Sun-Ming Jessica Pan, MPH ’19

Jessica Pan grew up between the vibrant cities of Shanghai and Taipei before making her way to the heart of Silicon Valley. While earning her MPH at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, she co-founded the school’s first-ever Gun Violence Action Week (GVAW)—a grassroots student initiative across the medical campus designed to tackle the U.S. gun violence epidemic through cross-disciplinary collaboration. What started as a bold student-led effort is now an annual event and official student club at Columbia’s medical campus, called the Columbia Student SURGE Initiative.

Jessica also held leadership roles across multiple student organizations, including the Interprofessional Student Advisory Board, Primary Care Progress, and Future Healthcare Leaders. She was also among the inaugural cohort of students selected for the Service-Learning Fellowship in Puerto Rico. As a student, she was awarded the Realizing Excellence through Action and Leadership Fund and the Epidemiology and Population Health Summer Institute Fund and capped off her academic journey by receiving the prestigious Columbia Alumni Association Campbell Award for Mailman School of Public Health.

In 2021, she joined the Mailman Alumni Board and co-chaired the newly established FORWARD Health Equity Committee. Her contributions also extended to Columbia University’s broader alumni community, serving on the Columbia Alumni Association’s Task Force on Belonging, Leaders Experience Steering Committee, and the Recent Alumni and Student Relations Committee. She was honored as the May 2021 Asian Prominent Alum by the Asian Columbia Alumni Association for organizing a social media driven bake sale raising $20,000 in two months in  response to the Atlanta shooting and hate crimes against Asian Americans during the pandemic.

Jessica’s passion for health, wellness and interprofessionalism inspired her to form the CAA Global Health and Wellness Network, Columbia’s first shared interest group in this space. Since its launchin 2024, the network has grown to over 250 alumni across six major U.S. cities. This past year, she also took on the role of Vice President of Marketing for the Global Board of Columbia Venture Community, where she continues to cultivate strong, innovative communities within the Columbia University ecosystem. Go Lions!