Public Health Leadership Scholars: Day Three - July 11th, 2018
Day three started with an enlightening visit from Dr. Alexis Bakos, who currently holds the title of Senior Advisor to the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Minority Health. Dr. Bakos explained that she began her professional career rather unconventionally as a home health nurse in Ward 8, one of Washington D.C.’s most impoverished communities. Those experiences became the basis for all of Dr. Bakos’ work and launched her into continuing higher education ranging from participation on the Congressional Black Caucus to a doctoral fellowship program with the National Cancer Institute. Her message focused on minority health issues, specifically  how many minorities are often mistakenly grouped with other racial groups during national health surveys. Such practices enable collection of inaccurate information and must be deterred through the respect of individual cultures from all health professionals.

The Scholars had the absolute pleasure of meeting Don Boyce, the Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) at the Department of the Health and Human Services. Mr. Boyce discussed his adversity of growing up in the grimes of Brooklyn, New York as a child and his seemingly improbable dream of becoming a doctor. Although he did not become the doctor he initially sought out to be in his career journey, he instead pursued a doctorate degree in law and various certifications like EMS. The Scholars were inspired by his utmost passion and devotion to wholeheartedly serve others, even if it means creating a distant relationship with his family. The tears of the Scholars within this short, yet impactful story, were attributed to the honorary servant leader that the Scholars strive to become.

Despite the fact that the Office of Emergency Management was currently dealing with a pressing response to unaccompanied migrant children, Lieutenant Commander Kirby organized a few minutes for the Scholars to tour the Secretary’s Operations Center (SOC). The Scholars were awed by the masses of immediate information that swarm the walls of this principal room. The monitors that covered the walls showcased data collection, news reports, social media, and weather forecasts associated with current domestic responses.



To close their day, the Scholar’s were able to visit four members of the American Senate. Staffers from the offices of Senators Perdue (GA), Cornyn (TX), Scott (SC), and Isakson (GA) all met with the Scholars to discuss the personal impact HOSA-Future Health Professionals has had on their journey and career development. To prepare for these visits, the Scholars were debriefed by Mr. George Sifakis, Director of HOSA’s Washington D.C. Office on how to express their gratitude for career and technical education funded by the Perkins Act. These meetings went extremely well and the Scholars even had a brief surprise interaction with Hollywood superstar, Jane Fonda!




After the day’s events, the Scholars traveled to the historic Martin’s Tavern, a staple in Georgetown that every sitting President, from Harry S. Truman to George W. Bush, has dined at. It was the site where John F. Kennedy proposed to Jackie Kennedy and also where the late Mr. Kennedy penned his famous inaugural address. To end a perfect day, the Scholars took a bite into some famous Georgetown Cupcakes and toured Georgetown University before heading home.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
Public Health Leadership Scholars: Day One - July 9th, 2018 To begin the 2018 HOSA Public Health Leadership Scholars program, the Scholars had the pleasure of listening to Commander (CDR) Skip Payne of the United States Public Health Service (USPHS). He introduced the five Executive Core Qualifications (ECQ), which impact every person and action within the USPHS. The first ECQ is leading change. He explained how strategy plays an important role in change and how there must be a well thought out plan. The second ECQ is leading people. For this ECQ, CDR Payne described the difference between management and leadership. Management, he said, only benefits the manager in the short term because often they rely on the manipulation of their staff. Leadership, on the other hand, occurs when someone motivates other people and, as a result, both the leader and the staff receive benefits in the long term. The third ECQ is being results driven. There is a limited amount of time to make an impac...
Read more
Image
Public Health Leadership Scholars: Day Four- July 12th, 2018 On the fourth day of PHLS we became Washingtonians. We did as the locals do and took the Metro up to Bethesda, Maryland for a tour of the National Institute of Health’s (NIH) National Library of Medicine (NLM). A guide toured us and a few new NIH interns around the world’s largest biomedical library, explaining how health professionals and students like us are able to utilize NLM’s vast print collection and electronic information resources from anywhere across the globe. In addition, since we were already feeling like locals, we took the time to get NLM library cards, just in case we needed to check something out to read on the Metro. According to its website, NLM also “supports and conducts research, development, and training in biomedical informatics and health information technology.” Resources like MedlinePlus, PubMed, and the Digital Collections are available to the public at https://www.nlm.nih.gov/portals/public....
Read more