Emily Houston, MPH

University of Iowa College of Public Health
Policy

What inspired you to study public health?

I’ve always had passions for health and helping people, I didn’t know what public health was until I took an undergraduate class about it at Iowa. I immediately loved how diverse the field was, and that there is so much you can do with a degree in public health.

What has been the single most rewarding experience of your career/studies so far?

Having the opportunity to educate other about what public health is. It is such an important field that plays a role in everyone’s daily life, but so few people actually know what it is.

Advice:

Take courses from many different subject areas and take the time to talk with and learn from professors/classmates whose interests are different from yours. Public health is so broad, you may find topics that you are passionate about which you didn’t even know were “public health.”

What do you think is the biggest challenge that the public health field should be focusing on?

Take courses from many different subject areas and take the time to talk with and learn from professors/classmates whose interests are different from yours. Public health is so broad, you may find topics that you are passionate about which you didn’t even know were “public health.”