Alumna sees public health at work in ‘everything’

Nichole Sorhaindo, MPH ’09

Health Behavior and Health Education

March 17, 2024

At a very young age, Nichole Sorhaindo, MPH ‘09, knew she wanted to work in healthcare.

Growing up outside of Los Angeles, she remembers having an early interest in health and the human body.

“We were always at the pediatrician because I had a lot of—what we learned later in life were called—vestibular migraines when I was a kid,” Sorhaindo said. “I spent a lot of time at the doctor’s office trying to figure out what was wrong with me and how to stop and prevent it. From there, working to figure out the unknown, and what to do with the unknown, became so interesting to me.”

Even at the age of 10 or 11, she was fascinated with the human body, how it works and how it’s treated.

“That’s when I started to know that I wanted to dedicate my career to helping people live long and healthy lives,” Sorhaindo said. “It was around that time that I told my parents that I was going to accomplish three things: I was going to go to UCLA; I was going to become a doctor, specifically a pediatrician; and I was going to work for the CDC.”

She accomplished two of those goals.

After earning a Bachelor of Science in Psychobiology at UCLA, Sorhaindo soon started working as a clinical research associate at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. While studying to take the MCAT, she had an epiphany.

“I was working with a lot of cardiac rehab patients, and I just kept seeing the same people coming back in,” she said. “After a while, I wasn’t interested in treating the same thing over and over again because these are problems that stem from years—and even decades—of life choices and also living in environments that are not conducive to optimal health.”

Sorhaindo became more invested in preventing illness and poor health rather than treating it.

“That’s when I realized traditional medicine was more about management than prevention,” she said.

After this discovery, Sorhaindo shifted her focus to public health.

“Until my time at Cedar-Sinai, I hadn’t been aware that public health was an option,” she said. “It was then that I made the decision to aim for a master’s degree in public health, with an emphasis on serving historically underserved communities. My passion has always been—and remains—women’s health, especially for women of color, which is what steered me toward this field.”

Sorhaindo had a friend who was attending the University of Michigan Law School who had nothing but praise for the university, from the supportive staff and faculty to the overall campus atmosphere in Ann Arbor and the engaging national alumni network. That positive feedback, paired with the University of Michigan School of Public Health’s national reputation as a top public health school, convinced her it was the right place to be. That, and she was ready for “a change from California.”

“The way my friend portrayed the university and the impressions I received from others who had attended really resonated with me,” Sorhaindo said. “When I finally visited the campus in person, it confirmed my feelings that this would be a great place for me to dedicate two years to advancing my career and focusing on my studies in a new setting. It turned out to be a fantastic experience.

“Plus, I was just passionate about health behavior and helping people understand the connection between environment, choices and health—and the Health Behavior and Health Education community was just so welcoming.”

After earning a Master of Public Health in Health Behavior and Health Education from Michigan Public Health, she was named an ORISE Health Education and Communication Fellow for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

“It’s difficult to grasp the full extent of public health at first,” she said, “but it becomes clear after graduating from the program and seeing how pervasive the field really is.

“It’s in everything—from the soil on our shoes to the television programs we watch that influence our mental health. It shapes the way we interact with others, the respect we demand, how we perceive our healthcare providers, the choices we make about where to live, and even the air we breathe.

“At first, you might think public health careers are limited to working at community centers, delivering malaria tablets abroad, or being employed by organizations like the CDC. But, as you step out into the real world with your degree, you quickly realize the immensity of opportunities available—public health is everywhere.”

In addition, public health training prepares graduates to wear multiple hats, she said.

“You become the project manager, the director, the budget overseer, and the subject matter expert,” Sorhaindo said. “You find yourself designing initiatives and creating evaluation plans. The need to understand such a diverse range of topics transforms you into a multi-skilled professional—a jack-of-all-trades—largely due to the way funding shapes our roles. It’s not ideal, but this dynamic nature of our training opens numerous unanticipated career paths—there’s just so many different ways to use your degree.”

That’s how Sorhaindo landed at the American Psychological Association (APA) in Washington, DC. As the senior director of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Planning and Integration, she drives the strategic planning, development, execution and assessment of association-wide models to create an environment that is accessible, equitable and inclusive for all stakeholders within the organization and the field of psychology.

“Typically, the APA only hires psychologists and other mental health masters, practitioners and scientists,” Sorhaindo said. “They needed someone with a public health background and experience who could deliver strategic programmatic evaluation, planning and needs assessment—all that stuff. They need those skills, and you find them in public health folks—that’s how I ended up here.”

Public health professionals bring a unique perspective to various fields due to their training in considering the social determinants of health, she said.

“We’re trained to think holistically and consider the social determinants of health in all that we do,” Sorhaindo said. “We can pinpoint many blind spots that people or organizations or groups may have, and that becomes a very valuable asset to a lot of organizations. I think that is something that is unique to public health.”

Sorhaindo recognizes public health elements in all things, always.

She teaches beginner-friendly embroidery classes in the DC area, and regularly gives lessons at the Smithsonian. Her mother and grandmother taught her how to embroider and stitch, and it’s something she does to deal with stress.

“At the beginning of the pandemic, a local small business reached out to me, asking if I’d be interested in teaching virtual embroidery classes,” Sorhaindo said. “I thought that was such a great idea because it’s a therapeutic art form. It’s known to lower your blood pressure and it’s great for mental health. 

“Recently, a woman I ran into told me she took one of my embroidery classes three years ago when looking for coping mechanisms after being laid off from her job because of the pandemic. It really got her interested in the art form, and since then she’s been using embroidery to help her cope with anxiety and stress and become more meditative. It was therapeutic for her.

“I just want people to know that there is an opportunity to use your degree for more than what you think it’s for. I think it’s important to have people with public health backgrounds and a public health mindset in every space. Get into spaces where people wouldn’t expect the public health brain to fit in because you’re going to bring so much value to that space—and nobody’s going to forget it.”

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