What is your current job?
I am a program administrator at the Community Alliance for Research and Engagement (CARE) and Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center at the Yale School of Public Health. My work focuses on community health engagement research, program evaluation, and health communications. I lead our vaccine communications work, which includes developing training and outreach materials, and creating messaging for our COVID-19, flu, and monkeypox response. Additionally, I lead the evaluation of an urban agriculture project with the City of New Haven’s Food System Policy Division.
Describe your work and why you find it rewarding/challenging.
I spend much of my time collaborating with community partners to identify ways that CARE can support their COVID-19 outreach efforts. When the COVID-19 vaccines were first available, I developed fact sheets and a community-friendly website (www.vaccinateNHV.org) for the New Haven Health Department and community partners to reference while conducting outreach. As the pandemic continued, residents were getting overwhelmed by the extensive outreach that was being conducted in their neighborhoods. To better manage city-wide outreach, I created an outreach tracking and collaboration tool to reduce redundant outreach efforts and reduce the COVID-19 fatigue on residents.
To reduce the cacophony of public health messages, I developed an extensive vaccine equity training program for our Vaccine Equity Fellowship program that focuses on COVID-19, flu, effective communication, and outreach safety. This training program was later adapted to training outreach staff at CARE, the New Haven Health Department, and Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center.
Nowadays, most of my day-to-day work includes attending meetings with partners, staying up-to-date on the latest FDA and CDC guidance, monitoring the latest misinformation/disinformation that is spreading, developing messaging for our partners, and overseeing our vaccine equity fellowship program.
The most rewarding part of my work is being able to use my knowledge, skills, and connections to get information out to the people who need it and to support the work of our community partners.
The most challenging part of my work is battling burnout, but I know I’m not alone in this. According to the National Survey of the Public Health Workforce, one in three public health employees were considering leaving their organization within the next year. Among the reasons most often cited by employees who said they are considering leaving were work overload/burnout (41%) and stress (37%).
How did YSPH prepare you for your current work?
Community-engaged research, social justice, and health equity were the foundation of my education at YSPH, and they are all central to my work today. Whether it was about anticipating barriers to vaccine access, designing surveys to be inclusive of intersectional identities, or amplifying community voices, YSPH has prepared me to approach my work with an equity mindset.
Community-engaged research, social justice, and health equity were the foundation of my education at YSPH, and they are all central to my work today.
Jackson Higginbottom, MPH '20 (Social & Behavioral Sciences)
Do you have a favorite YSPH experience you can share?
I have had so many great YSPH experiences. One that really stands out was the Washington D.C. Career Trek hosted by the Career Management Center. Coming from a small town in Oklahoma, I never imagined that I would one day be discussing job opportunities with the nation’s leading public health organizations in the nation’s capital. I spent the weekend with YSPH friends exploring the city and discussing our life goals. It was also on that trip when then Dean Sten Vermund shared that we were likely not going to be returning to campus after spring break due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A few days later, we received the email informing us not to return to campus. In some ways, this career trek was my favorite and last YSPH experience as a student.
What advice do you have for current/future students?
My advice to current/future students is to use your time at YSPH to explore the field of public health. There are so many ways you can apply your degree to influence the health of your community or the world.
Were there any faculty/staff mentors who influenced your YSPH experience?
There were so many faculty mentors that influenced my YSPH experience. Professor Kathleen O’Connor Duffany, Director of Research and Evaluation at CARE, was the first faculty member I started working with at Yale. She has been an invaluable mentor to me throughout my YSPH career, whether it was talking about careers in evaluation, discussing PhD programs, or life in general.
Professor John Pachankis was another faculty mentor who greatly influenced my YSPH experience and sharpened my research skills. John’s research really resonated with me when I was looking for research opportunities as a first-year. During my time in his lab, I wrote my thesis on the associations of parental religiosity and their LGBTQ child’s mental health, participated in numerous presentations and publications, and assisted with the launch of the Yale LGBTQ Mental Health Initiative.
Lastly, but certainly not least, Professor Marney White has been instrumental in my professional development as a social and behavioral researcher. Outside of class, I’ve worked with Marney on developing informational materials around COVID-19 and the immunocompromised, and had the opportunity to be a teaching fellow for executive MPH students taking Marney’s Foundations of Behavior Change course. Her dedication to mental health, public health, and students has been so inspirational to me.