Benjamin Capistrant

Master’s student, Department of Society, Human Development, and Health

Benjamin Capistrant knew that he wanted to do international work from the time he was in high school in Maryland. At Boston University he majored in history and political science, with an African studies concentration. “The African studies grounded me. I’ve always been interested in Africa,” he observes. During college Ben also worked as an education programs assistant at the HSPH AIDS Initiative: “AIDS was linked to many issues in African studies. It was the hook into public health.” After graduation Ben became the manager of two HIV prevention studies based at the Fenway Community Health in Boston. It was there that he realized that he needed broader understanding of research, so Ben came back to HSPH as a student. He chose the master’s program in SHDH because he was interested in the social determinants of health that affected the HIV-positive men at Fenway Community Health. At HSPH he has enjoyed both the academic training and his opportunities to apply that training in Malawi, India, and Kenya. Ben plans to explore the links between poverty and health in his doctoral program, which he will begin next year. He believes SHDH’s social determinants approach will be invaluable in the international settings where he hopes to work: “I want to do the research that informs the public health community but also benefits everyday people.”

Deana Wagner

Master’s student, Department of Society, Human Development, and Health

Deana Wagner grew up in the tiny town of Caney, Kansas, not far from her Cherokee relatives in Locust Grove, Oklahoma. Deana was a community health major at Brown University. She says, “I thought about becoming a doctor, but I saw a real split between the medical students and the community health students. I wanted more public health involvement.” Deana also became deeply engaged with the student group Native Americans at Brown; she helped to establish the university’s annual powwow and develop Native American studies courses. After Brown, under the aegis of Teach for America, Deana spent two years teaching high school science to members of the Oglala Lakota tribe on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in Kyle, South Dakota. “Keeping students motivated and involved was often challenging, but I wanted them to hear about college and other opportunities,” she recalls. (Seven of Deana’s students received Gates Millennium Scholarships.) Seeing firsthand the connection between health and education, she came to HSPH for master’s training in the Department of Society, Human Development, and Health. Deana plans to complete a doctoral degree at HSPH and then to work with her own tribe, the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. In the longer term she hopes to return to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.