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World Refugee Day Q+A with Josiane Alix, YSPH '24

June 20, 2023

Each year on June 20th, we commemorate World Refugee Day, an international day designated by the United Nations to honor refugees around the globe. It is a day to celebrate the strength and courage of people who have been forced to flee their home country to escape conflict or persecution, understand their plight, and to recognize their resilience. On World Refugee Day It is especially important to emphasize the need for accessible and equitable health care for the well-being of these individuals.

Josiane Alix, YSPH '23

This year, we are interviewing Josiane Alix, an incoming second-year Master of Public Health candidate and one of our 2023 Leadership in Global Health Fellows, about her experience.

Tell us more about yourself and your background 
I am a soon-to-be second-year MPH student in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences pursuing a concentration in Global Health at YSPH. My story begins in Rwanda, a small country located in East Africa. After the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi forced my family to flee, I struggled to secure any semblance of stable education during the following six years, which I spent in refugee camps in Congo and Zambia. Even after migrating to the U.S. in 2000 through a refugee resettlement program, re-starting my education took years. Over the ensuing years, I taught myself English and restarted my education while balancing various odd jobs to support myself. In 2018, I completed my undergraduate degree at the University of Connecticut. In 2021, I was appointed by Governor Lamont to serve a 3-year term on the State Independent Living Council (SILC) tasked with developing an Emergency Preparedness Plan for people with disabilities statewide. During the upcoming fall semester, I will be joining the amazing team of YSPH Professor of Health Policy & Health Care Systems, Dr. Mark Schlesinger, Professor of Public Health (Health Policy), as a teaching fellow (TF) for Health Policy.

What inspired you to come to the Yale School of Public Health?
My dream is to become an agent of change, capable of adding my voice and talents to the global quest for equitable health care for all. Additionally, I am interested in global health leadership and want to dedicate my career to challenging the status quo, which currently does not give Lower-Middle Income Countries (LMIC) and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) voices the primacy they deserve. To reach global health equity and justice, historically marginalized communities must lead the way. I knew my education and training at YSPH would undoubtedly prepare me for such endeavors and equip me with the tools I need to support these efforts and reach my goal. My early experiences of witnessing the devastating impacts generated by weak health systems and lack of access to basic care, education, and living conditions inspired me to pursue an MPH at Yale University.

How does your experience as a former refugee shape your experience as a student?
Among the many formative experiences from my time as a refugee, the tragic loss of my younger brother’s life due to poor sanitation has likely shaped my experience as a student more than any other. Had our living conditions been more humane, my brother would likely be alive today, which forces me to examine how big-picture global health policies, health systems, procedures, and frameworks affect people on the ground, especially the most vulnerable.

In what ways did your experience influence your career aspirations?
At the end of the day, nothing else matters if we do not have access to health–and all the social and economic determinants of health. I am driven to contribute my passion and abilities to help advance health equity around the globe and assist in strengthening health systems efforts for low- and middle-income countries. I hope to dedicate my career to helping individuals in vulnerable situations–just as I once was–find pathways to health and happiness. But that cannot happen without social and economic justice informing how public health and global health professionals conduct our work. That is why I am excited to add my voice to the profession.

Has there been anyone in particular (professor, mentor, etc.) who has played a significant role in your education?
There are too many mentors to count who have played a significant role in my quest to gain an education, but one stands out. Dr. Jack Tsai, my former Principal Investigator (PI) in the Psychiatry Lab at Yale School of Medicine, played an incredibly significant role early on in my years as a community college student by giving me hands-on research tools, which I still use today. The global health classes taught by Dr. Robert Hecht and Dr. Rafael Perez-Escamilla at YSPH confirmed that global health was the right choice for my concentration. Like anyone else, I would not be where I am without my incredible support network of family and friends.