Dr. Usama Bilal, PhD in Epidemiology | Assistant Professor at Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health

In this episode, we discuss what led Usama to pursue a PhD in epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University, how his doctoral training prepared him for a career in academia, and the role of activism in his past, present, and future professional journey.

Hosted by Brooklyn Arroyo

To connect with Usama and to learn more about his story, visit his page on the PHutures #100AlumniVoices Project website.

Transcript

Brooklyn Arroyo

Hello everyone I'm Co-host Brooklyn Arroyo and this is 100 Alumni Voices podcast stories that inspire where we explore the personal, professional journeys of a diverse group of 100 doctoral alumni from the Johns Hopkins University. Today we're joined by Usama Bilal, PhD in epidemiology. Hello Salma, how are you?

Usama Bilal

Well, thank you Brooklyn. Thank you, thank you for having me. Doing great, thank you.

Brooklyn Arroyo

Thank you for coming. I think that before we get into all the details. I just want you. To explain briefly what it is you studied and exactly what are you working on right now.

Usama Bilal

Good well so I did my PhD in Vascular Epidemiology from 2013 to 2017 at the Bloomberg School. Of public health and while I was there, I focused on many, many things, which is one of the things one can do during their PhD, but my dissertation focus on neighborhood, social and economic change. In Madrid, Spain and its relationship to the food environment and to diabetes incidents, now I'm kind of building upon all of those blocks and focusing a little bit more on health inequalities in urban areas with a focus on both the US and Latin American cities.

Brooklyn Arroyo

Oh, lovely and so now within your career how has that sort of manifested?

Usama Bilal

Well, so the last four or five years I have to say this the last few years have been different the last five years. Actually, ever since I graduated, I've been working at Drexel University, 1st as a postdoctoral fellow, and then I joined the faculty and in here at Drexel I've been working on a project called Salute Urbana and American Latina Salival where we are essentially compiling and analyzing data from cities throughout Latin America. So, all of that training I got at Hopkins was very helpful. In you know helping me? And work with some of this data, analyze it and the meaningful to describe health inequalities in the region.

Brooklyn Arroyo

Right, so what brought you to this sort of career and this sort of field of study? Did you go into your, you know doctor degree and knowing what you wanted to do? Or did you find it gradually as you study?

Usama Bilal

So, I went into my PhD. Now what I wanted to do, I wanted to focus in social epidemiology. I wanted to understand health inequalities and healthy parities. I wanted to work in neighborhoods and in and analyzing why neighborhoods are different and what are the consequences on health now I should say I didn't go in. To university at first knowing what I wanted to do at all, like I was, I actually started in. So, I did my undergraduate studies back in Spain when I'm when I'm when I'm from. And over there we actually joined medical school directly from high school, so it's a six-year program. Instead of being a four-year program like year and we will join it right away. So, I joined medical school when I was 18, thinking that I wanted to do laboratory research. I wanted to work with pipets. I wanted to do all of those kinds of things to do what I understood at that moment. Science like this kind of very, very thing in my head. So those first few years ago this this is gonna be in interesting to do that. And then I started actually interning in a in a lab in my medical school, and then I realized that maybe not. Maybe this is not what I really wanted to do, and at that same time. I was getting a little bit more involved in student activism, mostly focused on access to medicines, especially in developing countries, etc. And then I started realizing that public health is actually something that I'm really passionate about. And numbers are the other thing I'm really passionate about. So, numbers and public health let me directly into epidemiology into social epidemiology.

Brooklyn Arroyo

Wow, so within activism, was there any particular moment within your life or did you kind of just come out gradually when you decided that activism was something that you were passionate about?

Usama Bilal

Well, it mostly to be honest. It happened because I felt like very lonely medical school at. First, because you. Know it's all of the classes and everyone is focusing on the classes ET. And then I met all of these people that were working things that I consider interesting. I was always internally very politically activated, but not externally. Like I had been doing any sort of. Group etcetera and then. All of a sudden, I felt this is a place where you know I'm meeting interesting people. I like what they are doing and like what they are fighting for. So, at first it started as something completely. That then evolved into something where I could channel some of that kind of stuff. You know I'm studying is not the only thing I want to do here. I want to be able to do. Other things and. I realized that I actually liked, especially the organizational part of it, coordinating people and getting things done. Set that all of those kinds of things.

Brooklyn Arroyo

Wow, so within your PhD, did you ever experience any roadblocks that made you question how much you truly wanted to go down this path?

Usama Bilal

Well, it's so many of those, and actually I joke now that I have PhD students that are working with me, I joke that. The that will let you graduate the moment you are able to solve some of those blocks on your on your own, not completely on your own, because everyone always needs help. But the moment you kind of can say this is how I'm going to fix this, and this is my plan to do it for me a little bit to achieve. All of these things, so getting your PhD is essentially a series of roadblocks, for example. Here at Hopkins at the Bloomberg Global Public Health we are under the quarter system with eight-week quarters. So, you study for four weeks, you go to classes, etcetera. And then you have midterms and then another four weeks. And then you have finals and then a weekend. And then you have the next quarter consistent series of road blocks over there. And you have your oral. Sorry, your comprehensive exam, which is another Rd. block and then you take your second-year classes and then you have to. To get build your oral qualifying exams, that's another quote book. I always joke with everyone to that getting to schedule your oral for qualifying exam where you have to get 5 packed in the same room at the same time is the hardest part of the PHP because it's. Struggling fight, very busy people schedule. So, all of this essentially at the end of the day are preparing you to do that kind of research that you're going to do later. So, and up until this point, you haven't been doing research, which is what everyone thinks about PhD is for, and I think it may seem like all of that is unneeded, but actually the life of a. Literature has a lot of administrative work, has a lot of mentoring work, has a lot of things that are not exactly what people interpret as research, so getting to go through all of those roadblocks is actually very useful in our researchers career, or in any sort of career that people will undertake after their PhD.

Brooklyn Arroyo

So, within all these roadblocks. Experiencing your pH D and then now moving into the field that you now work in. Did you experience any sort of transition period where there was a big difference between what you studied and how you implemented it into your career?

Usama Bilal

My case, you know? Not so much because I continued in in academia. I continued working in a research-intensive institution as a postdoctoral fellow, which for those who wanted to continue academia, the next logical step. Then I continued on the faculty doing research, so it kind of was I will say an easy transition, mostly because. PHD's prepare people very well for careers in academia. I wish they prepared people better for careers outside of academia and that sometimes people have to look for those opportunities on their own. Sometimes they are provided by the programs, but when it comes to careers in academia, PhD, definitely. Preparation you can get.

Brooklyn Arroyo

Right, you are an academic that is part of your job. So along with that, are there any you think common myths that go along with the field that you study or misconceptions on what you do?

Usama Bilal

Well previous the last 2 1/2 years. Referring here to the COVID-19 pandemic have shown that. Wow, people have a lot of misconceptions about public health and epidemiology specifically, so we've seen a lot of incorrect ways of treating data of treating epidemiological data. Many, many ways of doing that, so that's definitely one of. But what I will focus on is public health is about populations, is about groups of people. It's about groups of people that live in an environment that constrain what they. Can do. So, one common misconception I've been seeing, especially in the last year, precisely since last summer last summer of 2021. Has been this focus on personal responsibility. This focus on people should be responsible for the things that they are doing. And they should do these things and they should do these other things. And then everyone will be healthy without a consideration that people are working in an environment that sometimes limits a lot what they can do. They may have places to buy healthy foods close to them, or they may not have them. They may not have the income to. Buy those kinds of things they may be able to get vaccinated. They may not be able because they cannot get. A day of work, so all of those kinds of things that are policy amenable. That's what public health is, is a is about, and I think a lot of focus on personal responsibility. While I think we should be focusing our time more into the political and social environment that we are.

Brooklyn Arroyo

Right, definitely. So, on the day-to-day tasks, what does your field look like for you? Because it's very big picture and sort of the things that you're studying and working with. So, what are the sort? Of day-to-day tasks that you would tackle.

Usama Bilal

So, I yeah, I like grouping them into four different buckets. One of them is the, which I do myself. Broccoli bulbs, either BIM, planning a study an article, specifically a paper writing the analysis for it, or actually writing the paper itself, or wearing the part that takes the longest, which is preparing it for submission, addressing journal things, etc. All of those things so that one thing that involves. A lot of analytical skills. And a lot of writing is something we do. And also, part of research is obtaining the funds to do that kind of work because I need to pay my salary, I need to pay other people's salary. I need to pay staff et cetera, et cetera. So, we write grants dollars. A lot of writing, writing, writing, writing, writing, writing. The second bucket of my work is teaching. I don't teach that that that much because I do. A lot of. Research, but one quarter a year I'm teaching. So that involves, you know, getting ready for that kind of teaching and doing the lectures or the discussion seminar, grading things office hours. The kind of thing that people normally think of that's a university. In my case, that's probably the smallest bucket you know of mine, another one. This is what we call service. It's committees where we decide how is the epidemiology PhD curriculum going to look like? Do we need to update these kinds of class to reflect this new thing on the field? Do we need? To remove these other things. How do we address issues of diversity, equity and inclusion in our records? All of those things are part of. Of those kind of committee meetings and also as part of that is community service and part of a couple advisory boards for the City of Philadelphia. And for the Department of Public Health and for Public Health department in my region back where we just provide advice to the Health Commissioners on 9919. And all these things. And then the last. Bucket, which is the one I actually enjoyed the most, is working with the students in the mentoring of the students. I have several PhD students that are with the visitation with me. I have several Masters students that are doing there. Catch them through with me, and then several undergrads and a constellation of other people that are doing this or that with me plus some doctoral fellows. And actually, it takes me most of my time at the end of the day is meeting with them, guiding them, helping them think through the issues that they are having. How do we address this? How do we address that? Do we finish this paper? So that that's actually one of the power side who will enjoy the most about academia, working with other people?

Brooklyn Arroyo

That's amazing and would you as somebody who stayed in academia and now is able to work with other pH D students. Would you recommend that that was a positive experience and that something that other you know graduates would like to do and should do?

Usama Bilal

If they wanna go into academia in reality, that's one of the few pathways that we currently have going through a PhD. There are a few others. But it's more it's less common, but if you are going to a planning agency, if not, think about what a PhD will provide you with. Do you need the research? Some other set of skills that maybe you can get some other way. Maybe you need to work a little bit before going into the PhD to realize it. Focusing on that kind of work is what you really 11 want to keep in mind that a PhD is 46785 depends on the field Gears of your life. I mean probably a very tiny salary, if anything. So, so it's a big investment, so as that investment people should be aware that they should go into it like thinking I am really going to get something out of this. Don't just go to a PhD because you cannot figure out what you want to do now.

Brooklyn Arroyo

Right, right? So, as we've talked about what you studied, where you are now and the things that you've experienced and learned, what are your next phases or hopes for your academic career and your career in general?

Usama Bilal

Relevant for the like. One of the key goals of my academic career is to try to shift the narrative about how health is produced, like understanding that health is not just about what people decide to do today. Like I wake up and I decide to have this at breakfast or do that, or do the other the other thing but. Other understanding that is the social conditions that are actually the key things driving health. Can I live in a house that has good ventilation? Do I live in a neighborhood that is full of air pollution? Because there is. Trash burning facility next door that it only got there because the neighborhood. The neighborhood doesn't have any power to prevent that kind of thing. Those are the things that are really driving it out and I would love for if anything contributes to the public. Understanding that because then we can actually ask. Policymakers and lawmakers to address all of those kinds of things, instead of asking them for other things, like focusing on that as the main health thing, not just hospitals. Just educating people into what's best to eat, et cetera. Those kinds of things, but also focusing on that social environment and the political part.

Brooklyn Arroyo

Right knowledge is power and that is important that we spread that awareness. So, what advice would you give someone who might be interested in the career or even in the sense of activism that you pursue?

Usama Bilal

But be committed to it. Don't just don't just help. Do it like if you're gonna go into that to come commit to it to put the that, that the time and not just do it because. Uh, because you want better, better perform in front of others. Don't just do it as a thing that, uh, and this is going to. And I know that. It's especially these days getting into certain programs. It's very competitive and having extracurriculars and all of those things is very important. But don't think of this as a way to get somewhere else. Think of what you're going to get as a way of achieving something for society in general, not just for yourself, so it shouldn't be about yourself. It will be about society in general.

Brooklyn Arroyo

Right come from a genuine place. Our last question is something that we are. Asking of everyone. And I think. It is really important that we hear from you as somebody who is within activism and doing these amazing things in your career, and that question is what inspires you right now.

Usama Bilal

I'm guessing this is an audio podcast.

Brooklyn Arroyo

Yes, I don't know.

Usama Bilal

If people can say that I'm holding up a baby now while I while I'm talking so she actually inspired me roughly because mostly because I try to think about the opportunity that every child has or doesn't have, and about how our social environment. Fails so many children out there. We’re not providing with the opportunities for the families for children to grow up in safe and secure environments that are going to promote their health throughout their lifetime. So having political and social options that will ensure that all children born here. Have those kinds of opportunities. I think it's what really inspires. Inspires me, mostly coming from holding this baby now and holding now.

Brooklyn Arroyo

That's amazing, I think that you know of many people. Share that with you and we do just want a better future. And I have absolutely loved watching this bundle of. Joy the entire time. Even if the listeners, can't you? Have adorable they are. So, thank. So much for sharing all of your insight today and. Being able to. Speak with me. I really have appreciated.

Speaker

And loved it.

Usama Bilal

Thank you, thank you so much for having me and for inviting me.