Military Service and Public Health Efforts Make a Healthy Combination

Makala Carrington grew up with two influences that seemingly have little in common: military service and public health work. For her, they created the ideal fit.

Carrington grew up near Fort Bragg Army Base in North Carolina. This base is he one of the largest military installations in the United States. Her father retired there after he served 20 years in the United States Army. She remembers him waking up singing “Jody” and accompanying him to the base’s concession stand, seeing people in uniform, understandably.

“That’s the life I grew up with and wanted to continue,” Carrington said. “I wanted to be in that space.”

At the same time, Carrington added, her mother had served the community for more than 20 years at a public health agency. Her work of hers also piqued her interest. Though she stuck with her military service, Carrington found a bridge to public health while scrolling through the U.S. Air Force website: Looking for her job, she found herself I found a job that suits me. She’s a public health officer.

many paths to career

So she headed to the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC) to earn a Bachelor of Science in Public Health. She then went on to study at the University of North Carolina Chapel at the University of North Carolina. I am a PhD candidate in public health.

All the while, Carrington’s commitment to military service and public health never wavered. She is a U.S. Air Force officer and has extensive experience in programs that have addressed building community engagement, promoting health equity, workforce development and enhancing her leadership skills.

“All of my professional and personal experience exemplifies this holistic view of public health,” Carrington said.

She also found an early and permanent career path through the American Public Health Association (APHA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). As an undergraduate, Carrington participated in APHA student assemblies, served as a campus liaison to the organization, and has attended the annual conference since 2017. She is currently a Section Councilor for APHA’s Community Health Planning and Policy Development Section.

Along the way, Carrington completed two undergraduate internships through CDC’s Undergraduate Public Health Scholar (CUPS) program. First at Morehouse’s College of Public Health Sciences in Atlanta, then John’s in Baltimore at Hopkins University School of Nursing.

The road to injury prevention

The placement of Johns Hopkins proved pivotal in Carrington’s early career. I met a recognized Dr. Jackie Campbell. Carrington assisted Campbell in researching domestic violence in immigrant and refugee communities in the Baltimore area.

“This job was a turning point for me,” and Campbell became a “mentor for life,” Carrington said. ASPPH) reinforced her commitment to finding ways to protect against injury.

“After three years in injury prevention, I feel like I’ve found my niche,” Carrington said.

That work continued at Colorado SPH, where Carrington is a graduate research assistant at Marian (Emmy) Betts, MD, MPH, the leading national voice in firearms injury prevention. is Associate Director of the Center for Injury and Violence Prevention in SPH, Colorado. Carrington works with Betts and her team on a violence prevention project at Buckley Space Force Base in Aurora.

“Makara’s public health and military background made her a perfect fit,” Betts said.

Carrington also said he looks forward to helping educate the next generation of public health professionals and increasing the number of underrepresented individuals in the profession.

The APHA/KP scholarship provides financial support to help her achieve her goals, but Carrington concludes that the value goes beyond that.

“It motivates me to do this work,” she said. “It also helps you feel confident about who you are professionally, what you can do, what you’re going to do, without boundaries.”

A Public Health Career Deeply Rooted in the Filipino Community

A first-generation Filipino who grew up in the Los Angeles area, Shenazar (Shane) Esmund is quick to admit that he knew nothing about public health until he entered college. Many other everyday concerns occupied her.

Raised by his mother and grandparents, Esmund moved around, attending five elementary schools in Los Angeles before the family settled in the San Fernando Valley. After her high school, she enrolled at California State University, Los Angeles, where she planned to become a nurse. After taking several public health courses, she changed her mind.

“I was drawn into public health and wanted to learn more about it,” Esmund said. “I was drawn to the connection to real-world problems.”

The public health challenges she learned were connected on a personal level. Her idea that Filipinos and other immigrant communities face language, economic and cultural barriers, combined with her own experience, inspired her to do something.

“Growing up, I didn’t realize my family and I were going through the same health disparities that we were learning about in class,” Esmund said. “It was a moment of reflection for me.”

important mentorship

On his way to a bachelor’s degree in public health, Esmund also found a mentor. Her Melanie Sabado-Liwag, PhD, director of Cal State-LA’s Master of Public Health (MPH) program and also a first-generation Filipino college student, MPH considers Esmundo to further her education urged you to do so.

“She opened up the idea of ​​getting a master’s degree or getting an education that I didn’t really think was possible,” Esmund said. “It was nice to have a mentor to guide me through the process.”

Encouragement from Sabado-Liwag proved decisive and Esmundo completed MPH in Northridge, California. She is currently in the next phase of her training and is a candidate for Public Health Physician in Community and Behavioral Health at Colorado SPH – CU Anschutz.

Strong track record in community health and cancer prevention

Esmundo brings a wealth of practical experience to the program. For the past three years he has worked at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and most recently as a Clinical Research Coordinator at the Cancer Research Center for Health Equity. She moved to Denver, but she continues to work remotely and part-time.

Her interest and commitment to cancer prevention also has a personal tinge. Her father died of cancer while living in another country.

“Working at the cancer center was a full circle for me,” Esmund said. “Losing my father was a big driving force for me to do this work.”

Esmundo gained early experience at Cedars-Sinai as a research intern. She piloted a cancer awareness campaign in the Filipino community that included surveys measuring her knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about cancer screening. Over 1,000 surveys were collected as a result of this effort. They also found that Filipinos underutilized screening services and identified both motivations and barriers to cancer screening. This information helped design a prevention program.

Helping others navigate the healthcare system

Her subsequent community work included developing training for medical navigators to guide people in the Filipino community through the twists and turns that often disrupt the healthcare system.

“Working with the community and gaining buy-in is very difficult,” says Esmundo. “We need to make sure people are being heard and that they are actually listening.”

At Colorado SPH, Esmund is Patricia Valverde’s Graduate Research Assistant, PhD, MPH, Principal Investigator of the Patient Navigator Training Collaborative at the Colorado SPH Public Health Practice Center and a key advocate for the profession.

“I was thrilled to see Shane’s extensive experience in cancer prevention and management,” Valverde said. “Her research skills will enhance our program evaluation efforts. I can’t imagine a better fit for us.”

The APHA/KP scholarship eases the financial burden Esmund felt growing up. But she’s also excited about the opportunity to expand her knowledge of public health and find new ways to help people. I am interested.

“We’ve made great strides in technology, but people aren’t necessarily more advanced in using them,” she said. “How can we close that gap?”

Ultimately, Esmund aims to help people like her grow up build bridges for themselves.

“We may be researchers, but they are the ones who know our communities best,” she said. “We have to give them a platform that empowers them to make decisions.”

Written by Tyler Smith for the Colorado School of Public Health.