A Passion for Social Welfare
Emily Ihara’s Heller journey started with a cross-country trip from Los Angeles. While visiting a friend who was a current student, Emily sat in on a few classes and quickly decided that a PhD program was the next step in her career as a social worker. “I loved the focus and the interdisciplinary nature of the program and the emphasis on social justice,” said Emily, who earned her MSW in Social Welfare with a concentration in mental health from the University of California at Los Angeles. “Heller’s mission in particular resonated with me and seemed like the right fit for my goals.”
Putting Knowledge Into Action
As a Heller student, Emily received a W. K. Kellogg Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship in Health Policy Research, which supported five years of the doctoral program. The fellowship is awarded to minority leaders in doctoral programs, with a focus on reducing health disparities and creating partnerships between communities and health education programs. The cohort model of the Kellogg program brought together students from different schools and universities across the country. “It provided a national network, and I’m still in contact with some of the people I met during my time as a fellow.”
Emily gained invaluable experience as an intern at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and Policy Consultant for the Executive Office of Health and Human Services. Her next role with the Kellogg Foundation as an H. Jack Geiger Congressional Health Policy Fellow brought her to Capitol Hill where she worked in the U.S. House of Representatives. “The applied policy experience was eye-opening,” said Emily. “It’s one thing to learn about policy in the classroom, but I don’t know that you can truly understand how to put it into practice without getting that real-world training.”
From Fellowship to Leadership
After completing both her PhD and Kellogg programs, Emily moved into academia as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Work at George Mason University. Today, she is a tenured professor and chair of the department, which is in a newly formed college of public health, the first of its kind in Virginia. “In some ways it feels a little like full circle because I was really exposed to public health at Heller through the Kellogg Foundation Fellowship.”
As a researcher, Emily utilizes an interdisciplinary approach that focuses on eliminating health inequities and improving lives across the lifespan through interventions, policies, and systemic changes. Her specific areas of interest include behavioral interventions for individuals living with dementia, community-based and creative arts interventions for populations with health needs, and social determinants of health and mental health.
The Heller Difference
During her studies at Heller, Emily found that the diversity of the community encouraged collaboration and an openness to the unique perspectives of students and professors alike. “Everyone brought their own viewpoints and framework and I think that helped broaden my understanding of how to examine certain issues.” Emily recalls building camaraderie that carried on well after graduation: “When you meet a fellow Heller alum, you can feel an instant connection. There’s an understanding that we are coming at things from a similar angle. That shared experience opens up a lot of doors.”
Advice for Current Students
Take advantage of the expertise and opportunities around you: “Talk to and work with people who are either doing or have done what you want to do. Getting real-world experience in the area that you’re passionate about is invaluable—you can’t change policies and systems without first understanding what the people affected by them are going through.”
Be confident in yourself and your abilities: “Heller graduates have the ability to bring a different voice to the policymaking sphere and help make positive social change in our world.”