School of Public Health Career Roundtable Forum

If you’re a student looking for some honest career advice, a one-on-one conversation with somebody who has been where you are now can make all the difference.

On April 5, more than 60 students got that priceless opportunity at the 2007 School of Public Health Career Roundtable Forum. Six speakers – including four alumni – were on hand to field the “not so easy to ask” and “not so easy to answer” questions. The event was cosponsored with the SPH Alumni Society and coincided with Public Health Week events, which were sponsored by the Public Health Student Association. Both Public Health Week and the Career Roundtable are annual activities sponsored through the SPH Office of Student and Academic Services.
Speakers included:

Naveed Ahmad, MD, MPH, SPH ’02
Biostatistician/Epidemiologist
Clinical Research Department
Children's Medical Center of Dallas

Kirk Barnes, DrPH (c), MCRP
Public Health Analyst
Health and Human Services Administration, HRSA

Leslie R. Boone, MPH
Administrative Director of Research
Health Equity Research
Institute for Health Care Research and Improvement
Baylor Health Care System

Anita Kurian, DrPH, MPH, SPH ’06
Chief Epidemiologist
Tarrant County Health Department

LaKeshia Lewis, MPH, SPH ’03
Program Services Coordinator
March of Dimes - Tarrant County Division

LaToya Lewis, MPH, SPH ’03
Director of Prematurity Initiatives
March of Dimes, Tarrant County Division

“I learned that making it into the public health arena is about positioning oneself strategically by selecting internships that are pertinent to one’s area of interest, volunteering in areas that can count as experience, and networking with public health professionals. Such strategies link you to the tremendous opportunities available in public health whether at local, national or international levels.

Now I try to approach people instead of waiting for people to approach me. I don’t believe that opportunity knocks at the door… I believe that opportunity awaits me and I must go after it.

- Jackline Opollo, SPH student