Student Profiles

Second Year DrPH Candidate in Population and Family Health

In November 2021, the Director of the DrPH program, Dr. Cassie Landers, sat down with second year student Elen Costigan to discuss career growth, her experience with the program, and the importance of stepping back to gain a critical perspective on her work and life. 

Read their conversation below!

Cassie Landers (CL): Elen has an MPA and MPH and 10 years of experience in humanitarian action, most recently with MSF, where she was awarded a position on the board. She has focused her work on training MSF teams to respond to emergencies. As you can she, she comes to the DrPH program with a wide depth of experience from a broad range of countries. She brings an incredible perspective on lessons learned and challenges in the field regarding humanitarian response. Congratulations on your incredible new opportunity on the board at MSF. Can you tell us a bit about what your new role entails?

Elen Costigan (EC): It is an incredible honor and responsibility. After about 10 years at MSF, I was encouraged to run for the board and was recently elected to be on the board for MSF-USA. In this role, I'm a focal point for Latin America and international governments and reform to really think about what we want for the future. Since the onset of the pandemic, this has encouraged a huge number of reflections in humanitarian action. Being on the board allows me to push forward these reflections on how to best integrate the input of communities that we're working with and adapt to the changing and complex environment. I'm very grateful to be a part of thie PopFam program here at Columbia as I conduct my DrPH because it's been an incredible opportunity to take space and time to reflect and think critically about our work. So I'm grateful for that, and looking forward to the coming years as a board member.

CL: Could you speak a little bit in more detail about the specific challenges MSF has faced over the past three months during your time on the board regarding programming and keeping staff safe and secure during this time? 

EC: Prior to the pandemic and in the beginning, I was working in Guinea Bissau working in collaboration between IOM and IOM and of course MSF. And I think that illustrated some of the challenges given what we experienced there. There were some very clear challenges regarding travel restrictions and staff's ability to relocate. At the same time that really made us think about how we can adapt to these challenges and how we can move forward. I myself, as an epidemologist, felt inclined to help stay at the onset of the pandemic to help with planning our response and working out ways to prevent the spread of COVID in a way that was adaptable and appropriate for that context. But certainly, there have been a number of challenges, especially for staff being able to move and trying to consider what our role is in this. We've done a lot of work on vaccine equity and actually uniquely responding to need in the US which was rare for us to start indentifying and responding to these issues here in the US. We've also considered how to continue our regular programming and not let the pandemic overshadow our day-to-day functions of responding to health issues and health needs. At the same time, I'm confident that there are a lot of lessons learned, and that we're able to adapt and start thinking about new ways of working with local communities and collectively gathering. One of the glimmers and hopeful aspects is the fact that during this time, we've all realized that individual health depends on the health of our communities. And so, I really do hope that there can be greater recognition and greater response to gaps in our health systems and responses. 

CL: What new opportunities are on the horizon and How can we use technology to elevate our current responses? 

EC: In terms of advocacy and response. I was previously the contact for community engagement, and I really see this as an opportunity for growth. Some people call it decolonization, and some call it engagement, but I think we have a common end goal. I also think about opportunities with new innovations. New community-based participatory action to identify gaps and priorities, as well as new opportunities and horizons. Tele-medecine, for example, has opened a lot of doors. So really, something we think about is what is the appropriate role of involving communities going forward?

CL: Could you speak on your motivation to return to the academic world and finally enroll in the DrPH program at Mailman? 

EC: Returning to academia is something that I’ve been hoping to do for a while and my motivation was how to bridge the gap between research and practice. I am very interested in research and how to build a body of knowledge and apply it to the communities I’m working with. I was also interested in developing new skills. Some of the challenging courses have not only provided an overview, but also consolidated some knowledge about different and emerging ways to do research in an ethical way and I really value that we don’t shy away from the ethical issues in these classes. This has also been such a great opportunity to step back. There tends to be such a strong focus on output in humanitarian aid, but there is a benefit to taking a step back and being able to critically reflect on the greater issues. It’s such a critical time, and I’m grateful that I am pursuing this opportunity.

CL: You’ve been particularly involved with sharing some expertise with some of the Master of Public Health students. What are some of the ways you have been working with MPH students, both in terms of practicum experiences, teaching assistance, and mentorship?

EC: I really do love to study, I find it stimulating even beyond the subject matter that I’m studying. Working with the masters students has been a real benefit. I find that I love working with people who have an array of perspectives and backgrounds, and I think a fresh perspective can be incredibly valuable. I was recently a capstone advisor for a SIPA capstone. Rather than doing a master’s thesis, a team of students did a project with MSF in Mexico and Central America identifying gaps and opportunities in humanitarian operations. I was really impressed with what students were able to do in such a short amount of time. Many students actually did their practica previously through MSF, and student just recently presented to MSF partners. It was great to see this collaboration continue from practicum to capstone to presentation of findings. I think a rise in collaboration is incredibly meaningful and I’m looking forward to forging more of these types of relationships that can be so fruitful and mutually beneficial. 

CL: Hard to believe that time goes so quickly with the DrPH and that you only have one more semester of courses. Could you share some preliminary ideas for your thesis?

EC: It’s a daunting but exciting time in this academic experience. One of the things that I’ve been grateful for is that I’ve been able to cater a lot of my projects towards something I care about, people on the move. I lived in Honduras for 4 years, and also lived in Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador. I’m interested in doing research looking for opportunities for mental health support as well as measuring and documenting key health outcomes for these populations. Courses like community based participatory research and epi methods for global mental health are incredibly helpful for formulating how I’d like to move forward with my research. I’m looking at how to best provide support for this community that really merits attention.

CL: You’ve really highlighted one of our core principles, the opportunity to continue relationships with colleagues prior and during the DrPH.  What advice do you have for students interested in obtaining a DrPH degree? 

EC: One of the wonderful things about a program like this is how applied it is. I think being proactive, reaching out to people. One of the benefits of the pandemic is how easy it is to just meet with someone over zoom. I encourage people to reach out to faculty if they’re interested in talking with them. I was amazed at how open and excited these people were to speak to me about my interests and ideas. I also think that thinking ahead about what you want your role and impact to be. Also being bold and innovative. A benefit for me was that I had a bit of an idea going in, and so being in this program helped to marinate some of these ideas for the impact I want to have. I love learning and interacting with students in different cohorts, and really value that aspect of the program. It has been such an enriching experience to study alongside incredible peers and work in tandem with the program’s groundbreaking researchers and practitioners.