We recently connected with Michelle Burbage and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Michelle, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
Finding purpose can be a difficult feat, especially when the idea of a life’s purpose looks different for everyone. For me, I knew I wanted to contribute to promoting better health outcomes among all communities. Since I was young, I fell in love with the medical field and had a particular interest in the intersection of culture and health. This led to my passion for public health, policy, and global health. But 15 years ago, I only knew my love for medicine. What helped me shape my area of focus and decide on my purpose were the individuals I met along the way as I set out on a journey to find what I was meant to do. This includes the students, faculty, and doctors I met while I was an undergraduate student which led me to take a gap year after graduation to conduct research in multiple labs. It was then that I learned about the field of Health Education and fell in love. While traditionally, the field of medicine seeks to treat diseases, health education aims to prevent diseases, and this is what I love about health education and the public health field. So, I pursued higher degrees in Health Education while I explored many topics related to global health, risk and protective factors, and policy. During my time in graduate school, I had the invaluable opportunity to meet wonderful faculty and have amazing mentors who had a huge impact on my life. But it would still take more professional experiences and meeting new people to shape who I am today. While I now know my purpose, I am still on a journey but this time it is to accomplish my personal and professional goals related to my passions in public health.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
As I mentioned above, I pursued degrees in Health Education. I earned my Ph.D. in Health Education from the University of Cincinnati (UC). My M.S. is in Health Education with an emphasis in Community Health. After graduate school, I was awarded the prestigious Mirzayan Science & Technology Policy Fellowship. This fellowship is through The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. I worked under the National Academy of Medicine branch and assisted in policy research, initiatives, and mental health promotion that impacts the cognitive, affective, and behavioral health of children, youth, and families. Then, in 2020, I was appointed to the Executive Office of the President’s SPEC subcommittee of the esteemed President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). This appointment has allowed me to collaborate with other professionals to influence the future of STEM innovation and draft a report to the President of the United States. That same year I became a faculty member in Public Health Sciences at UC. A few years later I became the Director of Global Health for the MPH program and Co-leader of the Community Engagement Core (CEC) in the Center for Environmental Genetics at UC. In 2024, I also became the MPH Program Director. In April 2024, I traveled to the country of Georgia as a Fulbright Specialist. The highly respected Fulbright Specialist program is overseen by the United States Department of State. As a Fulbright, I worked with a medical university in Eastern Europe to develop a health research infrastructure. The innovative hands-on activities during the multi-week workshop focused on how to conduct meaningful and ethical research which in turn the findings can be used to advocate for beneficial health policy.
These appointments have allowed me the unique opportunity to work on projects dedicated to improving the health and well-being of communities via community-engaged projects and policy-related work. What is most exciting is to not only make an impact on the health of communities but also mentor our next generation of leaders. As a student-centered educator, I am the faculty advisor for numerous student organizations and often mentor students on best practices in community engagement and global health. One of my greatest joys is being able to mentor students like my mentors did me which changed my life for the best. I hope I can make a positive impact and help my students succeed in their chosen professional pathways.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Persistence, self-awareness, and being flexible/open to feedback are the three qualities I possess that were most impactful in my journey, but these same qualities can help others in fields unrelated to public health and academia.
Persistence is something I always tell my mentees about. When someone is first starting in their chosen field, there might be a lot of rejection when it comes to the job market and growth opportunities. It takes time to develop the skills needed for many positions. In addition, if you are talking about the public health field, it is consistently changing, so you must be able to adapt to change and never give up! This means taking classes in areas you want to increase your skills over, finding a mentor and jumping on projects to gain hands-on experience, attending webinars/training, and thinking outside of the box. If in school, then attend extracurricular activities! Remember to never forget why you entered the field. While the public health field does bring enjoyment, it can also lead to frustration. The road for me was bumpy at times, but I am delighted to be where I am today.
Self-awareness is also key. Know your strengths, weaknesses, morals and ethics, emotions, and who you are as an individual. Research shows that self-awareness can help a person communicate better, problem solve, work in teams and autonomously, and overall help a person meet their idea of success. I have always tried to be self-aware so I can play on my strengths, enhance my weaknesses, and work better with peers and mentees as I can see from their perspectives. Unlike some other traits and skills, self-awareness is a quality that can be hard to develop but with the right tools, can be accomplished! I recommend journaling and personality tests to get started. Daily or weekly journaling is a great way to collect one’s thoughts and see barriers, conflicts, and successes that we often disregard. By self-reflecting we can better understand how we are changing for the better or areas needed to change to accomplish our goals. Personality tests are also a fun way to better understand our emotional intelligence which is the ability to manage your own emotions and understand the emotions of others. This includes self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills. I do want to note that some personality tests are not rooted in evidence-based research and are not official psychological or medical assessments. They should be taken with a grain of salt, but they can help us to start to understand more about ourselves in a fun way.
Lastly, I want to touch on being flexible/open to feedback. As I mentioned, public health is ever-changing, as are many fields, so we need to be flexible! Be open to learning new skills and consistently be exposed to advice to improve your ability to succeed. Sometimes we can misinterpret advice for criticism from employers, mentees, mentors, and friends but more often than not, the person is trying to help you improve your weaknesses to overcome challenges. It is important to foster qualities, such as these three, to improve one’s ability to succeed and cultivate new opportunities for success.
Do you think it’s better to go all in on our strengths or to try to be more well-rounded by investing effort on improving areas you aren’t as strong in?
I think it is important for both! Like I said earlier, self-awareness is important and knowing one’s strengths is needed to pursue opportunities that play into our strengths. With that said, everyone has a weakness, and some can be improved upon. We should all continue to grow since we never stop learning no matter how much of an expert we become. Fields, jobs, and organizations all change over time and so we must adapt to these changes too. I have taken classes, workshops, seminars, and events focused on areas I am weak. This can be related to my personal and professional skillset. I am fortunate enough to be at a university that offers a lot of training opportunities but for those that are not students or in academia, there are a plethora of online courses, books and classes at your local library, and workshops through educational, NGO, and governmental organizations that can help improve areas that you are not strong in.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://researchdirectory.uc.edu/p/burbagml
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-burbage/
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