Meet Our Students

Madina Agénor is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences concentrating in women, gender, and health. Born in Martinique, Madina lived in the United Kingdom and Haiti prior to moving to Washington, DC at the age of 6. She holds a Master of Public Health (MPH) in sociomedical sciences with a focus on social science research in public health from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. She received her undergraduate education at Wellesley College and Brown University, from which she graduated magna cum laude with Honors with an AB in community health and gender studies. Madina’s research interests pertain to the social and policy determinants of and social inequalities in women’s sexual and reproductive health, including HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections (STIs); access to contraception and sexual health services; and intimate partner violence. Madina has worked as a research assistant at Ibis Reproductive Health, where she conducted formative research to inform a state-wide intervention promoting young adults’ access to reproductive health services in the context of Massachusetts health care reform. Recently, she served as the data analysis coordinator for a qualitative project on gender norms, gender-based violence, and reproductive health among youth in northern Uganda for the Institute for Reproductive Health at Georgetown University. Her dissertation uses quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate how sexual orientation and race/ethnicity shape cervical cancer screening among US women. Madina intends to continue conducting policy-relevant, mixed-methods research that helps promote the sexual and reproductive health and well-being of marginalized groups of women in the US, sub-Saharan Africa, and the Caribbean. In her spare time, Madina enjoys modern and jazz dance, yoga, meditation, and learning about history.

 

Before coming to HSPH, I worked for three years in Denver, CO at the National Native American AIDS Prevention Center conducting capacity building around HIV prevention, focused primarily on Native women and girls. I went to New York University for my Bachelor’s degree, and compared to that, I was expecting this transition to be a breeze. My transition was, honestly, rough, but just as at NYU though, it has become easier as I have found support and community. I have made amazing friends, have started working as a Student Ambassador at the HSPH Office of Diversity, am the Vice President of the HSPH Queer Student Alliance, been involved with the Women of Color Collective, and often speak up and ask questions in my classes, in order to get the most out of my experience. I chose the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences (SBS), because I have witnessed how social determinants affect the health of many Native people. SBS offered a wide range of great courses, with much breadth and meaning to the work that I want to do. I love the department, and from the first time I heard Dr. Ichiro Kawachi speak at the Admitted Students’ Open House, I have felt like this is exactly where I am supposed to be. I want to bring the education I gained at HSPH back to Native communities, specifically the Navajo Nation or New Mexico Department of Health, and work on areas of health and population that are often stigmatized, including reproductive and sexual health, LGBTQTS health, and substance abuse. As a Dine’ individual, I hope to bring this information back to Native communities in a culturally appropriate and respectful way. While HSPH does not have a focus on Native American health, it has given me the resources and tools to target my education towards this important area of study.

 

Kenny Chung is a second year master’s student, who aspires to attend medical school after HSPH. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in Public Health and Molecular and Cell Biology. As an undergraduate, Kenny conducted research at the University of California, San Francisco in the Department of Neurological Surgery’s Brain Tumor Research Center studying meningioma tumorigenesis. He also originated and directed multiple public health studies, including the Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice towards Epilepsy (KAPE) study, a national study that reached over 2,800 participants in 7 states and 37 cities. Following KAPE, he led a focus group-based qualitative study directly involving patients with epilepsy. Both studies were in memory of Kenny’s late uncle, Chiu Chung, whose passing was related to complications arising from epilepsy. Kenny is currently the lead investigator of the Vietnam Tooth Project, a three-year prevention- based study aimed at overcoming childhood malnutrition in Vietnam through reducing dental caries. He leads a team of 60 students and professionals from the U.S. and Vietnam to conduct the study, which has enrolled 700 children in Central and South Vietnam. He is making full use of the breadth of Harvard University’s resources by cross-registering for courses at the Harvard Business School, Harvard Medical School, and Harvard School of Dental Medicine. Kenny is President of the Global Health Student Forum, which organizes the annual Harvard Aid for Health Simulation held at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and the Swiss Consulate in Cambridge. His favorite perk of being a student at HSPH is the opportunity to meet and learn from accomplished students and distinguished professionals from all over the world.

 

Araceli Gutierrez is a Master of Science candidate. She holds a BS in Business Administration from San Francisco State University. Throughout her career, she has been a member of several university and foundation public health research and evaluation teams in California. Prior to joining HSPH, Araceli recently conducted genetic and health disparities research at the Howard University Cancer Center in Washington, DC through the Georgetown-Howard Center for Clinical and Translational Science’s SOAR-Health training program.  Her research examined the contributions to and associations between environmental socio-demographic and exposure variables, the Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) harm avoidance personality trait and Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs1800497 on smoking behaviors in African-American smokers. She will be presenting the results of this research during the Social Epidemiology Poster session at the 2012 APHA conference. Araceli also conducted a policy scan addressing the social determinants of health impacting underserved and immigrant communities in California’s Marin County. Her area of research focused on the availability and access to affordable and healthy food in these communities based on existing socio-economic, cultural and logistical barriers. As a result of this policy scan, she co-authored a resource guide for the Marin Community Foundation designed to assist community leaders in developing and implementing a variety of policy changes that address access to healthy food. Araceli’s main research interests lie in Social Epidemiology with a focus on minority health disparities and social determinants of health. Araceli is an avid coffee drinker, frequenting coffee shops with pizzazz. She enjoys spending time with family and friends, volunteering, traveling, reading, writing, board games and Krav Maga.

 

Hana is a doctoral student in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences (SBS). Her primary interests are community interventions, health communications, and social determinants of health. Hana grew up in Japan. Prior to HSPH, she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Social Science from Waseda University in Tokyo, a Master of Education in Educational Media and Technology from Boston University School of Education, and a Master of Science from HSPH. Hana works as a strategic planner in the Public Health department at McCann Health, one of the largest global health communication agencies, where she has conducted health communication research and campaigns around the world. In addition to her current job, she has a wide range of international experience that includes working at the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) India Country Office for HIV Prevention and interning at the National Social Marketing Center in the UK. Hana believes that we can truly make a difference by addressing four major disparities between public health and communications, research and practice, public and private, and public health and medicine. Her mission is to create healthier communities where people can maximize their lives, both in Japan and in developing countries, by bridging these gaps. Hana loves to write and cook. She is the author of No Matter What, Keep Going- What Harvard Taught Me for Life (in Japanese). She is also a scholar of the Joint Japan/ World Bank Graduate Scholarship Program.

 

Before coming to HSPH, Aparna was an assistant professor at a university in India for three years. While volunteering at an epilepsy clinic, she saw the stigma women with epilepsy faced and their lack of access to health care. This was a significant public health concern but something she was not trained to address. HSPH offered her the opportunity to work with inspirational, world class faculty who are great educators. They bring enthusiasm to the classroom and are nurturing of their students. In the future, she would like to continue researching the social implications of living with chronic illness and the subsequent health effects. She’d also like to teach and integrate what she learned at HSPH, especially the intersectionality of health and society, into her curriculum.

 

Prior to HSPH, I spent over 12 years in the U.S. Army as a medical logistics officer. After living overseas for almost a decade and having been deployed to Iraq multiple times, I was ready to spend time back home. The transition from military to civilian life has been a dramatic change – it has taken time to acclimate to Boston, but HSPH has provided numerous opportunities to interact with faculty, staff and students.  These opportunities have allowed me to make friends and develop a strong support network. HPSH has provided ample opportunities for me to grow as a leader through involvement with the Student Leadership Circle Committee, the Public Health Leadership Concentration, HSPH Spring Challenge and Toastmasters. In addition, the courses have challenged me and have provided me with a well-rounded view of social determinants of health. Upon graduation I would like to work in an operational setting for a non-profit focused on providing healthcare for the underserved in an inpatient and/or ambulatory care setting. Additionally, I hope to serve as a mentor for future leaders in public health. The most refreshing thing about HSPH has been the people and their openness to share their experiences and to provide support when most needed. You can arrive and feel like a stranger, but you are guaranteed to leave feeling like your saying goodbye to family.