Interview with Mee-A Keeton, MPH & Sitara Weerakoon, MPH
Listen Here:
Highlights from this episode:
1. How and why these friends founded Doughnuts and Data on Instagram
2. Deciding to pursue a PhD in public health and why not to pursue one
3. Working as a field epidemiologist for a county health department
Episode 15 of Public Health Careers
In this episode I get to chat with the creators of the IG platform @Doughnuts_and_Data, Mee-A Keeton and Sitara Weerakoon. These young public health professionals not only walk us through the creation of Doughnuts and Data and it’s importance for the public health field, but also share invaluable information and contrasting opinions on their public health journeys. A brief bio of both of them is presented below, listen to the full episode to learn more!
Mee-A Keeton, MPH
Mee-A Keeton has had an interesting journey towards public health. She began university as a Pure Math Major with hopes of becoming a Chemical Engineer like her dad. After graduating from her bachelors she began to teach Math to school children. Though her choice to pursue a Masters came down to familial pressure, she grew to love epidemiology and infection and vector borne diseases. It was through an experience she had with a professor where she got to work at the veterinarian school in a Lyme disease lab where her public health fondness started to flow. Mee-A currently works as a field epidemiology for a County Health Department in Texas.
Sitara Weerakoon, MPH
Sitara Weerakoon started college at Austin College in Texas. She was always interested in everything and had a difficult time figuring out what she wanted to pursue. She began down the pre-health route, however struggled with the biology and chemistry classes while she excelled at other classes like globalization. Luckily, her college began a bachelors of public health program and that was the perfect fit for Sitara at the time (she had a dual Bachelors in Public Health and French). She then went on to pursue a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology at UTHealth Dallas, Texas. Sitara has found a passion for wanting to teach others and was motivated from the great professors she had during her schooling thus decided to pursue her PhD in Epidemiology (Minor: Biostatistics, Breadth: Maternal & Child Health).
Links from show
Doughnuts and Data on Instagram (@Doughnuts_and_data)
InfoBeautiful Instagram Page (@infobeautiful)
Connect with Guests
Sitara Weerakoon, MPH on LinkedIn (twitter)
