Student Profiles

Tell us about yourself!
My childhood yearly trips to India exposed me to problems in the inequitable healthcare system from a young age. As the daughter of yoga instructors and healthcare professionals, I learned the importance of holistic and preventative health practices, leading me to decide to become a yoga instructor myself. During undergrad, I pursued a bachelor's in Business Administration with an emphasis on entrepreneurship and a minor in health science. This experience fueled my passion for social impact and innovation in the healthcare space. After graduation, I relocated to New York City to work at the mission-driven company, Scholastic. There, I contributed to ClassroomsCount, a teacher funding resource. My time at Scholastic deepened my interest in understanding the balance between profit and purpose within a company. Now, I am eager to delve into the stimulating class environment at Columbia University, which will allow me to further explore social entrepreneurship and innovation in the public health space.

How do you see Mailman, and specifically HPM, meeting with your academic and professional goals?
The nature of a Master of Public Health is interdisciplinary, and I am thrilled to have classes that span various schools of thought, allowing me to learn from professors with diverse backgrounds. Moreover, my role as the VP of Partnerships at Columbia Healthcare Ventures has provided me with insights into health tech, venture capital, entrepreneurship, and the responsibilities of founders within the field of public health. I believe the connections I establish here will be lasting and invaluable. As a social innovation enthusiast and advocate for preventative health practices, the HPM department at Mailman is the ideal place for me to explore new concepts, attend interesting and thought-provoking events, connect with individuals from various points in their careers, and learn from esteemed and knowledgeable faculty.

What do you hope to gain from this experience?
I hope to deepen my understanding of the complexities of the healthcare system, learn more about how preventative health is shaping the future of healthcare, engage in discussions about the ways AI will impact health practices, and comprehend the various systems and the private/public sectors that influence public health. I look forward to strengthening my skills, building great relationships with faculty and peers, connecting with the wider Columbia entrepreneurship ecosystem, and taking classes that challenge my worldviews and contribute to my personal growth. I hope to accumulate the building blocks and foundations that will enable me to become a responsible and visionary leader. My goal is to establish organizations that prioritize the needs of underrepresented people, fostering their flourishing in physical, emotional, and spiritual aspects of life.

Tell us about yourself!
I am Shabba Hakim a doctor from India and an MHA candidate at Mailman School of Public Health. Being a doctor in India was both a fulfilling as well as a challenging experience. My primary goal as a physician was to impact as many lives as I could which is why I spent most of my medical career working in government hospitals which serve high volumes of patients from underserved communities. This gave me unique opportunity to learn to work independently early on with limited resources. During the pandemic I understood the influence well thought out policy and sound administration could have on the lives of people and decided to pivot to a more strategy related role within healthcare which led me to pursue this degree. I am passionate about equitable access to healthcare especially for women and children. I am also an avid reader, an amateur poet and enthusiastic foodie.

How do you see Mailman, and specifically HPM, meeting with your academic and professional goals?
Mailman has a strong culture of collaboration conducive to learning especially required in a public health school. HPM as a department focuses on providing its students with all the tools required to be successful in their academic and professional endeavors. I particularly enjoy the way the curriculum is structured to build on itself taking advantage of both synchronous and asynchronous learning. Additionally, the faculty with its many years of real life experience working in administration, consulting and other sectors prepares you for real life challenges one would face as a future healthcare leader.

What do you hope to gain from this experience?
During my time here, I want to develop all the capabilities I would need to be an effective strategist in healthcare. I want to use my time here to not only learn from the faculty but also the diverse student body whose stories are different from mine, yet we are all united by our passion for health equity. Additionally living in New York City is a unique experience in itself that I am trying to make the most out of.

Tell us about yourself!
I have been passionate about health and biomedical science from a very young age, and have always known that my life would guide me towards a career in healthcare.

I’m originally from Alexandria, Virginia, and completed my undergraduate studies in Biomedical Engineering and Studio Art at the University of Virginia. I spent five years working in biotechnology operations at Genentech in South San Francisco, first in an operations leadership rotational program, and then as a process engineer in drug product manufacturing. During my time at Genentech, I also obtained a Master’s degree in Biotechnology Enterprise and Entrepreneurship.

The pandemic was an inflection point for me and my career trajectory. Every day, despite working in a healthcare organization, I found myself frustrated by witnessing the real-time emergence of disparities in health outcomes for communities of color. While pandemic health disparities brought broader health equity topics to the forefront of global conversation, I knew it was just one conspicuous and current example sitting atop layers of deeply rooted reasons why healthcare is not equitable for all in the United States. It was this frustration that led me to Columbia in pursuit of a deeper understanding of health system operations and strategies, health policy, and determinants of health in order to become a leader in health equity.

How do you see Mailman, and specifically HPM, meeting with your academic and professional goals? 
As a dual degree student with the Business School, I came to Columbia with a desire to further develop my managerial and administrative skills, as well as to build a foundational understanding of systemic health equity issues and their many root causes. Overall, Mailman is helping strengthen my understanding of both domestic and global health system dynamics, and the many influencing factors that drive population level health. I am also gaining tools that allow me to think systemically, and that will ultimately allow me to innovate and challenge the current status quo of healthcare in our nation. The HPM department is additionally providing me with an understanding of the unique economic environment surrounding healthcare in the United States, the influences of both historic and current health policy, and the necessary managerial skills unique to healthcare leadership.

My current long-term goal is to serve in an advisory capacity to help guide existing healthcare organizations and new healthcare ventures towards delivering more equitable care for patients of color. I believe that the knowledge I’m gaining at Mailman will enable me to be an effective leader, and a driving champion for racial health equity.

What do you hope to gain from this experience?
At Mailman, I hope to develop a deeper ability to empathize with the health conditions of others in order grow as a healthcare leader and thinker.

Tell us about yourself!
I began my career as a researcher in the Columbia University Department of Neurological Surgery. There I co-authored over 25 peer-reviewed publications focusing on cerebrovascular disease and applications of consumer technology to healthcare. Later, I transitioned into practice operations where I grew my passion for combining data analytics with subject matter expertise to deliver the highest level of patient care. Currently, I work as a business analyst at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and serve in multiple volunteer capacities including the Columbia University Black Undergraduate Mentoring Program.

How do you see Mailman, and specifically HPM, meeting with your academic and professional goals? 
In the short time I have been at Mailman, I have been afforded the opportunity to interact and learn from professionals with expertise from every corner of health care. In the classroom, my fellow HPM students and I discuss cases with immediate impact on my current work. Furthermore, our instructors provide us with an unparalleled depth of knowledge and practical experience from their years in practice and academia. Perhaps the most impactful aspects of HPM have been the many mentorship opportunities. In just a few months, my student, faculty, and alumni mentors have helped me chart a professional path on which I am excited to continue.

What do you look forward to in the part-time program?
I am looking forwarded to applying the knowledge base we are developing in the classroom to the workplace. So much of what HPM has done already has expanded my understanding of the healthcare space beyond my personal experience, both working and as a patient. Placing the unique position of our current healthcare system into a larger context has helped me and my fellow classmates develop ideas we had not previously seen and some that are completely novel. I am excited for the opportunity to do this even more as I grow and learn.

Jeff McInnes is the Director of Revenue Cycle and Value-Based Care Strategy at Esperanza Health Centers, a nationally recognized federally qualified health center dedicated to delivering culturally competent, high quality health care to the historically underserved communities of the southwest side of Chicago. Jeff previously held roles providing revenue cycle management services to small group practices before transitioning to community based non-profit and safety net providers in 2013. Jeff is passionate about community healthcare and its potential to deliver health equity and justice through the alleviation of disparities in underserved and disenfranchised communities. At Esperanza, Jeff directs the revenue cycle department, patient benefit enrollment team, and leads value-based contracting and reimbursement transformation initiatives. He serves on the telehealth expansion taskforce as well as the diversity, equity, and inclusion committee. Outside of his work at Esperanza, Jeff is an independent health care consultant specializing in payer contracting and revenue cycle reporting and operations optimization. In his spare time, Jeff played rugby for an LGBTQ+ inclusive club (since retired for the sake of his knees) and enjoys traveling, skiing, cooking, and spending time with his family, friends, and golden retriever, Bear.

How do you see Mailman, and specifically HPM, meeting with your academic and professional goals? 
I am fortunate to have received exposure to a broad set of health care policy and management challenges over the course of my career, but those experiences pale in comparison to the breadth of knowledge and expertise I have encountered not only in the Mailman faculty but also my Executive MPH/MHA cohort peers. The insights I gain during each Exec weekend come back with me to Chicago and influence my approach to my own work in real time. At this inflection point in my professional and academic career, I value the HPM curriculum for exposing me to previously unfamiliar sectors of the health care delivery system, and I credit the program with opening my eyes to new potential career paths.

What do you hope to gain from this experience?
I hope to continue to grow and develop as a leader in community health care, to contribute to the expansion of affordable, high quality health care, and to leverage the knowledge, experiences, and contacts I have made in the service of a greater mission to deliver health equity to underserved and marginalized populations.