Meet Shaniece Criss

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Shaniece Criss. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Shaniece below.

Shaniece, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

I remember looking out the window while my classmates were at recess. I had acute asthma as a child, so I couldn’t go out to play with them because I would have asthma attacks. When I was in kindergarten, I remember lying on the floor of my classroom because I was too weak to do anything else. My mom took me to doctor after doctor, and no one could figure out what was wrong. She cried when I told her that I loved her because she said it sounded like I was saying my final goodbyes. Thank God, I survived.

My mother constantly prayed for me, and she still does. She helped me realize to appreciate what I have in each moment. For instance, when I was in the doctor’s office, I cherished being held in my mother’s arms. When I was looking out the window at school, I enjoyed my classmates waving at me, and sometimes, a friend would even choose to stay inside with me. In those tough times, I learned to look for the little pockets of happiness, and that it was more effective to try to bounce back quickly instead of dwelling on the hard times. I have carried the importance of resilience with me since then.

The next part of the interview is where we’d love to learn more about you, your story and what you are focused on professionally.

Health is a very important topic to me. Based on my experience with asthma, I wanted to be a pulmonary pediatric specialist when I was in elementary school. Throughout middle and high school, I noticed that many health reports talked about health issues for entire communities. I didn’t like how a zip code could determine health outcomes, even regarding asthma cases. In college, I learned about public health, which focuses on how to prevent disease and protect the health of entire populations.

I wanted to educate communities and influence policies to make health better for everyone, so I completed master’s degrees from Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health & Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and a doctorate from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Now I work in the field of public health, as a health science associate professor, public health researcher, and director of the Master of Arts in Advocacy and Equity Studies at Furman University.

To complement my work, I became a content creator: Dr. Shaniece – The Public Health Enthusiast (@DrShaniece on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook). I share public health insights through life’s beautiful moments. It’s a family affair. Many times, you will see my daughter, husband, and mom on screen with me. It’s been wonderful getting feedback that people are implementing some actions to become healthier.

Three Most Important Qualities, Skills and/or Areas of Knowledge

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Be active in learning about what you need.

Research: When you are interested in something, take time to learn about it. You will be surprised about the opportunities that you can find out about in books, podcasts, newsletters, websites, and more.

Connect: Reach out to others who have knowledge and experience in the areas that you would like to cultivate. They can provide insights that can help you move to the next level.

Start Doing: Start practicing the skills that are important to you, and then go out and do it. It doesn’t have to be perfect. You will continuously learn new insights to help you get better.

Are you looking for folks to partner or collaborate with? If so, describe the sorts of folks you are looking to collaborate with and how they can connect with you if they are reading this and want to collaborate. 

Public health is all about working together and sharing information. If you have research or project in this field, I would like to highlight it on my social media channels. I am also happy to serve as a guest on podcasts, talk shows, and panels. I think collaboration is a wonderful way to support each other.

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Stacey Gardin Portraits

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