Student Profiles

Appiah has for years researched how environmental issues impact public health. At Heller, she aims to build on those skills to help marginalized populations around the world. When researching graduate programs, she looked for a program that would allow her to focus on both environmental issues and public health.

“When I looked at Heller, I noticed that they were very focused on recruiting people from different countries for international development, global health, and coexistence and all these things that are key to development,” she says. “This is important because they teach the people who should be working to make changes in their communities.”

At first Lee considered traditional Master's of Public Health (MPH) programs, but she was drawn to the expansive array of skills she saw in the Heller curriculum. “International relations, responsible negotiation, responsible mediation – those aren’t at the forefront of most MPH programs,” says Lee. “Heller allowed me to expand beyond traditional MPH skills and to find the interdisciplinary mix that I wanted.”

“I want to bring the paradigm of a community health worker to policy. I also really loved the idea of the dual COEX and GHPM degrees. In today’s world, it’s easy to see how disease and conflict feed off of each other. A pandemic can influence geopolitics and catalyze conflict, and the presence of conflict can feed disease.”

Manuel’s interests include data analytics, strategies design, monitoring and evaluation to achieve goals of improving education and health. Combined with his management and leadership background, he aims to use these skills to make a difference at the national and international level. 

“You impact health with education, and you impact education with health — especially when we’re talking about special education,” he says.

Akuffo says the global health policy and management program at Heller appealed to her because it is policy focused and incorporates STEM courses in health economics and data analysis that will help hone her analytical skills.

“What I like about the classes is that the professors challenge us to become change-makers. The curriculum encourages innovative solutions to many issues in the health system, from improving performance to eliminating access barriers for consumers,” she says.

“Heller is one of the few institutions where I saw an equal marriage of hard, corporate skills but also social justice values. I could learn to manage people and practice health equity in the same school.”

“I’m really interested in expanding what health care as a human right looks like in the United States, and for all people,” Lee says, referencing ideas such as Medicare for All. She hopes to help unite different institutions to create policy, “marrying my organizing background with more of the strategic project management that I'm learning here at Heller.”