Liz Lusk

What inspired you to study public health?

After working from the outside looking in as a healthcare technology consultant, I wanted to learn more about what makes care delivery systems work well or not so well from the inside perspective. I chose to earn my MHSA to gain that perspective while also learning the business acumen required to communicate at the administrative level and implement tangible, sustainable improvements within a system.

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

After finding myself in dense conversations with friends or colleagues alike on topics such as complexities of healthcare policy, insurance practices, or healthcare system design, it feels really great to reflect on how much I’ve learned and how I truly am becoming an expert in this field through my educational and work experiences.

Advice:
Practicing public health isn’t exclusive to those who work at community health centers or government organizations – if you have the right mindset, it is an intersectional practice that can and should be woven into any aspect of business and strategy within the healthcare sector.

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

In the area I work in, we focus a lot on creating a culture of safety both at the administrative and frontline levels. Healthcare as an industry has come a long way in this aspect over the past few decades, but has a long way to go yet. I think developing a culture that promotes bringing up problems when you see them and reliable systems to resolve those problems lays the groundwork for properly handling with the wide breadth and depth of systemic, global, and local issues that public health and health care delivery systems deal with daily.