41: Working to Uplift Community through Research with Dr. Joyee Washington, PhD, MS, MPH

Interview with Dr. Joyee Washington, PhD, MS, MPH

Listen Here:

Highlights from this episode:

1. Importance of centering community in all research
2. Pursuing a PhD at the University of Southern Mississippi
3. Founding her consulting company Joyee Washington, LLC

Episode 41 of Public Health Careers

Today we have a public health student and professional with a belief that the best way to access the power of communities is by listening and uplifting voices of the people through community engagement and action. This weeks episode is with Dr. Joyee Washington, PhD, MS, MPH.

She got her Bachelors of Science in Biology/Biological Science at Millsaps College. During her time as an undergraduate she was able to be a Summer Undergraduate Research Experience from University of Mississippi Medical Center.

Joyee has gotten her Master of Science in Biomedical Science with an emphasis in physiology at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. This was done after “failing” out of her PhD program, the credits were transferred and used for her Masters. She talks about her difficulties in the interview. During her time she was a volunteer for two organizations: 1) Community Health Advocate Trainer at University of Mississippi Medical Center; 2) Consultant for Project Engage at the University of West Alabama.

Then after this, Joyee got her Master of Public Health with a concentration in Health Education at The University of Southern Mississippi. She has also gotten Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) certified after graduating.

After graduating with her MPH, she was an Outreach Health Educator at Southeast Mississippi Rural Health Initiative. And then she was able to secure a Community Health Leadership Program out of The Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine. Here she learnt directly from public health leaders in the field such as Dr. Camara Jones and Dr. David Satcher.

Joyee then went on to get a Graduate Certificate in Institutional Research at The University of Southern Mississippi. Then she went onto start her PhD in Education with an emphasis in research, evaluation, statistics, and assessment at The University of Southern Mississippi where is still a PhD student. Joyee then got a position as a Research Support Center Specialist at The University of Southern Mississippi.

Joyee took a leap and started her own consulting company, Joyee Washington Consulting LLC, in the midst of the pandemic in July 2020. In her business there are two main ares: working with organizations, institutions, and communities to help them conduct more effective research and then build more effective programs & working with students (particularly graduate students) to help them hone in on their research skills and advancing them to help them be the best professional they can be via one-on-one consultation. Look out for her courses to come soon!