UC Berkeley Online MPH student profile: Nick Oxford

Nick Oxford started his firefighting career in Sacramento before joining the San Francisco Fire Department. Based in the grittiest pocket of the city, he was exposed to vulnerable populations disproportionately affected by health challenges. “We knew people by name, and we knew their addresses by heart,” he says.

“The more we were called up, the more I began wondering how a wealthy city could have public health problems so significant. I developed my own ideas about it, but I definitely wanted to see what academia had to say about it — and UC Berkeley’s online MPH had nothing but outstanding reviews.”

To learn how he could help make positive changes on a population level, Oxford chose the Health Policy and Management concentration. He saw topics covered within it as “levers” that could properly take information, translate it to a variety of audiences and make things happen.

That’s precisely what he’s doing today as he works to develop the San Francisco Fire Department’s Community Paramedicine program, in which Oxford focuses on analyzing data and outcomes to inform policy. The division is a service delivery innovation that focuses on vulnerable populations, behavior health emergencies, overdose, and high 911 utilization – it’s the latest addition to the department which operated with two divisions: Fire Suppression and Emergency Medical Services.

Soon, Oxford will be returning to his work as a firefighter, but as an officer in charge — a promotion he landed whilst completing his online MPH. “I hope to apply what I learned from my experience in Community Paramedicine to my role as a company officer in the field,” he says. “I think there are lessons that the entire department can learn, not just one division,” he says.