Graduate Stories
Omega Bugembe '04
"I worked for a year in an administrative capacity in a labor and delivery unit and found out that there was a lot horribly wrong with the health care system. I saw a lot of inequities. That’s when I got interested in health advocacy. When I read the catalogue description, I thought, 'This is exactly what I want to do—to change the health care system.'
They didn’t give me all the answers I was looking for because there isn’t one fix. There’s no one answer. But they give you the tools and they expose you to situations that are real and to people who have made some changes in the system. Then you have to carve out a path for yourself to see where you want to advocate and how.
I liked the program’s practicality. Having a science background, everything was very theoretical. I liked a program where they discussed actual issues and looked at suggested solutions, practical solutions.
It opened my mind to things I’d never heard before, other alternatives and thinking about issues.
My dreams are big—going home to Uganda and creating a health care system. It’s a third-world country and one of the poorest and there are so few physicians and so many people that need care. People are dying from very treatable diseases. If I get hired by a big organization like the UN or the World Health Organization, I can use that clout to get changes to happen in Uganda.
I looked at public health but the Health Advocacy program is more focused toward change. I felt that this was more perfect for what I wanted. I know these tools and skills will help me wherever I end up."
Paula Rapp '04
Emergency Room Nurse
"I discovered that I really enjoy writing. I did an internship with Mamm magazine, an advocacy magazine for women with breast cancer and other reproductive cancers. I also like legislative agendas, and I interned with the Connecticut Health Policy Project.
I was searching for a long time for something and I didn’t know exactly what it was. I just happened to stumble upon this program. Once I found it and read about it, I said, 'This is what I want.' I think the program is fabulous. I’ve been in a hospital for 10 years and I wanted something larger.
The nice thing about the program is that you can really morph it into what you want to do with it. It doesn’t shunt you into one category. I liked everything—the classes and all the professors. It’s perfect for someone who wants exposure to a lot of different subjects.
The nice thing about Sarah Lawrence is that it’s very small, very personal. The setting is really conducive to understanding the subject in depth. You get to express your thoughts every week.
Melville Finkelstein '03
Enrollment Specialist, Medicare Demonstration Project
“I always wanted to go into health care, but I never did. I worked in accounting, sales, and owned my own business. I gained a lot of confidence from the program at Sarah Lawrence. Sarah Lawrence is a different kind of education. You sit around tables and you have discussions and do presentations. I never did that as an undergraduate or in my career. It helped me gain confidence within myself—speaking to people, communicating, and things like that.
The Health Advocacy Program was a well-rounded program. I learned about all aspects of the health care system—law, economics, ethics. Ethics was fascinating. History was really fascinating. I wrote a paper on Civil War narratives, which was exciting. I got all these Civil War narratives from all over the country. Narratives of doctors and soldiers, and how they set up hospitals.
The most important thing I learned was that informed consent is one of the most important things that people need to know about. Informed consent is where it’s at in advocacy. People have certain inalienable rights that have to be honored.
Everyone should have an advocate. That’s the bottom line."
Read more about Mel's experience at Sarah Lawrence College.
Fadya Casseus '02
Contract Manager, Community Service Society Medicaid Education Choice Project
I work with community organizations to educate consumers about Medicaid and how to make it work. I completely love what I do. I feel at the end of the day that I am helping people. If the people I train help other people to understand the Medicaid program, that’s one less person that falls through the cracks.
I was a nurse for two and a half years and was tired of being a floor nurse. I wanted to do something to help the community but I didn’t have a name for it. Then I learned about the Health Advocacy program at Sarah Lawrence.
My first week in the program was really scary. There was an ex-doctor, an ex-lawyer, all these professionals who were already established. But there were only 15 people in each class and we got to know each other pretty well.
I came from a big college with auditorium-style classes. If you got to know one professor pretty well, you felt lucky. It took me a long time to call Marsha Hurst by her first name. Everyone was on a first-name basis and everyone was learning from each other. Marsha is really great at fostering a sense of community within the program. When you graduated, you weren’t just friends with one or two people. You knew everyone. There was a camaraderie.
You can use a Health Advocacy degree to go in so many different directions. The degree doesn’t tie you down. One classmate is a patient representative at Sloan-Kettering. Another one works in a sickle cell education program. I got interviews just because people wanted to know "What is this Health Advocacy degree?" It gave me a foot in the door to let them get to know who I am.
Before the program, I was a bit more closed because I had been in a big school. I felt kind of lost. I work better in an environment where it’s more one-on-one. You can hide in a big class and not get involved. This program forced me to get involved and participate and I think that’s great.”
Isela M. Chavarria '02
Bilingual Health Information Specialist, March of Dimes
I have an international background and inclination. Before the program, I served in the Peace Corps (Hungary) and the U.N.. My passion for health started at the U.N., where I worked with refugees, specifically on women’s and children’s health issues. I like work where I can impart health education in a very empathetic way.
One reason I chose the program was that I wanted very small classes and one-to-one contact with professors.Personally, I didn’t want the traditional Master of Public Health or MSW. I needed something different. For me, it’s more about how you impart information to the individual than the group. Sarah Lawrence was a perfect fit for me because they encourage you to follow your instincts and explore them and see how they can be related to health advocacy.
Marsha Hurst was always available for guidance, to make sure I was on the right track, and that made a difference for me. One thing I liked was that I came to her with my ideas and was really able to run with them. She never said, 'No, that’s not a good idea.' She’d say, 'OK, but think about these questions.'
An internship I had for one year turned into a full-time job. They actually called and asked me to work there. It was definitely Sarah Lawrence’s name. Sarah Lawrence really cemented my relationship with them. When I go anywhere I appreciate how many people are impressed with Sarah Lawrence. They really teach you how to write. I appreciate that. It was a challenge because we had to write so much. Now that I’m in the working world, people compliment my writing.
I loved my two years at Sarah Lawrence. I learned a lot about the U.S. public health system and the international health system. Now I sort of know the maze. Let me help people get through it.
Jane Nadel '02
Consumer Coalition Coordinator, U.S. Cochrane Center, Brown University
“I was a lawyer who represented local unions in negotiations and arbitrations. The program brought together my advocacy with my recent interest in health care. I loved it. It was fascinating and stimulating.
I think of it as an intellectually safe experience. I felt free to explore whatever I wanted to explore in the context of the courses and I really loved that about it. It’s interdisciplinary, so I had a chance to explore a lot of different topics. My other academic experiences were in a more traditional, authoritarian mode. You didn’t get to explore in a very freeing way. You didn’t question too much. Sarah Lawrence is very egalitarian. I like that kind of atmosphere. It helped me to grow and think about a lot of ideas I was interested in exploring. The program validated that interest.
Sarah Lawrence was such a positive experience in terms of relationships with people. People come to the program motivated by personal experience and that creates a common bond. A lot of people came after other careers and were shifting gears, so people had a lot of experience that they brought with them. I found the people very thoughtful and everyone really participated.
I love the fact that Sarah Lawrence encourages writing. It turns out that writing is a very good way to synthesize and clarify what you are learning. I didn’t realize how much the seminar experience would be a real advantage in terms of my experience.
Pat Banta '00
Program Analyst (Policy Analyst), DHHS Inspector General’s Office
“I’m a Medicare specialist. I’ve also been involved in bioterrorism preparedness. Our charge is to make sure these programs are run efficiently and effectively and to safeguard the underserved and the Medicare population. It’s a wonderful way to advocate for health care consumers and have some impact.
I really appreciated the teaching style at Sarah Lawrence. I thought the seminar approach was wonderful. I was never bored. In fact, I miss the seminars. I find they really keep you fresh and make your approach to things more unique. It’s a wonderful learning environment.
The Health Advocacy students are usually very accomplished people who had incredible prior careers. Your colleagues and alums are very accomplished individuals. That’s good to have. If you need to pick someone’s brain, you have great resources.
I was a critical care nurse for 27 years and I loved nursing. But I always wanted to do more. I was active in quality assurance, risk management, and clinical trials. Before the program, I thought of myself as an RN. After the program, I thought of myself as a researcher who wanted to commit to providing better health care for consumers. The program assisted my transition from being a nurse to being a different kind of professional with a different set of skills.
Having Sarah Lawrence on my resume put me on a new level. I’d say, ‘I’m a graduate student at Sarah Lawrence', and doors would open. I can be an advocate for patients in a whole new arena and I’m very, very happy about that. I applied to Pfizer for a grant and Sarah Lawrence helped with the grant writing. The comptroller went over the budget, and I used Sarah Lawrence graduate students to help with interviews and tests. I appreciate the support I got. I wanted to do different things, and the program was very flexible."
Ethlouise Banks
Patient Representative, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Corrective action is at the heart of Ethlouise’s work. At her hospital, patients are not always able to advocate for themselves effectively; they need help making their voices heard. “When I can help with something really egregious, like educating a doctor or nurse who didn’t treat a patient right,” Ethlouise says, “that makes it all worthwhile.”
In the course of her daily work, Ethlouise also helps patients understand and make decisions about research protocols, investigates problems, and educates people about how to navigate the health care setting.
“Sarah Lawrence taught me how to dig—for information, explanations, answers—and get to the bottom of things,” she says. “I learned how to get to the root of what people mean instead of settling for what is on the surface. I also learned listening/sympathetic and scientific skills, as will as how to carry myself in a professional manner so others treat me with respect.
Frances Culp
Senior Health Program Planner, San Francisco Department of Health, Office of Policy and Planning
For Frances, putting health advocacy into action is all about keeping the needs of her city’s residents front and. “The public health mandate can never meet the needs of everyone,” she says. “But nonetheless, I have the perspective of prioritizing residents’ needs. People understand and sense that, and I have a good working relationship with other advocates and with the community.”
Frances came to the Health Advocacy Program because she wanted a broad, multi-disciplinary approach, and she’s still proud to characterize herself as a generalist. Her daily work includes getting health insurance to those who need it, implementing San Francisco’s Health Care Accountability Ordinance, and developing a Health Care Access Booklet.
“The Health Advocacy Program helped me understand the health care system in all its complexity,” says Frances. “As advocates, we want big changes all at once. But the Health Advocacy Program helped teach me how satisfying it can be to figure out what can actually be done right now, how to produce some tangible results at the end of the day while still maintaining a bigger perspective.”
Constance Peterson
Administrative Manager and Patient Services Specialist, Emergency Department of New York Presbyterian Hospital Cornell Weil Medical Center
Constance Peterson has had a varied career path since graduating from Sarah Lawrence College's Health Advocacy Program in 1994. After working for six months for a community-based organization providing services to people with HIV/AIDS in Chicago, Constance moved back to New York in 1995 to develop a Patient Representative Program for the Emergency Department at New York Presbyterian Hospital.
Constance’s new position offered her the opportunity to put her diverse advocacy skills into action. She was able to combine her knowledge about program development with her understanding of what a patient-sensitive environment would look like in the context of Emergency Medicine. Today, Constance position has expanded to encompass all the “front door” activities of the Emergency Department. She supervises a Registration staff of 13 and more than 60 volunteers, and touches the lives of more than 55,000 patients passing through the Emergency Department annually. She also has a faculty appointment in the Cornell Medical College Department of Public Health where she is involved in teaching a variety of courses to medical students including cultural competency, medical ethics and patient advocacy in Emergency Medicine.
Reflecting on how the Health Advocacy Program prepared her for a career in patient advocacy, Constance notes that she graduated with a fund of well-grounded knowledge in diverse areas which are used in daily interactions with patients, hospital administrators, health care providers, and other advocates outside the institution. “The Health Advocacy Program prepared me to work on all kinds of levels, from communicating with patients and families, helping them negotiate the health care system, to looking at the structure of a hospital system and identifying barriers that impede or obstruct the delivery of patient center care and assessing the role of the institution in the community.”