Profile

Anthony Wilson

ASPPH Fellow

MPH, Health Policy

ASPPH/EPA Environmental Health Fellowship

Research Triangle Park, North Carolina

1.     In one sentence, what is public health to you?

I define ‘public health’ as, “the science of investigating issues that either independently or collaboratively act to affect population health.”

2.     What inspired you to apply for an ASPPH fellowship program?

Upon completion of my graduate studies, three discrete interest categories prompted me to apply for an ASPPH fellowship:

• Flexible Mentorship – The ability to apply skills that I had learned in and prior to my Graduate education under flexible mentorship.
• Training and Career Growth – The opportunity to receive training that I deem vital to the development of my career rather than the mundane nature of a “job”.
• Training Funding – ASPPH offered the best option for additional training by providing ample training budget that I could use at my discretion.

3.     What major project have you had an opportunity to work on during your ASPPH fellowship

During my time as an ASPPH fellow, I’ve been afforded the opportunity to work with two university prospective cohort data sets. I conducted an exploratory spatial data analysis with the first data set and developed novel spatial metrics for use in an independent research protocol for the second data set. I also had the opportunity to complete relevant courses at a local university and at the SAS institute.

4.     What has been the most rewarding experience during your ASPPH fellowship so far?

The most rewarding and enjoyable experience that I’ve had as an ASPPH fellow has been traveling to Sao Paulo, Brazil for the Internationals Society of Environmental Epidemiology conference. I met with research colleagues that I had been collaborating with for the past year as well as other researchers that I had been following in the field.

5.     What is the one piece of advice you wish someone had given you when you were starting out in public health?

I wish that I had made friends with previous fellows more quickly. These relationships were especially vital during the beginning and throughout the remainder of my fellowship.

6.     What do you think is the biggest challenge that the public health field should be focusing on?

I feel the field of public health should be focusing heavily on the health effect of cumulative environmental exposures on human health. This exposure area should extend beyond the traditional environmental exposures of air quality, water quality and toxic chemicals and include ecosystem exposures such as green space and blue space.