Marita LaMonica gravitated towards public health out of a desire to contribute to the health and welfare of others. Before seeking a master’s degree in public health she worked in marketing and communications, spending her free time volunteering at a hospital teaching yoga and meditation to patients. Hearing the stories of these patients, she began to wonder how she could make an impact on the health care system.
It was CUNY SPH’s mission and emphasis on social justice that attracted LaMonica to its public health graduate programs. She valued the school’s connection to the city, the diversity of the student body, and the emphasis on social sciences and health equity within her chosen concentration, Community Health and Social Sciences (CHASS).
“The school exposed me to a broad knowledge base, and I have a much more nuanced sense of the complexity behind the health issues that we face,” LaMonica explains about her experience at CUNY SPH.
At the CUNY SPH commencement ceremony in May, LaMonica was awarded the Dean’s Merit Award for Research for her work exploring qualitative research methods in the course of creating a Wellness Trust framework that was under consideration for implementation in Brooklyn. A Wellness Trust is an innovative approach designed to fund community-based primary and preventive health care services to improve population health. LaMonica’s research was funded through a grant from the New York State Health Foundation, and done in conjunction with CUNY SPH faculty Dr. Diana Romero and colleagues.
“I was attracted to the richness of the data that you can obtain through qualitative research and the methods that you go through to gather it,” LaMonica says. “From the in-depth interviews to the process of coding, you come away with broad themes in which to tell the story of your data.”
LaMonica has been instrumental in bringing about a Wellness Trust for Brooklyn, working with Romero to develop data collection instruments, conduct in-depth interviews with a variety of key stakeholders, collaborate on data analysis, and contribute to the final report assessing the feasibility of a much needed Wellness Trust in the Central and East Brooklyn areas.
With a mind for giving back to her graduate program, LaMonica is currently part of a team working to develop a new approach to fieldwork for students at SPH and supporting curriculum changes for better learning outcomes at the school. She also sits on a communications committee with the American Public Health Association, drawing on her previous marketing and communications experience.
Outlining her vision for the future of her public health career, LaMonica explains, “I hope to shift the broader conversation on health so that we find ourselves in a place where we see patients as more than their symptoms, and our sick care system is actually a health care system. Within this system, I’d like to see conditions that give everyone their best opportunity for health.” She plans to pursue this goal through a mix of teaching, research, and writing.
Asked if she had any advice for current and future CUNY SPH students, she offered, “I’d like to suggest that students take advantage of as many opportunities as they can while they are here. Speak with your professors about their projects, chat with your advisors about your areas of interest, get involved with student activities or volunteer for one of the faculty-student committees. You never know what you’ll learn, or who you’ll meet. You may come away with a whole new perspective on your career.”
