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And her work in health and social behavior has been especially enlightening. “I now understand why our health behavior is a product of the environment around us,” she says.
Through the practicum, students like Chan get to fuse classroom learning and practice in a public health work environment as well. As they contribute to a community’s resources and to the solution of public health priorities, they build practice-based skills, personal confidence, and leadership as a public health professional.
Chan has also advanced her skills in quantitative epidemiologic methods, program planning, health policy analysis, and behavioral change theories — all of which she is sure will serve her well in the future role as an epidemiologist or project manager focused on designing effective public health programs.
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Born and raised in San Francisco, Virginia Chan spent the last few years managing the daily operations of clinical trials and health services research projects as a research coordinator. But she wanted to have more impact as a public health practitioner, spurred by what she saw and experienced growing up in a low-income community.
When Chan found UC Berkeley’s Online MPH program, she knew it was the ideal way to launch her dream career. “I love that I can balance my full-time job while pursuing a master’s degree,” she says. “It also enables me to apply what I learned in class to the real world in real-time.”
Growing up, Chan saw first-hand how social determinants greatly affected her health and her community’s. She sought answers for this – and found them in the Epidemiology and Biostatistics concentration, which has unlocked courses in epidemiological methods, outbreak investigations, and biostatistics.
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