Monika Howe is a double alumnus of USC, earning a BA in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention in 2018, and a Master of Public Health in 2020. She has been involved in many projects in the Department of Preventive Medicine, and her background has focused on harm reduction practices, opioid drug use research, syringe exchange access and health education.
Learn more about this episode and others at keck.usc.edu/pphs/podcast
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Monika Howe is a double alumnus of USC, earning a BA in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention in 2018, and a Master of Public Health in 2020. She has been involved in many projects in the Department of Preventive Medicine, and her background has focused on harm reduction practices, opioid drug use research, syringe exchange access and health education.
Learn more about this episode and others at keck.usc.edu/pphs/podcast
Stay in the loop - subscribe to the Preventive Dose newsletter for monthly news straight to your inbox.
Follow us on social - find us at @uscpphs
From the health sciences campus at university of Southern California comes pop and occasional series exploring perspectives on public health.
Speaker 2:Welcome to pod connecting community research and students giving us a real world perspective as told by those, seen through the public health lens. I'm your host, Gardena, Domingez, Gonzalez, and alumnus of the master of public health program at USC. I'm also a research coordinator here in the department of preventative medicine and office for social studies.
Speaker 1:Yes,
Speaker 2:On today's episode, we will be talking to Monica hel she's a double alumnus at USC earning a BA in health promotion and disease prevention in 2018 and a master of public health. In 2020. She has been involved in many projects in the department of preventive medicine. For many years. Her background has focused on harm reduction practices, opioid drug use research and syringe exchange access in health education. We are so honored to have her and look forward to hearing her perspectives around very important topics.
Speaker 1:Hi
Speaker 2:Monica, thank you for joining us today. We're really happy to have you tell us a little bit about yourself and what led you to majoring in
Speaker 1:Public health? Well, I didn't really feel like I knew what I was doing when I applied to college and there wasn't a strong focus on college at my high school. And I knew I was best in subjects like English or writing or history, but I decided to apply as a biology major because that was what I simply enjoyed learning about most and just wanted to learn about. And then when I began this undergraduate biology major at USC, I had the opportunity to start taking courses on subjects like sociology and American studies that really sparked interest in and passion for associate sociology and social justice. And when I learned about the health promotion undergraduate degree program offered by the preventative medicine department, I found that it captured this really exciting intersection between my interest in biology and my growing passion for social justice. And I immediately wanted to jump in with two feet. So I changed my major and I took my first public health course from dr. Ricky Blumenthal. And I began working in his lab and exploring my passions for health research and harm reduction. And I think that passion really started at its roots with empathy. I was lucky to have a lot of opportunities to empathize with and hear the experiences of a lot of really diverse people in my life. And I think that helps me look past a lot of societal stigmas at a pretty young age. And so I think the central point or access of that intersection between biology and social justice is the issue of health equity. And I think a passion for work that pursues health equity sort of grew like the stems from those roots of empathy for others. And I've always tried to get experiences that reflect that and that operate in the meaningful pursuit of health equity, whether it's at the direct service, uh, the programmatic or policy levels. So the areas of experience that I've worked in most so far in my career include harm reduction. So harm reduction strategies and programs take a nonjudgmental approach to reducing the harm associated with using drugs. And I was mainly involved in that through needle exchange services and policy development, and as a research assistant in dr. Blumenthal's lab on studies that were mainly centered around the population of people who use drugs. And I've also done a lot of work within public health programs. So for example, uh, facilitating interprofessional collaboration between my home county's public health department, social services agency, and health and hospital system to improve care for foster youth in the County wow. Or planning the implementation and evaluation for program that would reduce disparities in children's oral health.
Speaker 3:Wow. That's a lot of work that you did, um, in your public health as a student and your student career. Um, so from your perspective, what are the changes you've witnessed in public health from the point where you decided to go into public health to right before COVID-19 and now,
Speaker 1:Well, as I just mentioned, the, the bulk of my public health experience has been directed towards pursuing health equity by serving populations that have been impacted by health disparities and inequity, including, um, people who inject drugs, people experiencing homelessness and homeless youth, people living with HIV, um, sex workers, foster youth, or children living in poverty. And when I started my MPH and even up until the pandemic began a lot of the time, I felt like I was doing work that involves seeing these issues that were just invisible to a lot of other people. And I thought that stigma and privilege and politics were pulling this veil over these issues that just made them so easy to ignore under like quote normal conditions when our systems weren't stressed. And I, it felt like people oftentimes didn't really have to pay attention to things that didn't affect their lives or people who weren't like them. So a lot of people who weren't directly affected by these public health issues or weren't in a related field of work just weren't listening or were ascribing to these sort of surface level, stereotypical or stigmatizing messages about the quote society's ills or people who were like quote worse off. And I think that since I started my degree, the changes in public health that I've noticed have really been driven by the strong influences of politics and culture on public health. And I think that's a Testament to the fact that public health has to do with literally everything that's true will make access to healthcare, quality of healthcare, mental health, and policing, and the justice system and mass incarceration and stigma against people living with HIV or LGBTQ plus people, um, racism, food, access, neighborhood, safety, violence, climate change, environmental justice, voter suppression, all levels of policy. You know, like I could talk myself into the ground, like listing all of these things and it's all public health, it's all impacting public health and all of forces that can act upon all these things that all the different levels in our lives are also acting upon public health and any change in any one of those areas has also changed public health. And now during this pandemic, public health is at the forefront and we're hearing about it nonstop. And not only is there that focus on public health right now, there has also been this stress on the public health system that has really shown its weaknesses and the weaknesses of other systems and structures and institutions in our country. Because like I said, public health has to do with literally everything everything has to do with everything at the end of the day. And now I think now with the effects of this pandemic shaping the last few months and the effects of this uprising against systemic racism shaping the last couple of weeks, it really feels like we're cracking under pressure almost and awakening to the flaws in our public health infrastructure and in American institutions that are really being put at, put out in the open. Yeah. And I think now that interconnectedness is a lot more clear than I've ever seen it be in my lifetime. And a lot of people are willing or forced to lift that veil and look at those issues that haven't gotten your attention before. And in this present moment in this present America, we're obviously facing public health crises and challenges that are acute and putting those flaws out and clearing ways. And it feels like now everyone is talking about what I'm mainly used to talking about in the classroom. And it feels also right now like public health is about survival. It's about preventing illness and deaths from COVID-19. It's about fighting anti-blackness and systemic racism cycles of poverty and things are moving really rapidly and people are moving desperately. In the last two weeks alone. I started a job leading a team of contact tracers investigating COVID-19 cases. I also watched a friend get hit in the eye with a rubber bullet and collapsed at, of protests on the local news for inside view. Wow. And I've watched another friend as he organized a powerful protest at USC to try and use his voice, to speak out against injustice and create a space for black USC students to have their experiences heard. And right now it feels like there's desperation that has created this momentum that I think from this point forward could change the way that we think about public health in this country and in the world, um, permanently.
Speaker 3:Wow, those are great points. You have a great insight on what you called invisible, um, problems. And I, I agree. There's a lot of stuff that people didn't realize were public health problems. And I think having the training that you have with the MPH and having the different perspectives and the different roles that you you've had really gave you that edge and that clear perspective of what needs to be done. And it's great that you've actually taken steps towards that. So moving forward, what do you hope to accomplish with an MPH and what challenges or advantages will you face, or do you think you'll face considering like the climate of the world right now and, um, where you, where you are? Well, for me, I'm passionate
Speaker 1:About work that perceives health equity and dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum offered a really powerful analogy in her book. Uh, anti-racist activism for teachers and students. You describes the ongoing cycle of racism in society as a conveyor belt that we all stand on with some behaving passively by just standing on it as it moves and some acting against it by choosing to turn around and walk the other way. And in thinking about my pursuit of meaningful public health work that improves the health status of society's most vulnerable groups. I like to expand this analogy and consider a conveyor belt of inequity. And as I've completed my MPH and started to consider where I'll go from here and consider a PhD in health behavior research or medical anthropology, I'm motivated by that desire to turn around on that imaginary conveyor belts of inequity and actively move and walk towards equity, inability to be physically and socially healthy for all people. And I think I really find myself relying on those principles of non-judgment and empathy, cross-disciplinary programming and community participation in doing that. And I eventually hope to contribute to a body of public health knowledge that encourages others to turn and walk with me on that conveyor belt too. And I think that those, and also the combination of street level and management and policy level experience with public health programming are the major advantages that I'll take with me on that journey. And I think that that desire to seek them out and see all the components of an issue or a wicked problem, or the relationships between them is a strong advantage as well. And I'm particularly passionate about the ability of research to operate on the front lines of public health discovery, and really fill in those blanks and quantified those relationships that we need to understand how to move forward towards a more equitable world. I think as far as challenges for me, uh, besides the fact that I have a lot of debt and I've pretty much sold my soul to the U S department of education. I think that one challenge for me is that, um, I like being a sponge. I like learning and listening, and I like feeling like I understand the work of people I admire. And I think there's maybe a little imposter syndrome thing going on. I'm not as confident when it comes to honing my interests, research interests, for example, or really believing that I'm the right person to step up and be in a role like that, or to tackle an issue and take charge. I think a lot of people might my age probably resonate with that. And I think I tend to wait until space opens up in a path in front of me and shows me what direction I'd be most successful heading in before I take that step forward and make that next move. But I think that as my experience, as a public health professional has grown, I've felt myself becoming more confident and recognizing the value and power of my voice and perspective and the power of other young people like me.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I definitely agree with that. I think your generation has a different insight on culture in just the systems of society. And it's definitely, I think, triggered the movement that we're seeing now. Um, I don't know if any other generation has been ready to do this and I really have been seeing such innovative ways to stand up, stand up and voice opinion. And it's been really nice to see that from your generation. What was that?
Speaker 1:Oh, I was just going to say, yeah, I've been so proud of, of all the ways I've seen. Um, my friends, people I've known for my whole life stepping up and taking part.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So being that you're now public health professional, where do you predict public health will be in five years?
Speaker 1:Well, I hope that this focus on public health that we're seeing right now will go farther than just a renewed interest in or funding for communicable disease control. And we'll also be able to help address those structural problems that have been illuminated. It's like there were cracks in the system that we just didn't have to look at, or that were just painted over so well. And now it's like a black light has been shown on them and we can see them and we can watch them crumbling under all this unexpected added weight and added stress. And I hope that in five years there's expanded infrastructure and public funding for public health efforts that not just respond quickly to emergencies and unexpected challenges like communicable disease, but also that operate upstream to improve our systems and institutions and invest in communities. I hope we have better national data systems and more data that is disaggregated by race and other social and demographic indicators. And I hope that we can improve the utility of metrics like the federal poverty level. Um, I hope we have more representation of underrepresented groups in the health professions and more community participation in research and public health programming. But once again, I think a lot of that will depend on how America's politics and culture shifts or changes during the next five years. And I think that now it's actually a harder time than ever to make predictions about where we're headed, because it feels like the whole world has just been changing over and over. And then just a days time for quite a while now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's definitely true is it's hard to keep up with the current events. Um, so, you know, COVID-19 came in and changed our way of life in ways we weren't ready for, or some of us weren't ready for. Um, the new normal was something that a lot of people struggled with initially. Um, what are some ways we can better prepare in the future?
Speaker 1:Well, the big areas that I feel like a lot of public health professionals agree on when it comes to this are of course funding, as I touched on before that reaches far enough to impact the social and structural threats to public health and equity and health. I also think that another area is interprofessional collaboration and more integration of systems that often operate in silos like, uh, the child welfare and healthcare systems, for example, and also of course, um, stronger leadership. And I won't go down that rabbit hole during our conversation today. Um, but also research. We need more research. We need improvements to our institutions and our public health systems. And first we need to know where we're at and we need to fill in a lot of blanks to make that happen. We need that dis-aggregated data and community participation that I mentioned, and that's how we can move our knowledge forwards. So we take the right steps and make the right funding and policy decisions that can improve public health for everyone. That's a big way that we can Sue them out on all of the complicated and interrelated issues that affect health and understand all the different levels of influence that they have on our lives and our history and our path forwards. And when we can see all these relationships that weren't clear before we can start to understand our interconnectedness. And I think that the last thing I would say that we need is empathy. And actually, if there was one thing I'd say that we need it's empathy has that can spark meaningful action quickly. That's what will really move us forward with these other efforts and service. Those stems for those efforts to grow on that can keep us safer, can ensure our institutions are protecting people equally and justly and can prepare us for the next challenge and keep it from, to fighting us the way that this one has. Yeah, that's great. That's a great insight. Um, I think hopefully, um, efforts are made in the community that can create bigger change in the world. And I definitely think empathy is needed much needed nowadays, especially, um, in every aspect of our world,
Speaker 2:[inaudible] covers so many different topics from preventive medicine, COVID-19 community-based initiatives, police brutality and movements like black lives matter and racism, public health is a field that has been around for many decades. And as we learn today, everything you can think of is related to public health. If you are thinking of pursuing a career in public health, you can rest assured that within this field, you will find your passion. Public health is at the center of everything. And if you want to be an agent of change, this is definitely the career for you.
Speaker 1:This series is brought to you by the department of preventive medicine at Keck school of medicine of USC home to high impact research and undergraduate graduate, and doctoral programs, training future leaders in the population and public health sciences. If you'd like to learn more, visit pm.usc.edu.