Abbey Hutton always believed that her future was somewhere in the health and medical field. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology from the University of Michigan, graduating in 2021. Hutton, who was an Academic All-Big Ten honoree for three straight seasons with the Michigan field hockey team, is on track to earn a Master in Public Health in Global Health Epidemiology in 2023.
Sidonie Kilpatrick, MPH ’20, did not follow a family member’s path into the healthcare profession. She did not receive inspiration from a popular television series that showed healthcare workers in heroic roles, nor did her high school classes in related subjects provide the illumination that would send her on to study and work on critical matters of public health. Instead, she lived it.
Danielle Stone, a self-proclaimed Trekkie, is boldly going where (virtually) no one has gone before: graduating with a Master of Science in Computational Epidemiology and Systems Modeling from the University of Michigan School of Public Health. She'll be among the first graduates from the new degree program.
Having worked on cancer biology for so many years, Nehanda Jones was inspired by the potential of applying the principles of precision medicine — tailoring medical decisions to an individual’s known genetic and environmental profile — to improve health at a population level. She's now using those lessons to promote sustainable solutions in health through the work of her own public health technology firm.
With growing experience in epidemiology and health policy, master’s student Payton Watt is pursuing her passion for improving health in lower income populations. She continues to examine a pandemic that revealed flaws in US health care and how better policy can ensure access to basic needs.
Socioeconomic status, overcrowding, institutional racism, political partisanship, and global economic inequality are all social factors that determine the disease risk for individuals and populations. And understanding those factors from all angles—from biology to sociology—can help us reduce that risk.