseases. She studied the relationship between diet and disease as an undergraduate student and graduated with her BA in Public Health from UC Berkeley. After graduation, she moved to New York City to continue to pursue her interest in nutrition at the population level and received her MPH in Public Health Nutrition from NYU. She returned to California after graduation and completed her training and credentialing as a registered dietitian at UCSF. Her work experience as a pediatric dietitian at UCSF introduced her to the field of neonatal nutrition and ignited a passion within her for neonatal nutrition and health. Prior to starting the DrPH program, Julie worked as a neonatal and pediatric dietitian at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital. She is interested in neonatal nutrition research and hopes to investigate and develop nutrition strategies focused on disease prevention and health promotion among infants.