Student balances patient care and classwork in MPH-EPI program

Group photo of students in MPH-EPI summer cohort.
MPH-EPI students on campus in June 2024.

September 12, 2024 – Nasim Motayar is a staff intensivist—a physician who specializes in taking care of critically ill patients in intensive care—at the Cleveland Clinic and is studying in the two-year hybrid Master of Public Health in Epidemiology (MPH-EPI) degree program. She joined her classmates for three weeks of on-campus classwork in June, before returning home to Ohio to continue taking care of patients while attending online classes for the rest of the academic year. She spoke about her experience with the program.

Nasim Motayar pictured with Harvard Chan School's Kresge building in the background
Nasim Motayar

Every day, I wake up committed to providing medicine of the highest order to my patients. I reached a point in my career where I wanted to do even more to promote health and to expand the expertise of our academic medical center to rural areas. I also wanted to be a better mentor to my trainees, a better researcher and educator, and to do more for my patients and for overall public health. This program is the place where everything came together for me.

I am really impressed by the way the program is designed. The hybrid structure maximizes your learning while also making the journey truly enjoyable. They know we all work. They know we are all busy. Online sessions are mostly asynchronous. Because we live in different time zones, some synchronous sessions are either optional or another alternative is provided, so we can participate however is convenient. This allows me to continue to do what I love at the bedside in the ICU and to also advance my learning. The in-person classes give you the opportunity for close interactions with colleagues and professors, and to have the on-campus Harvard experience. It allowed our cohort to come together and really get to know each other as more than just a name on a screen. That is one of the many reasons I chose this program. Even though we spent a relatively short period of time together in person, the experience was truly bonding.

The classwork is fun. It’s a great mix of public health, biostatistics, and epidemiology. You don’t realize how much time you’re spending learning because you’re passionate about the subject.

The program has been so much more than just the classwork. It has transformed me as a person. I can do so much more than I could last year. In addition to getting the skills to do statistics, analyze data, and ask the right questions, I’ve also learned to be a better mentor to the students, residents, and fellows I work with. It’s been a hidden gem for me to come here and see how amazing the Harvard professors are. The way they mentor me has reshaped the way I mentor my mentees.

I have developed lifelong friendships and mentors. You feel like you’ve become part of a dynamic network. And when [Associate Professor in the Department of Biostatistics] Brian Healy says he is going to be there for you for the rest of your life, you can count on it.

Amy Roeder

Photos: Group: Courtesy of MPH-EPI program; Motayar: Courtesy of Nasim Motayar