Student Showcase: Lauren Dayton
PhD student, Lauren Dayton, talks about tackling structural inequalities in COVID-19 prevention, avoiding burnout, and maintaining a balance between public health research, practice, and advocacy.
Hometown: Ann Arbor, Michigan
Year: 4th year
Program: PhD in Social & Behavioral Sciences
Fun fact: “I’m a foster dog mom.”
Q: What inspired you to study public health?
A: After graduating from college, I worked as a special education teacher on a rural Native American reservation through the Teach for America program. There, I witnessed health disparities shaped by poverty, social inequality, and historical trauma. Pursuing a career in public health provided an opportunity to identify and address the root of health and well-being inequities.
Q: How did you find your way to HBS?
A: I was drawn to the Department of Health, Behavior and Society due to its mission of addressing social conditions and behaviors that underlie public health.
Q: When you reflect on your time with HBS, what are some standout experiences?
A: Mentorship has been the cornerstone of my HBS experience. With all the changes COVID-19 has brought, I am continually awed by the support and collaboration of HBS faculty, staff, and students with whom I have worked.
My doctoral advisor, Carl Latkin, has supported, partnered, and led many of the COVID-19-related projects in which I am involved. My long-time HBS mentor, Janice Bowie, has encouraged and coached me and many other students in our changing roles and emerging projects. Carolyn Sufrin, an HBS faculty member and expert in the health of incarcerated individuals, responded to an e-mail asking for assistance in developing materials and has since become an inspiration in advocating for incarcerated people alongside faculty from the Center for Public Health and Human Rights, including Leonard Rubinstein, Chris Beyrer, and Gabe Eber.
My doctoral cohort members and HBS friends have been active in supporting the communities they serve and have provided consultation and encouragement. The Lighthouse team continues to inspire me through their support of one-another through trying times and their ability to swiftly adapt research to respond to changing policies and emerging needs.
Q: You’re involved with a breadth of applied projects and advocacy work centered around COVID-19. How did you get involved with so many COVID-19 efforts?
A: In the past two months, many dedicated individuals have stepped up and played a role in COVID-19 prevention. As the COVID-19 pandemic was emerging, I worked with my doctoral advisor, Carl Latkin, to create informational materials for people who use opioids. While the materials were originally designed for participants at the Lighthouse, a community-based research center, we also shared them with the Baltimore City Health Department who then asked us to develop materials for other vulnerable populations, including incarcerated individuals and people who are undocumented.
For each of these populations, I worked to create small task forces of JHU faculty experts. Oftentimes this was done through cold e-mailing faculty members with expertise in the needed area. Impressively, many faculty responded within an hour to the request for assistance.
The JHU task force to create educational resources for incarcerated individuals quickly expanded beyond this original mission and moved to address the structural inequalities in COVID-19 prevention faced by people who are incarcerated. To meet this new goal, we developed partnerships with the State Attorney’s office and the ACLU to advocate to Governor Hogan for COVID-19 prevention in prison and jails, as well as to reduce the number of people in detention.
Because low-income seniors are highly vulnerable to COVID-19, we also worked to ensure that COVID-19 resources were available for this population. I have been volunteering with Meals on Wheels (MOW) for four years. In partnership with my doctoral advisor, we reached out to MOW to see how we could assist them during this time. We then worked together to disseminate COVID-19 prevention information in each meal box. We also integrated COVID-19-related questions and social resources into the wellness checks conducted by MOW volunteers.
Q: How has COVID-19 changed your research involvement?
A: I have also worked with my advisor and the Lighthouse team to adapt research to respond to the needs of people who use opioids during COVID-19. The Lighthouse team has expertly maintained connections with participants and provided resources while adjusting to social distancing protocols. We have also developed and implemented a general population study on the impacts of COVID-19 on well-being.
Q: What is it like to juggle so many different COVID-19 commitments at once? How do you avoid burnout?
A: I have been working a lot of hours. It is certainly a juggling act to respond to the urgency of COVID-19 prevention among vulnerable populations. None of this work is done alone. Each of these projects is supported by JHU faculty and community collaborators who have responded immediately to requests and offered their expertise and leadership. On a personal level, burnout has been kept at bay through the support of my partner, family, friends, faculty mentors, and nature breaks.
Q: You’re balancing a mix of research, practice, and advocacy work. What’s motivated you to work with such a diverse assortment of public health projects?
A: COVID-19 has had a profound impact on many communities and has also magnified social disparities, identifying systemic inequalities that were existing all along. In working to respond to COVID-19, a mixture of research, practice, and advocacy is necessary in order to address the needs of vulnerable communities.
Q: When you reflect on all your current COVID-19 initiatives, what do you consider your greatest success so far? Conversely, what’s the most significant challenge you’ve faced?
A: There fortunately have been many successes in the past eight weeks, including wide COVID-19 information dissemination to vulnerable populations, Governor Hogan’s order to expedite the release of hundreds of incarcerated people, and the provision of masks to people living in senior housing.
The research studies have been a critical touchpoint to learn from community members about their experiences as well as an opportunity to provide resources and COVID-19 prevention materials to participants in need. While many systems have adjusted nimbly to the changing realities, other systems and structures have been slower moving and hindered rapid implementation.
This interview has been edited and compressed.