Throughout my time at ODU’s MPH program, I engaged with various leadership opportunities both within the program and outside.

(1) Bridgewater College Field Hockey Alumni Mentorship Program

For my undergraduate degree, I attended Bridgewater College and during my four years, I was also a member of the college’s field hockey team. Upon graduation, I was eligible to join the team’s alumni mentorship program. The goal of this program is to create a network of women who have been in each other’s shoes, allowing us to support one another through our journeys post-graduation. Additionally, it allows current players to connect on both a personal and professional level with alumni. I wanted to become a part of something bigger than myself while giving back to a team that gave me an amazing four years. While I will not release the name of the player I am paired with to protect their identity, this program has given me the platform to connect with a young woman who wants to ask questions and have someone to lean on. While I am not leading a whole group or team, I can provide insight and help this player on an individual level, which can sometimes be more rewarding than focusing on an entire group. This opportunity has taught me the importance of connecting one-on-one and that you can be a great leader on a smaller, more personal scale. Additionally, it has shown me that building strong interpersonal relationships can help to grow the strength of the entire team, staff, or organization. This experience applies to my learning in that I feel more comfortable and confident connecting with my classmates when working on group projects. The more comfortable we are with one another, the better products we can produce.

(2) IPE Experience Spring 2021

In my second semester of the MPH program, we were presented with our Interprofessional Education (IPE) project, which had MPH students partnering with students in the Dental Hygiene program. The goal of the project was to connect students from two different programs to make connections between various stakeholders in public health practice. My group’s subtopic was Senior Citizens, and we chose to further look into access to care for senior citizens. This project tested my leadership skills in ways they had not been before. About two weeks into the project, my group lost a team member. We then had to adjust and determine the most sustainable way to divide up the work of four people between three. My partners and I all brought different strengths and ideas, so learning to communicate effectively was crucial. There were times our communication styles did not match, but all three of us understood the importance of succeeding, so we worked together to figure out a communication strategy. This experience taught me how to take a look at my communication method and how to best communicate with others who work differently. While this project was for my degree, the lessons learned will follow me long after leaving ODU.

(3) Leading a project at work – 2022 COVID Pivot

At the time of this writing, I am working for the Portsmouth Health Department as the COVID-19 Epidemiologist. During the early stages of the COVID surge of Winter 2021-22, our team’s leadership quickly realized that our current team operations were not sustainable with the increase in cases. Given a problem, myself and a coworker took it upon ourselves and completely redesigned our COVID team and the roles we play. We took the time to evaluate our needs, which were outbreaks and our schools, and we analyzed our team members to pinpoint everyone’s strengths to determine where they can help the most. Essentially, we restructured how Portsmouth would be responding to COVID. We presented the new design to our supervisor, and once we had her approval, we introduced the change to the rest of the team. We named this change the “Pivot” to emphasize that we are not moving away from COVID response, but rather turning and taking a different approach. Once we presented the change to our team, we then took time training everyone individually on their new roles. My main goal was that everyone was comfortable with their new position and understood their responsibilities before we all jumped in. This experience taught me the importance of staying flexible as a leader, because even though we had a plan, once we worked with team members individually, we moved a few people around. Taking feedback from our team members helped us to create the team dynamic we have now – and it is thriving for us. Staying flexible is also a crucial part of my approach to learning; if I am unable to bend and adjust to learning new concepts and ideas, I can never reach my full potential as a public health professional.