165. Discovering Your Purpose with Health Equity Researcher Alicia Whittington

165. Discovering Your Purpose with Health Equity Researcher Alicia Whittington

Introducing Alicia Whittington

Today I’m talking to the Assistant Director of Engagement and Health Equity Research for the Football Players Health Study at Harvard University, Dr. Alicia Whittington, about discovering your purpose.

Her Career Journey

Alicia developed her own major and graduated with a BA in Public Health from Wellesley College. She worked as a researcher at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health before completing her MPH at Yale University, studying chronic disease epidemiology. She went on to earn her PhD in Health Systems Management from Tulane University where she focused on health disparities, health outcomes, and sports injury. Alicia served as the Project Director of the Longevity Consortium at California Medical Center Research Institute in San Francisco before taking her current role as the Assistant Director of Engagement and Health Equity Research and co-investigator of Family Experiences Managing Football Lives (FEM-FL) for the Football Players Health Study at Harvard University. Alicia serves on numerous board including the Augustus A. White III Institute for Healthcare Equity, Boston Women’s Fund Women of Color Leadership Circle, M.R. Conic Foundation. She’s the Co-Chair on the Leadership Council of the Joint Committee on the Status of Women at Harvard and remains involved with the Yale School of Public Health and 1stGenYale Alumni.

Discovering Your Purpose

Alicia shares how her lived experiences and her family’s history have shaped her career journey and led her to where she is today. Breaking her foot during graduate school proved to be a pivotal moment, as it led her to connect with her future thesis advisor. Alicia attended a session on mental health in the NFL and discovered that research on players and their families was the perfect fit for her, the sister of two NFL players. She discovered her purpose and has relied on this knowledge during moments of doubt to remember why she’s doing the work. 

Inside this episode:

  • Alicia was originally inspired to study public health due to her experiences of navigating the healthcare system away from home. Later, her experiences working as a researcher in a lab with people at many different stages of her career gave her the skills and the confidence to pursue her education at the highest level.
  • Her interest in health disparities and health equity started as a child listening to the stories adults told around the table. Even though she didn’t yet have the words for it at that age, Alicia knew it was wrong and she would work to correct the injustices faced by prior generations of Black Americans. 
  • Alicia was devastated as a child when an adult told her that she needed to speak up more, feeling that they may as well have told her to find a new personality. She’s remained true to herself and found the confidence to lead by becoming an expert in her field, knowing that it’s up to her to make a difference. 
  • Her work on the Football Players Health Study has brought together all aspects of her life. Alicia feels that her lived experiences were just as important as her training as a scientist.

Resources

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