Alum Chris Cobb's latest challenge, and his biggest to date, is the opioid epidemic. “The opioid epidemic has impacted our communities so tremendously here that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is putting a lot of resources into its public health response,” he says.
After the Navy, I went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Armstrong State University in Savannah, Georgia. Then I came to the University of Michigan to work as a research staff member for Rick Nietzel, associate professor of environmental health sciences. After a year and a half, I began the master’s program in industrial hygiene and earned my Master of Science degree in 2016.
I always felt hungry for knowledge. Pursuing an academic career was completely foreign to me. I didn’t know anyone who had gotten a PhD. But I knew I wanted to learn.
I tried being a chemistry major for a couple semesters, but then I failed physics. I tried pre-med, but I met a lot of doctors who didn't seem to enjoy their lives. I finally landed on biology of global health, which was a new major at my university.
"I think this next generation is about change. I'm hopeful that this group will take the resources that they've been given—and the challenge—and really work to be the changers that we need them to be."
The United States spends more on health care than any other developed country, yet the quality of health care and life expectancy in the US are well below its peer nations. That discrepancy is the impetus for Andrew Ryan's research.