Student Spotlight: Angela Lu
Angela Lu (NHS’20) is a senior in the School of Nursing and Health Studies studying in healthcare Management and Policy and Public Health. She was a Global Health Officer Intern at the Office of Global Affairs in the US Dept. of Health and Human Services. She was also a Student Fellow with the Global Health Institute at Georgetown University.
Tell us about your interest in global health.
My interest in global health has been for system design, including policy and administration, for care delivery and population health management ever since I started college. As an international student in Taiwan now studying in the US, I was able to experience first-hand how different healthcare systems can be and how the various designs can impact population health outcomes and healthcare financing. I was admitted to Georgetown University as a Global Health major and only later switched to the healthcare management major because I want to learn more about the nitty-gritty details of the healthcare system to better apply it on the aggregate global level.
Tell us about other global health events you have participated in on-campus/in D.C.
I got to work on the Great Influenza Centenary Project with Professor Michael Stoto during Fall semester of 2018. Our team worked on researching effective health communications mechanisms to support a flu outbreak response. The working research group came together at the end to participate in a day-long simulation on the global flu outbreak. It was a fascinating experience to embody real public health officials from different countries in the face of a public health emergency. I am also a current Global Health Officer Intern at the Office of Global Affairs at the US Department of Health and Human Services. We work on advising and support senior officials with their bilateral meetings with foreign global health officials or other stakeholders. An example project that I worked on is synthesizing a report on Hong Kong’s health IT development and advancement to inform the Director of Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology on his trip to Hong Kong to engage with health IT leaders from the industry and other governments.
What activities are you involved with on campus?
I have been with the Taiwanese American Student Association since freshman year to promote and spread the Taiwanese culture on campus. I also publish articles frequently in The Triple Helix, a health studies op-ed journal, about interesting medical issues that impact policy and social justice. I have also been a Teaching Assistant for Intensive Chinese and an afterschool tutor for public school students around the DC area for more than two years.
What is your favorite part about being at Georgetown?
My favorite part about being at Georgetown is how comfortable my peers and the faculty are about discussing uncomfortable subjects. With a student body where almost everyone has a devoted interesting in at least one issue of social justice, I appreciate every intellectually stimulating conversations that I’ve had. Every single interaction has pushed me to think more critically and consider alternative perspectives. For example, I had many insightful conversations recently about the Hong Kong protests and the Brexit deal with students and professors.
Tell us about your educational and professional aspirations.
In the long-run, I hope to be in a position where I can drive strategic changes in either large healthcare systems or digital health transformations. I hope through the changes that I can eventually enable, more people can access quality and affordable healthcare and healthcare can be recognized as an essential human right by all.