14: Using Public Health Skills To Work in the Intersection of Community Health & Insurance with Yasmin Kashfipour, MPH

Interview with Yasmin Kashfipour, MPH

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Highlights from this episode:

1. Working in the intersection of community health and insurance
2. Being a CDC ORISE Fellowship post graduation
3. Framework to think of job as dating in a relationship

Episode 14 of Public Health Careers

In this episode Yasmin Kashfipour, MPH, talks to us about her public health journey as a young professional graduating with her Master of Public Health in May 2019 and securing a job prior to this. Yasmin’s story will defintely resonate with many young public health professionals and she gives great tips.

Yasmin began her collegiate career at the University of Georgia studying Microbiology. She talks about taking many different classes in her undergraduate which really helped her find what she wanted to pursue as a career. It was through her veterinarian lab where she first began getting interested in disease transmission which turned her down the path of public health. She initially wanted to pursue dental school but soon switched over to public health.

Yasmin has also started an Iranian non-profit foundation called the Akbar Rasteagr Foundation focused on pediatric cancer in memory of her grandfather. She started this in her sophomore year on University and has been really happy that she was able to accomplish this with the support of her family.

She then went on to pursue a Master of Public Health from Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in Georgia. Yasmin enjoyed this program as it was practice heavy and allowed her to utilize skills she was learning in the classroom. Yasmin had many roles during her MPH program such as Radiology Clinical Research Assistant, Graduate Research Assistant, Secretary, and was also able to get a CDC ORISE Fellowship in the Division of influenza. In the episode she talks about how she was able to balance these roles while also being a full time student.

Yasmin graduated in May of 2019, but was able to secure a job position as a Community Engagement Consultant with Humana which she found as a nice mix between public health and business. She drops invaluable advice for those trying to get a good position after their MPH – Yasmin and myself had the same thought process when looking for jobs which I recommend to all public health students.

Lastly, Yasmin shares an anecdote to why you should look at your job the same way you look at your relationship. She talks about the importance of this and knowing at what stage of the “relationship” you are with your job. I really loved how she explained this and I’m sure you will to. I really look forward to Yasmin’s story and you should definitely connect with her through the links below!