Janice Chisholm first learned about the Executive MPH Program when she was enrolled as a non-matriculating student in Principles of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health. "A colleague of mine ('08) invited me to attend a session of Dr. Sparer's class, and I was instantly hooked!" At the end of the class, Janice was amazed at the amount of information she had learned in such a short session. Even more interesting to her was the fact that so much of the information was directly related to her work.
Since 2002, Janice has worked at the New York City Department of Mental Health and Mental Hygiene. She started as the Regional Director of the Bureau of Early Intervention. Currently, as an Assistant Commissioner for the department, Janice participates in the mission to ensure the delivery of comprehensive, coordinated care to traditional consumers of mental hygiene services, as well as to promote, monitor, and improve mental health services available to the general population of New York City. She also contributes to the resolution of critical policy and practice issues, assists in the development of division-wide protocols and procedure guidelines, and takes part in contracts portfolio review and revision. "The immediacy of my interactions with policy makers, advocates, and consumers of mental hygiene services in NYC forces my awareness of healthcare disparities," Janice says of her duties. "In my work I am repeatedly confronted with the fact that social and economic factors are intricately bound to health. My mission is to highlight the problem and contribute to effective solutions."
In the Executive MPH Program, Janice has managed not only to utilize her work experience for her coursework but also to apply the coursework to her work experience. "The emphasis on practical is one of the program's biggest rewards. We are learning this information today for use in our work tomorrow. Much of the information share has immediate application." She considers the "spectacular" support staff as well as the "rigor and intrigue" of course assignments to be "no less than rich." In addition, Janice believes the program's faculty to be "remarkable individuals," each with extensive experience in the field, who all provide practical insight and theoretical knowledge to the many issues facing the field of public health.
Janice, a devoted wife and doting mother, enjoys spending her time outside of work and school with her husband and children. Recently, under the patient tutelage of their composer-instrumentalist father, her three children formed their own classical string trio. So, besides the knowledge gained from the Executive MPH Program, Janice has had the pleasure of learning what it means to be a "Stage Mom" as she has "ventured hither, thither, and yon to share Brahms, Mendelssohn, and Paganini..."
