#UMNMCH student Grace Armon (MPH 2025) describes her Applied Experience (APEX) with the Title V MCH Internship Program through the National MCH Workforce Development Center. Her internship with the South Dakota Title V Division focused on analyzing community needs assessments. Grace’s background in geography and passion for place effects on health equipped her with the […]
Category: Student Spotlight
MCH students are doing amazing things! Read on to learn about their interests, skills, reflections, passions and more.
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Student Spotlight: How did Bella Mualem’s Deployment with the Minnesota Vision Health Task Force Shape Her Interests in Health Organizational Leadership?
#UMNMCH student, Bella Mualem (MPH 2025), describes her deployment with the Minneapolis Public Schools Early Childhood Screening Department and the Vision Health Task Force. As a part of her deployment, Bella helped create awareness campaign materials to improve vision screening in Minnesota children. She also actively developed leadership skills to formalize training processes and create […]
Student Spotlight: How is Ashlee Cermak Working to Reframe Our Understanding of Mental Health and Well-being?
#UMNMCH student Ashlee Cermak (MPH 2026) reflects on the experiences that led her to MCH and her internship with the collaborative Socio-Ecological Model of Mental Health and Well-being project. Ashlee conducted extensive literature reviews to identify environmental influences on mental health. She hopes that her work synthesizing and presenting this important mental health framework will […]
Student Spotlight: How did Katya Ivanchuk Identify Family-Centered Supports in St. Paul?
#UMNMCH student Katya Ivanchuk (MCH 2025) reflects on her deployment with Leap Pediatric and Adolescent Care in St. Paul, where she worked on a community needs assessment, literature review, and resource outreach campaign. Her work focused on enhancing the health and wellness of families by researching local organizations and promoting family-centered support. Leap Pediatric and […]
Student Spotlight: How is Kelly Gill Supporting Maternal Wellbeing through Birth Care and Perinatal Peer Support?
#UMNMCH student Kelly Gill (MPH 2025) wrote this reflection on her deployment at the Minnesota Department of Health’s Women’s Health Unit. As a part of her position, Kelly created multiple briefs to improve the availability of resources that would improve maternal outcomes. Kelly hopes that maternal mental health continues gaining visibility as a key issue […]
Student Spotlight: How is Najma Dahir-Abdulla’s Passion for Global Maternal Health Making a Local Impact for Black Families?
#UMNMCH student Najma Dahir-Abdulla (MPH 2025) describes her deployment at the Innovations for Maternal Health Outcomes in Minnesota (I-MOM) program at the Minnesota Department of Health. As a part of her deployment, she played a key role in managing evaluations for perinatal health improvement initiatives and communicating important maternal health program updates across the state. […]
Student Spotlight: How did Vivian Pham’s Deployment with the Minnesota Department of Health’s Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) Project Influence Her Drive for Health Advocacy?
#UMNMCH student, Vivian Pham (MPH 2024), wrote this reflection on how her deployment with Minnesota PRAMS has contributed to her transformative journey in MCH, shaping her into a steadfast advocate for the well-being of families and children worldwide. PRAMS: Unveiling the Foundation of Maternal and Child Health Surveillance I had the great honor of being […]
Student Spotlight: How has Munira Salad’s Deployment shaped her Perspectives on Maternal Mental Well-being and Postpartum Support?
#UMNMCH student, Munira Salad (MPH 2024), describes how her passion for community health and engagement introduced her to community-based participatory research (CBPR) approaches and deepened her interest in programs focused on underserved communities. In this Student Spotlight, Munira describes her deployment with the 40-Day Project, which aims to improve postpartum mental well-being in the Somali-Minnesotan […]
Student Spotlight: How is Estefanía Henríquez Luthje’s MCH Program Experience Inspiring Her Desire to Establish an MCH Center in the Dominican Republic?
Estefanía Henríquez Luthje (MPH 2024), a Fulbright Foreign Student at #UMNMCH, shares a personal reflection on her background as an M.D. in the Dominican Republic, experience managing the National MCH Trainee Blog (MCH Leads), and future hopes to establish a Center for MCH in the Dominican Republic. The Road Less Traveled: My Journey to the […]
Student Spotlight: How did Laurel Cederberg Address Vision Health in Native American Children and Youth in Minnesota??
#UMNMCH student and pediatrician, Dr. Laurel Cederberg (MPH 2024), wrote this reflection detailing her involvement with the Vision Health Task Force. The task force is dedicated to addressing vision health, particularly through their “Little Eyes, Big Eyes” project for Native American children and families in Minnesota. Drawing from her hands-on experience, Laurel conducted an extensive […]
Student Spotlight: How did Annie Olson’s Interests in Mental Health Lead her to the Minnesota Student Survey?
#UMNMCH student Annie Olson (MPH 2024) wrote this reflection on how her deployment with the Minnesota Department of Health gave her the opportunity to analyze and disseminate information about the health of Minnesota adolescents and contributed to her understanding of the state’s mental health landscape. Tell us about your deployment: what did you work on, […]
Student Spotlight: How Did Tia Joy Peterson Help Change Outcomes for Incarcerated Parents and their Children?
#UMNMCH student Tia Joy Peterson wrote this reflection on how her field experience and deployment contributed to her career in Maternal and Child Health (MCH). When I first entered the University of Minnesota (UMN) Master of Public Health in MCH, I was excited to learn that there was a deployment that was focused on how […]
Student Spotlight: How did Mary Kate Leloux’s Deployment with the Minnesota Department of Health’s PRAMS Project provide a foundational experience in public health data collection processes?
#UMNMCH student Mary Kate Leloux (MPH 2024) wrote this reflection on how her deployment with the Minnesota Department of Health PRAMS Project and passion for communities has developed her interest in representative public health data. PRAMS: A Story of Data to Action I completed a year-long deployment with the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring Systems (PRAMS) […]
Student Spotlight: How is an Interest in Storytelling and Data Visualization Inspiring the Direction of Ruth Arévalo’s Masters Program?
#UMNMCH student Ruth Arévalo (MPH 2024) wrote this reflection on how community work, nursing career, and deployment have contributed to a career in Maternal and Child Health (MCH). Understanding the Impacts of COVID-19 on Childhood Immunization Acquisition In 2022 I began my deployment with Hennepin County Public Health (HCPH) as a Community Health Assessment and Project […]
Student Spotlight: How did Mollie Kohler’s Deployment Highlight the Connection Between Social Support and Mental Well-being In the Postpartum Period?
#UMNMCH student Mollie Kohler, she/her wrote this reflection on how her experience as a social worker led her to the MCH program and prepared her for a deployment with the UMN Extension Center for Family Development, where she worked on a project to improve culturally relevant postpartum social support and maternal well-being. Wellness Intern Deployment […]