The Youth Advisory Council's Impact on a Young Public Health Professional’s Career Goals
Leslie Turner (former YAC member, 2011-2013)
I am a proud native of Columbus, Ohio. I grew up with a single mother and was the first in my family to graduate college when I graduated Duke University in 2017. After Duke, I pursued my public health career goals and worked as a Public Health Analyst at RTI International. I spent two years at RTI and in 2019 left to pursue a Master of Public Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health with a concentration in Health Policy. While at Harvard I have developed a passion for operationalizing health care equitably. Hence, I am very excited to join Strategy& (formerly Booz & Company, now part of the PwC network) full-time as a Senior Associate in their Provider Operations Practice after graduation.
My academic and career trajectories show the longevity in which the Youth Advisory Council (YAC) has impacted my life. The YAC was most valuable to me in four ways. First, the diversity of the council membership provided exposure to different backgrounds, perspectives, experiences, etc. I was a Columbus City School student and rarely met students from outside of my district. While on the YAC I worked with talented students from schools across the Greater-Columbus area who I may have never had the opportunity to meet if I were not on the council. This has been very advantageous for me since health care is a diverse field and it is imperative that leaders are able to work with all individuals and be open to hearing different viewpoints.
Secondly, the YAC was a significant skill-building opportunity. I learned how to contribute to decision-making with a team, reviewed grants and gained familiarity of the grant-funding process, which came in handy at RTI during proposal periods. Additionally, serving on the YAC was my first health-related leadership experience and was instrumental in understanding the components of an effective health-related program.
The YAC supported my volunteer project “Health Fun,” which consisted of creating and giving out health-related coloring books to children at the YWCA.
Thirdly, I had the incredible opportunity to volunteer as a vision screener at the Physicians CareConnection (PCC). This experience was a first-hand introduction to public health, health care disparities and access barriers, such as costs, language, education, etc. My experience at the free clinic shaped my career goals of addressing health disparities and improving access to comprehensive care for underserved and immigrant populations.
Last, but certainly not least, I gained two amazing life-long femtors: Bridgette Kreuz (former YAC Program Coordinator) and Ms. Cathy Thompson. As a first-generation student, their support and encouragement have been essential to my success. The YAC exposed me to college opportunities and Ms. Cathy and Bridgette helped me with college and scholarship applications. Additionally, when I informed them about my volunteer project, creating coloring books for children at the YWCA, they supported my project with materials so I could provide high quality health-related coloring books to the children. I am most grateful for gaining Ms. Cathy and Bridgette in my life, and I have the YAC to thank for that.
I have been interested in pursuing a health care career since elementary school. I spent most of my life wanting to be a physician and thought medicine was my passion. It was not until I thought back to my experience on the YAC and at the free clinic that I realized I could make an impact in health care without being a physician. So, in my senior year at Duke, I broadened my career scope from medicine to public health (and I must say that studying public health has increased my appreciation for medicine). Making that career shift has been life-changing and I am enjoying my public health journey. I am so grateful to the CMAF for developing the YAC and ensuring its members have an incredible learning experience that will impact their lives 10 years (in my case) down the line.