176: Bridging Social Drivers in Healthcare Towards Health Equity with Fernanda Ortega, MPH

Interview with Fernanda Ortega, MPH

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Highlights from this episode:

1. Highlighting the role social determinants of health play in real-world experience
2. Sharing the importance of cultural competence, sensitivity and inclusivity
3. Deciding to pursue an MPH in the US being from Canada
4. Importance of networking to create opportunities in your public health career

Episode 176 of Public Health Careers

Fernanda Ortega, MPH is a Program Manager at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She is passionate about bringing people together and developing programs that support community excellence.

She conferred a Bachelor in Biomedical Science at Toronto Metropolitan University. During her bachelors, she worked as a Project Assistant at Magnet.Today and a Science Outreach and Communications Lead in Faculty of Science at Toronto Metropolitan University.

After graduating, Fernanda worked as an Administrative Assistant for a bit before transitioning into a Legal Assistant & Royal Canadian Mounted Police Fingerprinting Technician at Canada Immigration Consulting Ltd.

Fernanda then conferred her Master of Public Health in the concentration of Healthcare Management at Boston University. During her time here, she had several positions.

These included being an MPH Operations Consultant at Mount Sinai Health System, a Administrative Assistant at Boston University School of Public Health, an MPH Strategy Consultant at Massachusetts General Hospital, a Part-time Teaching Assistant at Boston University, and three roles at Brigham and Women’s Hospital: Program Management Intern, Project Coordinator, and Program Coordinator.

Fernanda now works as Program Manager at Brigham and Women’s Hospital where she works on the Bridges to Moms program.