When I started the Interdisciplinary Master of Public Health (IPMPH) program at UC Berkeley, I was at a low point in my professional life. I had recently quit a high-paying role as a medicinal chemist in biotech because, despite the security, the work felt hollow. I struggled with feeling like I was just running in place — successful on paper, but personally unfulfilled.

After being laid off from a short-term position, I found myself working as a barista to stay afloat. It was humbling. I questioned everything — Why did I leave a prestigious job? Was I naive to think I could pivot? But deep down, I knew I was searching for something more meaningful — a career that made a tangible impact on communities, especially women’s health.

During this period, I was quietly working on an idea I had been passionate about for years: a vaginal health startup focused on pH and symptom tracking. As I developed the idea with Dr. Lance Kriegsfeld at UC Berkeley, he encouraged me to pursue an MPH to gain the knowledge and perspective needed to responsibly build in the femtech space. That advice changed my life.

At Berkeley, I launched Lylac Health Inc. (www.lylachealth.com), a startup that empowers women to understand and manage their vaginal health through accessible, privacy-first technology. At the same time, I dove into the public health implications of that technology. My capstone thesis, “Data Privacy in the Femtech Industry,” investigated how leading reproductive health apps collect and share user data — often outside the protection of HIPAA laws. In a post-Dobbs world, this isn’t just a privacy concern; it’s a public health crisis. In some cases, period tracking data has already been used in legal proceedings. Women deserve better protections.

My research compared U.S. privacy frameworks with the EU’s GDPR, revealing stark differences in how sensitive reproductive data is handled. The thesis also laid the ethical groundwork for Lylac Health’s design: user-controlled data, encrypted storage, and a refusal to share information with third parties without explicit, informed consent. In short, tech that respects and protects women.

Outside the classroom, I interned with Kaiser Permanente and was awarded a fellowship with the California Department of Public Health, where I applied my knowledge to real-world health systems. These experiences, combined with the academic and personal growth I experienced at Berkeley, helped me find clarity and purpose.

I came into the IMPH program feeling like I had lost direction. I’m leaving it as a founder, a researcher, and a public health advocate who believes in technology that centers care, not control. The journey hasn’t been linear — and it hasn’t been easy — but it has been deeply transformative.

I’m profoundly grateful to the IPMPH faculty, my cohort, and the broader Berkeley community for helping me find my voice in public health. This program didn’t just change my career — it helped me reclaim my future. 

When I boarded my flight from India to Berkeley last summer, I carried more than just two suitcases. I carried the weight of medical school, the whirlwind of the pandemic, and the feeling that I was still searching for where I fit in the bigger picture of healthcare.

I had just graduated with my MBBS and had spent some part of my clinical years doing COVID-19 duty. In one moment that I still think about, I was working as the Medical Officer at a vaccination site in a cooperative housing society. A vegetable vendor who had queued up early was being pushed to the back by the society’s board members. I remember standing up to them and making sure he received his vaccine. It was in that moment (which was equal parts chaotic and clear), that I realized medicine could treat, but public health could transform. It taught me that public health isn’t abstract. It's deeply personal, and it’s often about choosing to speak up in rooms that weren’t designed for everyone to be heard.

The Interdisciplinary MPH program at Berkeley felt like the perfect next step. It was equal parts rigorous and reflective. Coming into a cohort full of researchers, clinicians, policy minds, and change-makers was equal parts intimidating and energizing. I quickly learned that the workload here is not for the faint-hearted, but the magic lies in the overlap of disciplines, of lived experiences, of ideas over lunches and debates over case studies.

Each class stretched a different part of my brain. From dissecting behavioral theory in Health and Social Behavior, to designing evaluation plans in Evaluation of Health and Social Programs, to debating the nuances of environmental exposures in Current Topics in Environmental Health. The pace was fast, especially in an 11-month program, but the variety kept things engaging, and the constant guidance of mentors kept us afloat. We weren’t just learning frameworks, we were being trained to think systemically, to connect the dots between data, lived experience, and policy. By the end of the year, I wasn’t just absorbing information. I was starting to see the field, and my place in it more clearly. Some weeks were chaotic, with back-to-back assignments and late-night readings, but what kept me grounded were the moments in between: spontaneous conversations that turned into long reflections, professors who took time to really listen, and of course, catching a panoramic view of the Bay from Berkeley Way West after class, letting it all settle for a second.

These 11 months have been deeply enriching, and if anything, they left me wishing the program were just a little longer, so I could soak in more of what Cal and this community have to offer.

Now that I’ve graduated, I’ve moved to Florida and started working as a medical scribe. I’m still figuring out what comes next, perhaps a clinical pathway, perhaps a return to global health policy work. But what Berkeley gave me is a broader lens, and the courage to sit with uncertainty while staying curious.

If there’s one thing this past year taught me, it’s that clarity doesn’t always come in a straight line. And sometimes, it’s the detours and pauses that end up pointing you exactly where you need to go.

The Why

 When I was in medical school, research papers with author names ending in “MD, MPH” always looked fancy to me. As I entered clinical practice, I found deep meaning in healing and supporting individual patients. But as time went by, I also realized how limited one clinician’s strength can be. Many problems we encounter—like care inequities, system inefficiencies, and population-level risks—require interventions far beyond the scope of one individual. Solutions to these problems belong to the realm of public health. Still, it wasn’t until the COVID-19 pandemic that I fully understood how necessary public health training is to me. The core principles of pandemic control are straightforward, even austere, but the gap between theory and real-world execution was striking. As a front-line physician during the pandemic, I witnessed that gap firsthand, and wanted to turn those experiences into a structured, system-level skill set, in order to bring the essential change needed for the world. That brought me to public health.

The How

I first heard of UC Berkeley almost twenty years ago, when a high school classmate proudly shared that his cousin had gotten into the PhD program in Berkeley. Since then this sacred name has been kept in my brain. Years later, when I explored MPH programs, the Interdisciplinary MPH track at Berkeley immediately stood out. It was fast-paced, which suited my tight schedule as a physician and researcher, and it offered something rare: freedom to tailor the curriculum across disciplines. I didn’t have to struggle between health management or policy, or required courses and elective ones—I could always take both, as long as there was a will. Besides the well-structured breadth courses, I could also dive into fields like data science, public policy, and even business. The climate in the Bay Area was extremely lovely (if a bit expensive), and the energy of the Berkeley campus was completely refreshing. I soon found myself feeling what Dean Lu promised on the first day: “You belong here.”

The What

 At Berkeley Public Health, I received strong academic training in public health fundamentals and built on that foundation through a deeply integrated capstone project. But what made this program truly special was its interdisciplinary spirit. In Peter Vahle’s academic writing class, I finally filled the long-standing gap in my formal training on writing. In Lori Dorfman’s media class, I discovered pragmatic ways to advocate for public health through public media. In Holly Schroth’s negotiation class, I learned that “expanding the pie” isn’t just a negotiation tactic but a life philosophy. In Kimberly MacPherson’s health sector strategy class, I had the unexpected joy of hearing their friendly feedback after telling BlueShield people that I felt connected to them, not only as a student doing the project, but as a paying customer. Outside the classroom, I immersed myself in the campus: watching the leaves turn yellow in fall, seeing the Berkeley hills go green after winter rains, walking under cherry blossoms in spring, and posing for graduation photos with my dear classmates in the summer sun. I was lucky—and I know it.

The Future

I know the MPH diploma is only another step in a much longer journey. Fortunately, now that I’ve adopted a public health lens, I see its relevance in everything I do, including research. In the decades ahead, aging will become one of the greatest public health challenges we face in China. Syndromes like dysphagia and aspiration pneumonia can’t be solved by clinical care alone, instead they require a holistic, interdisciplinary response. I will continue to practice what I learned at Berkeley: seeing the system, understanding it deeply, building new connections, and working decently to bring the change.

I was pretty worried coming into the program that I wouldn’t be able to gain something “useful” out of my year in public health. I had just left my third year of medical school and felt driven by an undercurrent need to be productive. If I spearhead myself into the things I think I should be doing and strictly follow that line, then I will have a “successful” MPH experience. To me, success meant taking many stats courses so that I could be proficient in coding. It meant seeking out courses from the school of public policy (thanks to the flexibility of the Interdisciplinary MPH track) with in-course experiences addressing systemic racism within the Berkeley community. I knew exactly what I needed to get out of my program and I was determined to get it. Thank goodness I didn’t.

Well, that’s not entirely true. I did end up getting some of what I initially wanted. I got to enroll in some statistics courses. The only problem was, I hated it. I had no idea what was wrong with my code and honestly, didn’t want to expend the energy to find out. The lectures went over my head and the homework instructions may as well have been written in webdings 2. But it’s fine, because I knew coming in that what I would really enjoy is the freedom to explore and public policy was going to be amazing. Oh. Wait. None of the public policy courses with antiracist practicums fit my schedule. Well, this year’s a bust. This isn’t going the way that I thought it would, and I don’t think that I’m going to walk away from this experience better equipped than when I started. A cross country move, a more expensive education for what, exactly? The chance to not get what I wanted and find something even better.

The Interdisciplinary MPH Program’s greatest strength is its intangibility and unpredictability. If you go into the program and choose to listen to your heart and mind as to where you should go with your courses, research, and most importantly, your relationships, you’ll find more than you could ever expect. Struggling in my stats classes made me reach out to people who became friends for life. Not being able to take my public policy courses freed me to take other courses like a class on negotiations in the business school or critical disabilities from the school of Social Work. I learned so much from both of those courses alone to make my degree worthwhile, but more importantly, I gained perspective from reading lists and classmates that deepened my resolve to my goals in ways that I would not have gotten otherwise. These moments were just a fraction of the experiences I gained from not getting what I wanted in the Interdisciplinary Program.

Being in Berkeley and getting the Interdisciplinary MPH degree deepened my commitment to my field of interest in medicine. Thanks to the courses previously mentioned and more, but equally important, the opportunities to exist in communities and practice informed advocacy has become a forefront of my reason to serve as a child neurologist. Berkeley, Oakland, and San Francisco have such deep histories and active presents in the fight for rights of the most vulnerable, both domestically and abroad. Getting plugged in to organizations that matched my ethos exposed me to activists and leaders that have permanently altered how I will live and choose to serve from here on out. However which way you are looking to change the world or learn how to better serve your people, you can find it in the revolutionary backyard that is the Bay.

I couldn’t predict how my year here would go. And honestly, I’m glad I couldn’t. If you’re considering whether or not to apply, have made your pros and cons list, or worried that what you think you want isn’t going to be available, the environment and the types of people who choose to get this degree can’t be completely accounted for in the calculations. Come in with an open mind and a vague direction, and you’ll be impacted in ways you could never predict. And you’ll be better for it. I know I was.

Before applying to UC Berkeley's Interdisciplinary MPH program, I was on sabbatical, exploring my next career move. My prior experience had been working with undocumented students in higher education, where I saw firsthand how policies and laws impacted immigrant communities' health and well-being. During that break, I was also diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 35. I often wondered, "Why did it take so long for me to get diagnosed?!" I knew some of the answers, but gradually, it became clear what my next step would be. I thought, "What about public health? What if I pursued a second master's? But where?"

Several things drew me to UC Berkeley's program. I was drawn to the school's interdisciplinary approach, and the ability to complete the degree within one year aligned well with my career goals. I was already living in the Bay Area, making this program the perfect fit. I was determined to pursue this degree to equip myself with the formal knowledge and skills necessary to address the pressing health issues in our communities. Additionally, pursuing an MPH would be the perfect place to explore why so many BIPOC women are underdiagnosed and receive diagnoses later in life.

Adjusting to the academic pace after being away from school for so many years was no small feat. The summer was the most challenging part of it. I completed my first master's in 2013, 12 years ago! Two weeks before the start of summer classes, I met with a Disabled Students' Program (DSP) specialist, Julie, who was kind and resourceful in navigating accommodations for the first time, which I found helpful as a neurodivergent student. For the Fall semester, I took 21 units, and while it was challenging, it paid off when I reduced my course load to 15 units in the spring semester, allowing me to focus on completing my MPH project.

What I love about our program is that it is truly interdisciplinary. I took several classes outside of the School of Public Health related to my research interests. During the fall semester, I took a class in the School of Education, EDUC 241, "Autism as Neurodiversity: Scholarship, Politics, and Culture," with Dr. Laura Sterponi. This class was the first time that the majority of my classmates were also neurodivergent. It was a genuinely unique and affirming experience to learn alongside other neurodivergent student scholars. I took SOCWEL 260A, Critical Disability, with Dr. Paul Sterzing in the School of Social Work. I learned a great deal in this course! Without a doubt, it made me a better public health practitioner, particularly in my ability to think critically about how public health can be more affirming to disabled communities.

Another class I really enjoyed was 'Mental Health Meets Public Health' with Dr. Emily J. Ozer. As part of the class, we completed a research paper on a mental health topic, focusing on risk and protective factors, and developed a proposal for interventions to address health outcomes. Another aspect I enjoyed about UC Berkeley's School of Public Health was collaborating with several community partners. For my evaluation class, my group and I developed an evaluation plan for a non-profit that supports survivors of gender-based violence in Puerto Rico.

What is also unique about our program is our cohort makeup. Most of my cohort were somewhere in the medical field. As someone not in the medical field, I thoroughly enjoyed learning from medical students and professionals who are passionate and intentional about addressing the various disparities facing our communities.

Lastly, my MPH project was the highlight of completing the program! I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to conduct this research. I was able to interview mental health professionals working with BIPOC women who have ADHD. This research topic is such an under-researched topic. I am excited to be finalizing two article manuscripts (hoping they are accepted!) and a presentation proposal based on my MPH project.

As a recent graduate, I am seeking a role in philanthropy that will enable me to mobilize resources, with a particular focus on supporting the health and well-being of marginalized communities. While job searching in this economy and political climate can be overwhelming, pursuing an MPH has been one of the best decisions I have ever made. It has provided me with the tools, language, and confidence to understand better and address the root causes of health inequities. Additionally, as someone making a career pivot, it has provided me with new perspectives, practical skills, and a renewed sense of direction in my career, all while fostering a strong sense of community and the knowledge to drive change in public health spaces. Go Bears!