17: A Ghanaian Immigrant's Journey to Finding Her Public Health Path with Dr. Sharon Attipoe-Dorcoo, Ph.D., MPH

Interview with Dr. Sharon Attipoe-Dorcoo, Ph.D., MPH

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Highlights from this episode:

1. Ghanaian immigrant’s journey into public health in the US
2. Working as an ORISE Economics Fellow
3. Creating impact at the intersection of health and policy

Episode 17 of Public Health Careers

In this episode, I chat with Dr. Sharon Attipoe-Dorcoo, Ph.D., MPH about her public health journey. Sharon immigrated to the USA from Ghana when she was 16 to further her studies. In this interview we chat about her evolving journey to where she is today as an aspiring trailblazer in the field of health and policy.

Sharon got her Bachelors in Biomedical Engineering with a minor in Chemical Engineering from the University of Virginia. She had anticipated going to medical school and thus took several pre-medicine classes, however that would not be her path.

She would go on to pursue a Master of Biomedical Science and Biotechnology at the University of Massachusetts. After graduating and getting a job with a manufactured medical equipment company (Histo-technology) teaching Pathologist how to use the equipment and troubleshooting issues. But after getting pregnant with her first child she decided to take maternity leave early as the job required lots of travel and constant contact with potentially harmful chemicals. This allowed her to reflect and think about the big idea decisions that drove the decisions behind health policy and thus ignited her pursue of public health.

Changing it up, she then went on to pursue a Master of Public Health at The University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. After this she pursued her PhD in Management and Health Policy. In the interview, Sharon shares about one of her experiences as an internship in Cape Town, South Africa. After her PhD she was able to work as a post-graduate ORISE Economics Fellow.

Sharon has had a consulting business with her husband, Tersha LLC, where they offer various evaluation consulting and data analytics services. Additionally, she has written a children’s book called: Koli and Bosco “The Dog.” Sharon currently works as a contractor in the role of Health Services and System Researcher at CDC via the Bizzell Group LLC.