Olga Joos, MPH 2009

Born in Florida, but raised in both Europe and the U.S., I have a strong love for traveling which now compliments my interest in public health.  I majored in Psychology at Georgetown University before serving as a Health Education Peace Corps Volunteer in Mali.  I realized my desire to make a direct impact on a person's health status and returned to Georgetown for an accelerated nursing degree.  I worked as a pediatric critical care nurse in the U.S. for two years before returning to West Africa to assist in the development and implementation of a medical record system in Togo.  Using my clinical skills from nursing and cross-cultural management skills from Peace Corps Mali, I succeeded in accomplishing this daunting task in a short six month period.  I came to Hopkins to compliment my clinical understanding and field work with strong analytical and theoretical learning specifically in the field of health systems.

During my MPH at Hopkins, I developed a strong, overall understanding of concepts in quality improvement, program evaluation, and health systems. I am continuing as a DrPH candidate in International Health and National Library of Medicine pre-doctoral Fellow in Health Science Informatics to become a specialist in health information system evaluation and development in low and middle income countries.