Student Spotlight – Kayla Ringelheim

Prior to Yale, Kayla Ringelheim ran a fruit and vegetable prescription program in collaboration with a community health center for low-income children with metabolic syndrome. The program was low-cost, effective, and made common sense, says Kayla, but it was not reimbursable and therefore not sustainable. Kayla came to Yale to pursue joint degrees in public health and management to become a champion for change from within the health system.

A new graduate of the MPH and MBA programs at Yale, Kayla values the balance of the two programs. “I came to learn the tools and language of healthcare management within the context of a mostly privatized American healthcare system,” explains Kayla. Through her extra-curricular work as a founding member of the U.S. Health Justice Collaborative (USHJC), she has also balanced her formal education with a grounding in critical theory and community organizing.

Founded with medical, nursing, and physician associate students, USHJC sought to fill a gap in health professions education around health disparities, inequities, and structural determinants of health. Since 2015, the group has partnered with students across Yale and members of the New Haven community to present seminars such as this spring’s examination of sexual abuse committed by doctors, and organized monthly potlucks and teach-ins that support students working toward social justice. The group recently received the University’s Graduate Ivy Award in recognition of its collaboration with New Haven.

Kayla will soon start a position at Manatt Health in New York City, a healthcare consulting firm focused on improving access to and quality of health care through coverage expansion and delivery system reform.