During this episode, we get to meet the new Dean of the School of Public Health, Dr. Muge Akpinar-Elci. Dr. Akpinar-Elci has an impressive career in the health sciences, working at various Universities, the World Health Organization, the CDC, and many other equally impressive agencies. I couldn’t be more pleased to welcome her to Public Health Perspectives to learn more about this impressive woman leading our public health ship in little ol’ Reno, NV.
Important Links:
During this episode, we get to meet the new Dean of the School of Public Health, Dr. Muge Akpinar-Elci. Dr. Akpinar-Elci has an impressive career in the health sciences, working at various Universities, the World Health Organization, the CDC, and many other equally impressive agencies. I couldn’t be more pleased to welcome her to Public Health Perspectives to learn more about this impressive woman leading our public health ship in little ol’ Reno, NV.
Important Links:
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What does public health mean to you? Wash your hands. It's a bad outbreak. I think it speaks to the importance of getting your vaccinations. Everything from prevention to education to policy. The way we keep each other healthy and safe.
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Hi. I'm your host, Melanie Flores and you're listening to Perspectives on Public Health. A podcast simplifying complex viewpoints on complex issues.
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Before 2020, you would be hard-pressed to find somebody who understood what public health was. After 2020, “flattening the curve,” “disease investigation and surveillance,” and epidemiology became common knowledge. A major pandemic wasn’t necessarily the PR public health was looking for, but it caused a ripple effect of motivated individuals inspired by the pandemic to join the public health workforce. Some were even calling it “the Fauci effect.”
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According to the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH), Schools of Public Health have been seeing a jump in applicants applying to graduate programs upwards of 23% from the 2019-2020 school year. They estimate an even higher jump for the 2020-2021 school year.
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Amidst the COVID chaos, the School of Public Health at the University of Nevada, Reno was undergoing huge changes along with adapting to this new demand for public health professionals. Our School was officially accredited as a School of Public Health and began the journey of rebranding. Our beloved founding Dean retired, and we recently onboarded an amazing new Dean, Dr. Muge Akpinar-Elci.
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Dr. Akpinar-Elci has an impressive 30+ year career in the health sciences, working at various Universities, the World Health Organization, the CDC, and many other equally impressive agencies. I couldn’t be more pleased to welcome her to Public Health Perspectives to learn more about this impressive woman leading our public health ship in little ol’ Reno, NV.
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Welcome Dr. Muge Akpinar-Elci.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Thank you very much I'm so glad to be here, thank you very much for your invitation and giving me this opportunity to talk with you, thank you.
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Melanie Flores: awesome well, I know, and you know being born and raised in Reno Nevada, and talking to Community Members, especially amongst the public health group everybody is.
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Melanie Flores: Like chomping at the bit to meet you and I know you've kind of been pulled in a million different directions since you're basically just a month into your time here.
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Melanie Flores: As our new Dean, so I thought, we might as well just put it out for everybody to kind of get to know you because I know you're kind of doing a lot of this.
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Melanie Flores: kind of stuff so I wanted to begin with your career and kind of getting to know where you came from where you worked I know a lot of us are very interested in your WHO and CDC background, but first let's start with your medical degree which I've been trying to pronounce.
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Melanie Flores: Dokuz Eylul University?
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Yes, Dokuz Eylul Univeristy in Turkey.
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Melanie Flores: Oh great you say it much better than I do.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: don't worry.
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Melanie Flores: So what, what is your specialization as a medical doctor?
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Actually, after my medical degree I started my residency in pulmonary medicine, so when I complete my pulmonary medicine residency also I did occupational medicine fellowship. So I have like two special.
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Melanie Flores: Oh interesting okay well what is occupational medicine.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Occupational medicine is actually in public health, we are working with the occupational health perspective more preventive perspective. But occupational medicine is targeting to if you have any disease related to your occupation, they are the people they are trying to treat you and also they are really working very close with the public health practitioners to prevent that diseases in the professional setting.
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Melanie Flores: interesting and what made you choose that specialization.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Actually, is just the makers little bit of years, in this case, just after Medical School I did pulmonary medicine. Because I was always interested in the environmental health perspective.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: And for that purpose, I say that okay it’s closer with the air pollution and all kinds of issues, so I choose the pulmonary medicine, but later on, I start understanding the prevention, how it is important and I always tell this story I'll tell again when I was in the corner medicine.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Specialist I was working within the outpatient clinic and I have the on patients constantly coming because she has a smile. And we were treating her she's going back, but she's coming with attack again and I couldn't deal with it, you know just something happening.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: And when you look at her documentation her occupation is a teacher, so I really didn't make the connection, you know just a few of our teachers, you have safer places in the workplace. But one day I said let's talk, you know your life what's happening in your house because we look at them in her house everything's and we couldn't find any allergen.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: anything but I say let's talk about your equation, and we start talking about to her patient and in the one point she says that they use the different drywall and the derived pen they start to use it and, with that part her symptoms started.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: And is getting worse when she's using that one, but she didn't really understand until us also asking. I start asking very specific question about tell me how you do your job, what you do every day what you do and in that point once we start to saying oh my God, this is really.
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What is that chemical exposure is causing the more disease and that starts me to thinking more because, as a physician, I see that sometimes we are missing that opportunity, we are busy in you know, in the coma que very busy station, so we are sometimes missing to that point and.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: We can be more helpful to our patients, but we are missing it and, in that part I started focusing more to public health and with the public health.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Also, I get to my masters in the public health and after I say Okay, I want to also do the fellowship occupational medicine and everything's connecting in that.
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Melanie Flores: I love that you brought that up because I noticed that you got your mph degree, you know 13 years after you got your MD are around there until. What exactly is that what prompted you to your mph?
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: yeah it is he exactly how it happened you know just. Because I with the promoter medicine, because we see they're all kind of environmentally and occupationally related diseases, you know just and I start.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: When I was again in my career clinical career, I started seeing the mania other occupations patients coming to us with the same diseases same treatment is the same.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: But prevention pieces are different and again with that case with the teacher case I started really questioning and later on. I guess I like to observe, also go to the inner place like a hairdresser I have a couple of specific publication, with the hairdresser, which is the.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: One of the couple only publication actually hairdressers occupational asthma, because I started to seeing that they have asked me and I started focusing and looking at the couple. We did a couple studies, and I say that Oh, I really want to do this in the clinical practice, sometimes it can go.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: it's really again, you know the patients come, this is the disease value diagnose you start the same treatment, but I guess the public health parts was more fun, for me, because you are investigating. You are trying to solve the puzzle and that's part that was attracting me more and I started to switch to a more public health mold.
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Melanie Flores: I love that you do that connection from the clinical to that public health more macro level. Which is amazing, because that really helps me when I when I personally work with students, we have a lot of pre MED pre nurses.
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Melanie Flores: Pre-professional students and we're constantly you know, telling them the value of getting a public health degree, so thank you for sharing that.
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Melanie Flores: I saw that you actually worked for the are you are on a fellowship with the World Health Organization, can you tell us more about that.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Oh actually I did do World Health Organization, I was in Caribbean there is one American Medical School I was working there, but in the Caribbean, there is in the same issue, environmental, health and occupational health issues is big.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Sometimes we see that in the Caribbean there are small islands for paradise, you know their life is touch. But it's not reality, and when I started leaning in there, I start to see all kinds of climate change issues are impacting the small islands and again occupational health issues.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: And in the mirror during that time, we have the one projects connecting with the nutmeg workers, and they have all kinds of different operational issues and couple colleagues from the blade sure they connect with me because they say that. In the WHO World Health Organization, they have their collaboration centers all around the world, including the South America, but they don't have anything in the Caribbean, they don't have collaborators centers.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: And we started discussing because that project it really interests them to you know just look at what's happening in the Caribbean. Again the Caribbean looks like small islands, but when you combine all of it down there it’s actually not like a small population were talking so. For that purpose, as I started working with the WHO and I was the founder-director of the first collaboration Center in the Caribbean and.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Our focus was the one tool and occupational health in the Center is specifically to work the climate change issues in the Caribbean, so that connections start, but after I moved to United States, I still stay as their senior advisor for the Caribbean.
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Melanie Flores: wow that's really cool. So it's still there is that collaboration Center still there.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Yes, yes still there. I am so proud.
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Melanie Flores: yeah that's that is pretty cool and then you also work for the CDC as a medical epidemiologist so, can you tell us what a medical epidemiologist does and what programs you worked on.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: With the CDC I work for the National Institute of occupational safety and health and again, actually my studies connecting with the hairdresser's, I work with those and a couple different industries.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: With my publication, they were interested in me saying that Okay, we need somebody with the understanding of clinical perspective, but also the public health perspective and in the field study design, because I work, specifically in the field study. Just one explanation, with the field studies you go to the field and collect your data about your known issues, especially in occupational health.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: You really need to be flexible and be adaptable in that kind of studies so for that purposes the CDC hired me and I started to working with their couple different projects, maybe you heard about the popcorn Lang.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: One of the first case studies actually I published that one because it has a specific chemical using the butter flavoring because better flavoring is chemical actually.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: That caused the very destructive lung disease among the workers and I started working with that one, so my role was more looking at the data and collecting.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Data but more for the specifically connecting with the lung functions, you know, like a supplementary data or we did like a sputum data we collected more medical data we go to the field and I get that data and look at the impact and the cofounding factors other risk factors how it's impacting and also if, in the field, because niosh roles is not just to do the research it’s really giving the service because.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: You need to look at the workers when they have coming with operational disease and you need to look at their records actual medical reports to make some assumption how it's connecting with their occupation, so that was the role.
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Melanie Flores: wow so you said popcorn lung is because I just known popcorn lung is being part of the vapor being what they put it in.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Because they have some chemicals its common with them both so why is there a little bit looking right now, both of them together.
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Melanie Flores: interesting and because I'm kind of just personally curious about the beauty shop, what were you finding in the beauty shops.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: According to again wanting sweet occupational health any place, we may have some exposure in there just, it is not like you know just always as the clean space, but the level of exposure is important and.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: For example, you know just if I'm here I'm using the specific printer I can get some exposure from that printer.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: So the two places is the same issue, and according to what they use, you know just the like a hairdressers they have this specific di, especially the bleach when they use that it’s a very high exposure and can expose you or you know.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: nail technicians, they are using the specific chemical and so it can expose again and for that purposes it’s a little bit.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Making the occasional connection is not always that easy because you really need to know what the chemicals are, you know, do you need to know how it's exposing. What is the prevention methods we can do it so sometimes it is, you know very difficult in finding a needle in the high side kind of situation.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: But for that purpose, why you really need to work with the old team and the entire professional. Is you know just around you go to that kind of investigation, you go with epidemiologists their clinical people there.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: You know just all chemists there's some time, who were Turner medicine Nice to the mall because for the animal models so that is a whole team approach needs to happened.
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Melanie Flores: I love that and I want to go back to that inner professional piece with you, but I was kind of just wondering, you know now that we're in Covid times and a lot of people are wearing masks you think that is going to decrease exposure for beauticians when they're doing hair you think we might see any differences there?
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: It may, because you know that the mask usage we start to seeing that flu season is getting more mild because we are more careful right now we are using masks in everything
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: So it can impact, but according to what kind of mask you are using you know there are many different mask and the chemical exposure you really need this very specific mask actually these are what we are using for more particle matter.
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Melanie Flores: Okay, I see, so I know you also did some research around inner professional practice, can you tell us a little bit more about that.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: yeah because, again, if you really find a solution for any public health problem or public health issues, we really need to work with many different teams and.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: I did a couple you know specific studies, with the entire professional education, but also, you know just how we can do more, trans disciplinary or you know multidisciplinary approach.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Because finding a way to a solution, you really need other disciplines so for that purposes, you know just as a public health people we are already multidisciplinary you know just many disciplines work together.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: But I still want to see that how we can incorporate many different disciplines, you know just that entire professional education is very specific for the health more.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Because you are really looking to how the public health people nursing, pharmacy, Medical School, and how they can work together to understand each other.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: But I really want to see more than that's you know just in the public clouds like we need to work with the business people, we need to work with the engineers, we need to work with the communication people because, like.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Miss information is there with the call it constantly we are fighting, you know these are big issues, but we cannot stay as just a public health practitioner communication people need to work with us.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: or business people need to work with us, because if you want to saying that mask are preventing the disease, we need to encourage the businesses to call us and work with us to bring that solution so.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: That piece is really critical I’m, seeing as a very critical piece for the future of that kind of public health crisis, how we can solve.
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Melanie Flores: One of our students, the other day we do this event on campus called Nevada bound and it's usually for high schoolers.
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Melanie Flores: convincing them to come to UNR and, most importantly, to come to the School of Public Health and one of our senior students was talking about that he has aspirations to be a medical doctor and he was saying, the new wave of medicine is integrative health is that similar to what you're thinking in terms of inner professional practice as well
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Yes. It should be and just because, again we are fighting for the same enemy, all together, and also, we are really trying to find a solution, but sometimes all of us we have very limited resources and how we can put everything together and just get.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: You know just to get better results actually for that purposes, I really believe that we should work together.
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Melanie Flores: awesome all right, well then, moving from medical to public health, and then you venture into academia, so what prompted you to get into academia.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Oh actually academia, you know I was always doing the research and I like to do the research it was like a fun part for me and, especially if you are doing the research on the other side of the world not in America, it’s like it is your hobby, it’s not like a.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: That much benefit, you will get but I really did it for a hobby I did it a lot and, when I came to America, especially when I started working with CDC I was like a show up saying that oh my God I’m doing my hobby.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: And they are paying me to do my hobbies is really fun, but there you start seeing in the research institute, you are missing that
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Teaching part and the mentoring parts, you are just doing a lot not alone, you have a team, but still, you are missing, to have you can really.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Help the future generation piece, and for that purpose, as I started a little bit I started switching dichotomy and in the end, I am in academia really because I really liked mentorship I like.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Helping the next generation, because we need that we cannot solve the public health issues, just if we don't have a strong future generation, they are really interested in, and they are passionate about the public health, so this is why I’m here actually.
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Melanie Flores: I love that and we actually stole you from old dominion University in Norfolk Virginia, which we it's such a huge gap for us, so we really, really appreciate that you chose Reno Nevada and the University of Nevada Reno to come here, what kind of classes, did you teach at old dominion.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Well, I taught the Global Health courses we developed a service-learning base global health courses, which is just because I'm really a firm believer of the service-learning and.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: I taught that courses and we published from the that course because it was very unique for the service-learning piece, and I teach a globally mom to the health, specifically to the health issues and I did a couple study abroad projects with.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Different schools, for example, I work with international studies in my previous university, we did a joint.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: study abroad to Germany for the refugee health and we focused again more on service-learning piece and adjust our students, they work with the specific NGOs in Germany today, Sir, the refugee population, and so we did that one and.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: I have a couple other projects we did it together and in the PhD level also, I taught a couple colloquium courses and the Global Health course was PhD Level two.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: or undergraduate all I taught was one Health one medicine course.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Because again one health phone with me I don't know if you're familiar but that's concept of one health is saying that, like an integrated health what your students say health needs to be connected and the one health approach specifically focusing Public health perspective westerner perspective, medicine and.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: environmental health perspective needs to be integrated together, because all, especially for all kind of infectious diseases, starting with the one health approach because.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Like I call it just that they are starting with animal they're transferring to human So what we are saying that veterinary health and public health and mental health and the medicine needs to really work together to capture the issues before they became issues.
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Melanie Flores: awesome that kind of upstream approach.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Yes, yes.
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Melanie Flores: From the professional to the personal I'm not too personal, of course. But what prompted you to come, you know all the way from basically the east coast to Nevada all the way on the West, so what prompted you to come it's kind of a culture shock I would think.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: It is a you know it is, a cultural difference, I need to say that you know I didn't really think about how lifestyle can be that different with the East coast and the west coast, but America is a continents, you know it isn't just a small country, so it is understanding the world.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: But, for me, you know is again I lived in many, many different countries in my life so it's not like an all cultural show the foundation is still the same, but there is differences and.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: But I'm really enjoying especially the weather is perfect here I am loving the weather.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: My only biggest change in my life, I guess, I always lived close to the water I born sitting on the beach and I live always close to water, this one. First time I now miss Virginia West Virginia, they have the rivers and everything's but other demonstration at this a second place that I’m not that's close to water, but I like Lake Tahoe so I don't have any complaints.
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Melanie Flores: Oh good I was going to ask you if you've made it up to Lake Tahoe yet. And you've only been here a month and we've had these like horrible smoky skies, so you have any even if we've had a few blue skies and she'd been here, but I feel like you haven't really gotten the full effect of Nevada actually fall is probably my favorite have you been able to do anything fun, while you've been here so far.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: I knew of Lake Tahoe you know just I didn't have just any chance to really explore that much, but this is my plan really.
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Melanie Flores: Do you have anything on your list yet or do you not know yet. No things to do.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: I love to go to the couple trainings and the couple parks. I really want to see the state and learn also from the people, because, again I mentioned a couple times this position this imposition.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Is not just an academic position because I am the Dean of the School of Public Health, we must be in the Community with this is, you know just.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Different than the little bit the other dean's in the university because I must be in the Community so when I go anywhere actually I always observe and look at the Communities, what is the issues, what can we do, what are their needs, what are the priorities I also look at it from that perspective.
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Melanie Flores: So, and in terms of like you mentioned you, you came to the School of Public Health and you came during a pandemic, which I imagine it's very hard to do because now, everybody, all of a sudden, has a focus on public health and, I imagine, when you started our previous team was very much so involved in.
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Melanie Flores: The code response for the state and everybody's kind of looking to you in one week into the job and saying what do we do, how was that experience for you, and did that experience happen for you.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: It is happening certainly and you're really fortunate that your founder Dean Dr. Larson really value more.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Involved communities and she's really lead to this force, so I am also like you to come into this school because she really created and build a good foundation for us, so of course it's happening, but.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: The university is also you know, there are many things happening because we are doing face to face but also we are trying to be very careful about our students and our faculty and.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: I am talking with the media people, there's also a question about the vaccination and the vaccination safety so constantly I am trying to if there’s any kind of requests that come I’m trying to.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: feel that that request, because these are a very important piece of my job, I believe that and am luckily, I have my experience, because you know just others costs is the same issue it's not fun it's not just unique anymore so but I'm really trying my best to really answer that kind of request because it's very important.
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Melanie Flores: I noticed that you and I think the student health Center maybe Dr English are doing kind of these misinformation vaccination information type of videos
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: With the Dean of Nursing
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Melanie Flores: Dean of Nursing, okay, can you tell us more about
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Sure what prompted this is the entire professional takes you know the Dean of Nursing Dr. Thompson came to me and she mentioned that she wants to do the same thing, so let's do it together, and I said yes exactly and we started talking about the vaccine and.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: What kind of miss information is happening about the vaccine, we are trying to address that one, this is a like a series, I guess, three or four article coming back to back, and we are really receiving good attention what I learned that we hit the 22,000 people read it or first.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: A second article so again, this is an effort to really just address that miss information piece, how can we address it and how we can make sure that everybody understanding the importance.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: But in the same time, also I am trying to show that we should work together as a team and in terms of facial connection is important, why I’m really happy to work with nursing in that project.
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Melanie Flores: I love that yeah nursing is a good friend to the School of Public for sure.
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Melanie Flores: We work with them with Nevada bound as well, so getting back to the personal, you mentioned that you basically create a public health which kind of and academia was kind of your hobby that you kind of turned into your career, do you have other hobbies now to take place.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Oh, you know just by my main hobbies actually I like swimming but it’s a little bit difficult here, but at least there's a pool and everything, I’m a good swimmer but.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Fortunately I'm not sure I could find the place yet, but I will certainly and also traveling is my hobby but sometimes is my careers so, because I work with the global health and I really want to travel, especially this site have to coast.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Because I had to do all big cities in the west coast, but not the small places, so Reno’s location is really nice for that traveling option so I'm looking forward to traveling again.
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Melanie Flores: Yes, absolutely and you're in the best building on campus for swimming we're in the Lombardi Recreational Center which has a pool.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: I heard. Yes, this is the perfect spot.
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Melanie Flores: Okay, so what excites you the most when you get up in the morning.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: I guess what is exciting me really is just people, people really excite me especially here, you know just during the main Terry. I start to see how people are committed and how they get ownership about to the school and not just inside the school but that's like the schools, so I saw that you know people they're really.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Trying to help the public out and understanding and to really committed that piece, and that part really excites me because our job is people in the end and we need to have a good relationship, and we need to build that relationship with them.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: and part of that people piece is our students also again during my entire since I started this job I was meeting with our students constantly.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: And I'm seeing how they are strong and how they are passionate about public health so again, our roles are really helping them and they carry down to their career to the next step and because they are the future, this is an exciting piece.
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Melanie Flores: Which leads us to, I would think the harder part of the interview because it requires a lot more critical thought. But you lead like perfectly into this about your vision for the future for our school and I actually was part of.
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Melanie Flores: You know you got to basically introduce yourself as part of your interview, you had to do a bunch of interviews or something like that for faculty and for students and for university leadership and what kind of captured my attention was number one you talked a lot about Community and you also talked a lot about collaboration several times and.
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Melanie Flores: And you talked about inner professional education, which I was like oh my gosh I love this woman.
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Melanie Flores: Can you tell us more about what values you hope to bring to the table as you lead the School of Public Health into the future.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Again, cooperation is number one since we started today talking so I can use the same wording, team collaboration there the really key foundation for the public health, I believe, so it's a vision, you know just, Of course, as I start to build this strong vision, because you cannot just come.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Totally from outside and just say Okay, this is the vision, we will go there. No, everybody needs to have ownership with a vision, this is not just my vision, it should be our vision for that purposes, and you know that I started.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: talking with faculty, one on the one and just to try to understand what is the priority for them and what is the need for them, but also, I started.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: meeting with community leaders and I started talking about the same things what are their priorities, what are their needs, because If we add this different academic unit, maybe I will just focus on our priorities are nice and that said, this is our vision but it's not this is public health.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: We really need to listen, to the communities priorities and need, you know again if somebody said to me that.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: You do the sea level rise kind of research in Norfolk what you will do here, of course, I will not do anything with the sea level rise, right now, but the sea level rise connecting with the climate change and there is an issue like smoke, what we see with the wildfire another piece.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: They need to be transferred that kind of thinking, so you are right, critical thinking is a very big parts but the vision cannot be created, just by the one person I am the Leader leading us to that vision and still need to create it with the whole.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: different partners an equal partner I'm not just talking about just give me your ideas I'll think about. We are the equal partner with the Community and we need to create that vision together to have to carry again Dr. Larson has creative very good foundation for us, so we are really strong we have good to know, once we have good research.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: funding, we have good service projects and programs in the Community. The community knows us so I'm so glad to come to that foundation, I guess, I see my role to carry this school to the next step.
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Melanie Flores: I think you came at the perfect time as well, because I know the school has been exploring more emphasis in environmental health as well, we have Dr. Strickland and since that seems to be part of your specializations and I think that.
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Melanie Flores: will help fill a gap that we've been having for a long time as well, and just coming from you know living here asthma is been.
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Melanie Flores: horribly under-addressed in northern Nevada and we have pretty high prevalence of it, and so I think there's definitely a niche for you here, in addition to collaborating with the rest of the Faculty on their vision, so thank you.
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Melanie Flores: What do you think about the effect of the covert pandemic inspiring a new generation of public health professionals, I mentioned at the beginning that coven wasn't necessarily the PR that we are hoping for. But it's the PR that public health guy, what do you think about that.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: It is really interesting, but you know I know this generation or next generation, the younger generation, they are really looking to.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: How they can impact the world, you know just how they can show the big impact, not just for themselves, but also, what they can do to, change the world with all kinds of activism coming, there are many things and.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Public health becomes that kind of how I can change the world kind of situation, it was very interesting before the call it hits actually in 2019.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: We have the one in my previous university, it was an open house for our college and in my previous interest we have the school of Community health, nursing, physical therapy,
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Medical diagnostic, dental hygiene, is under the one college and in that time they say that you will do the open house for the high school kids and.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Okay, every other discipline, they have really nice tool to show you the blood pressure measurements or dental hygiene, they can do the couple small things and very attractive things, but with the public, you just stop there, and say that okay what we will show them just the building.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: You know offices, what is it really and I started working with Ph.D. students and employees, students and I started to say why are you here guys, you know what do you do really well, and so school kids come to public health, and they started, seeing that.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: we need to show them that they will become a hero, actually, this is the whole idea.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: And we purchased the one zombie actually a zombie monkey and we started to create some kind of game, how the infection is can disseminate and it's helped them before the call.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: It was so funny and we have the dead zombie and they would use some candies to show the heart infection can disseminate community and without knowing it, and in the end, our students give the talk that why they want to be.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Why they are in the public health because they really want to be heroes to save the world and after that open house they did the installation, about which groups, that were more interesting and other things.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Of course, we became the first groups, you know we were the top of the old evolution, we got all five stars from the everybody at saying that it was very innovative, but after a
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Month it hits and the reality really hit, so why I’m saying that it's public health that's kind of discipline that.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: You impact two worlds, if you want to see that impact this is the discipline, you see it you impacting the whole Community, you change it and fortunate effect is there, of course, and but how I guess as an Academy, we need to think about it, how we need to keep that motivation.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: For the future, how we can sustain this understanding, because of my own look at the data we have a big shortage with the public health workforce.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: In many places in the world, actually, not just in the United States, and we really need the new generation next generation, so we need to keep that attention actually they are so we need to constantly recruiting and educating the next generation.
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Melanie Flores: Which leads fantastically in the next section of advice for our students. You know we've been doing these careers and public health webinar series which you're going to be a part of the next one, to talk about careers in global health, so I don't want to spoil it too much if people want to attend that.
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Melanie Flores: But you have such an impressive resume working in global health and major public agencies that you know if you're in public health they're like whoa you know the agencies to work for who and CDC what advice would you have for students pursuing a career in global health.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Oh, I guess the main advice really is I mentioned that they need to be flexible and adaptable because everything is changing you know we dropped it all our projects we start focusing that one in public health is that kind of place, this is nothing is.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: very stable everything can be changed in the next day now, you need to adapt and also resources is very, very limited unfortunately still is very limited, so you need to be really good at critical thinking.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: thinker and just constantly produce a solution with what you have as a resource so. That is the most important things for me is flexibility and adaptability.
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Melanie Flores: And how were you able to get your foot in the door of WHO and CDC.
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Melanie Flores: I kind of mentioned CDC a little bit with the medical epidemiologist stuff but. You know I feel like that first stop that first foot in the door is the hardest one.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Oh it's true, but I guess you know when I do my research, it was my hobby I didn't do the research, because I want to go to the CDC I did it because it was interesting it was like I'm trying to.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: solve the puzzle kind of hobby for me, so if you do what you do is the best, they will get the attention you will get to that attention only do you know what you enjoy but do is the best way you've just done, you, you will get attention, you will have an opportunity.
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Melanie Flores: that's a great lesson I love that any lessons any other lessons, you would like to share with students and even faculty just starting in their public health careers as we kind of end our interview today.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: I guess it was just a public health is not just a discipline, they This is like a little bit the lifestyle in many sense, because you, you really need to enjoy what you do.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: that is the key, you are not doing just for money just for a career just for tags, and you need to do it. Because you enjoy what you do this is the key for any discipline months probably girls, you really need to that enjoyment, you know just it's that self you know fulfilling feeling, you need to have it.
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Melanie Flores: Thank you so much Dean Muge and It was such a pleasure talking to you and getting to know you just a little bit more I'm so excited that you're the leadership for our school I think we're very, very lucky, and you know, hopefully, you inspired some students in our school outside of school to become public health heroes with us.
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Muge Akpinar-Elci: Today I hope so, but thank you very much for the opportunity and also if any, students or any interested people want to reach me please you know just my door is always open just send me an email we'll talk more Thank you very much for the opportunity.
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Melanie Flores: This podcast has been brought to you by the School of Public Health at the University of Nevada Reno. Be sure to subscribe to Public Heath Perspectives on apple, google, Spotify, Stitcher, or anywhere you get your podcasts.