Random Hopkins Podcasts

Stories of my life on my path to becoming an epidemiologist and stories from my adventures as one. I was born in northern Mexico many, many years ago, and life has brought me to the northeast United States. I’m now and American, a husband, and so many more things than I was when I left the US-Mexico border to seek a better life and expand my career. In 2003, while working full-time, I started an adventure into being an epidemiologist. I learned about diseases and conditions and how to study them and combat them. It was rough, and I sometimes thought I wasn’t going to make it. I got my master of public health (MPH) degree in 2007. I then worked for a state health department for six years before being accepted into the doctor of public health (DrPH) program at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. I’m in my second year there now, and that has been an adventure as well. The purpose of this blog is to practice my public speaking skills and my ability to tell stories. While a lot of public health work is about collecting and analyzing data, a lot of it should be how to interpret the data and explain it to people who need to know. That requires the skill of telling a coherent story. This podcast is my attempt at getting better at it. So what will you hear? You’ll hear tiny stories from my life as well as some presentations I’ve given on different epidemiological and public health subjects. It goes without saying that the content of the podcasts does not necessarily represent the views and opinions of my school, my employers, my friends, or my family. It’s all me. Thanks for listening, and enjoy.

Categories: Society & Culture

Tags: Education, epidemic, epidemiological, Epidemiology, health, hopkins, interview, Journal, Medicine, najera, outbreak, public, publichealth, ren, rfnajera, science