| Summary: | My path to public health has been non-traditional, and in many ways I have
medical anthropology to thank for that. After completing a Bachelor's degree in
Anthropology from The College of Wooster (U.S.A.), where I undertook an
independent thesis on the perceptions of HIV/AIDS in Japan and the USA, I
landed a job in the divisive and emotional realm of American health policy. Here I
quickly made the observation that many public policy decisions regarding ‘health'
are more often focused on saving money than on promoting or protecting health. I
then went on to complete the MPhil in Medical Anthropology between 2007 and
2009. While at Oxford, my research focus was on tuberculosis (TB) policy among
Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander peoples and the influence that
place and space, ethnomedicine, and a political-ecologic setting had on these
policies (Graff 2009). Through this work my interests moved away from national
health policy and towards an application of medical anthropological theories to
international public health. Formerly the Policy Development Associate at the
Trust for America's Health in Washington, DC, I am currently the Senior Policy
Researcher at the UK Health Forum and studying for a Doctorate in Public Health
at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Today my interests
within public health include the influence of place and space on health and disease
prevention, and the social determinants of health, health inequalities and cultural
competency.
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