I vividly remember my Human Growth and Development module, which was one of the core undergraduate Human Biology classes, being the turning point for me in terms of my career. I had been searching for a way to use my interest in health without pursuing clinical medicine, and that class taught me that there was a place for human biology-focused research in driving clinical decision making. That led to my focus on public health, and the rest is history...
My current role, like many university researchers, involves a combination of research, teaching, and service to the university (participating in committees and advising students).
The School of Public Health at Yale is one of the leading research institutions in the US, so I spend the majority of my time on research. I lead a program of global health research that focuses on how chronic diseases (obesity, diabetes, hypertension) impact maternal and child health, so I spend a lot of time traveling among major research sites which are in the Pacific Islands.