PHAST Forward to Experience

Caleb Ward, Epidemiology Student

March 2, 2020

If you asked what my favorite and most meaningful thing about my time at UMSPH was, I would answer: PHAST. Our trip to Grenada will be my third experience with PHAST. It will be a great experience to learn from and an excuse to get out of the cold. We will be consulting with the Grenada Red Cross (GRC) on construction of their strategic plan, by doing an SWOT analysis. This strategic plan will be essential for the organization to better serve their community. We will be reporting on the organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

Last year I worked with the Cameron County Health Department in southern Texas on an emergency planning exercise integrating border security with public health threats. We interviewed several stakeholders such as local health providers, border patrol agents, customs and border patrol officers, the transit authority, emergency planners and local politicians. This last fall, I went to the U.S. Virgin Islands to assist the CDC in running a Community Assessment for Public Health Emergency Response (CASPER). This was a household survey conducted across the islands to get a sense of recovery efforts since the last hurricane.

I am excited to put back into practice these new interview skills I’ve gained, but also to learn more about the inner working of an NGO. We will be interviewing multiple people on the island to gain a better perspective on the GRC. I grew up in Kenya, and plan to return to sub-Saharan Africa working in a Global Health context. This will likely mean my employment by an NGO, and the experience in Grenada will have already given me an idea of what that entails.

I don’t feel nervous about this upcoming task because of the training and experience PHAST has given me. I’ve been able to lead interviews with many types of people, specifically dozens of security agents asking about border policies (so many guns in that room). I’ve been able to humbly enter new communities and ask sensitive questions. Now we will be influencing the future of a well-established organization by our findings and recommendations. I would not have expected to gain this much real-world experience while still a student.