• I was born December 16, 1980 at Mercy Hospital in Miami, FL.
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I have previously lived in Key
Biscayne, FL, Atlanta, GA, Savannah, GA, Rockford, IL,
Saint Simons
Island, GA, Athens, GA, and Arlington, VA.
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In August 2006, I moved to
Carrboro, NC to pursue my doctorate in health policy and administration at UNC-Chapel Hill.
• I am engaged to Laura Michelle Smith....our wedding is March 28, 2009.
• My parents, Walt and Jeris, still reside in Saint Simons Island, GA, along with several members of my extended family.
• My sister, April, lives in Brunswick, GA just across the causeway from the island.
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Personal Narrative
My career in health policy began with plans to pursue a medical degree. Intending to provide charity care to the underserved, I studied biology at the University of Georgia . Soon, however, I began to question systems-level issues, wrote an honors thesis comparing the Swedish and U.S. health systems, and, by the time I graduated in May 2003, concluded that I wanted to become an advocate for social justice and health system reform.
After college, I worked for a year with the Georgia Department of Public Health as an Environmental Health Specialist before enrolling in the masters program in health policy at The George Washington University’s School of Public Health and Health Services. While in Our Nation’s Capital, I learned about health policy firsthand while working with the March of Dimes Office of Government Affairs, the Partnership for Medicaid, and the Association of Clinicians for the Underserved (ACU). In fact, I still work part-time as the health policy and advocacy assistant for ACU.
I am currently pursuing my doctorate in health policy and administration with a minor in political science and policy development at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill , where I also work as a teaching assistant. My research focuses on barriers to health care access and the social determinants of health in underserved populations. I am also interested in Medicaid reform efforts and studies of community responsiveness in primary care organizations.
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