Hi, I'm Colette, a proud Class of 2020 Aggie with a BA in English and a BS in Global Disease Biology. I began at UC Davis in 2016 as a Biological Sciences major, but quickly realized that I was primarily interested in the systemic forces that impact health and the potential for large-scale disease prevention. I changed my major to GDB and loved that the major exposed me to so many aspects of health sciences. While at UC Davis, I also did an internship abroad on hospital medicine and infectious disease in Durban, South Africa, and completed my practicum project at the EpiCenter for Disease Dynamics in the One Health Institute at UCD School of Veterinary Medicine. 

 

The COVID-19 pandemic started during my senior year and I moved to Seattle to be with my family. I completed my coursework remotely, and then began working for UW Harborview Medical Center as the Program Coordinator at two walk-in clinics providing low-barrier, trauma-informed healthcare and harm reduction services to people living homeless, using drugs, and selling sex in north Seattle. This work allowed me to place what I learned in the GDB major in a "real life" context, and I found a passion for addressing health inequities, especially among women, and creating environments where the most marginalized members of our communities feel safe and cared for. 

 

In August of 2023, I moved to Denmark and began a MSc in Global Health at the University of Copenhagen. It's a highly interdisciplinary program emphasizing social determinants of health, planetary health, and decolonization in the field of Global Health. I just returned from a course in Nepal, where I worked in collaboration with researchers at Kathmandu University School of Public Health to develop an intervention utilizing school nurses to increase access to sexual and reproductive health education among Nepali adolescents. In a few weeks, I'm going to start working at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), as the Student Assistant for the Research Group for Global Capacity Building, which runs projects that increase global capacity for surveillance of antimicrobial resistance among food-borne pathogens. It's a busy time in my life and education, and I'm excited to continue my journey in this field. I have the GDB major to thank for introducing me to so many interests, opportunities, and ways of thinking that continue to inspire me and drive me forward.