As an undergraduate history major on the pre-med track, Yasmeen Saeed has always been interested in healthcare and is hopeful about becoming a physician in the future. While in undergrad at Amherst College, Yasmeen was the President of an organization whose mission was to represent athletes of color in the predominantly white institution they attended. This experience exposed her to issues of diversity, equity and inclusion. She then became curious about how those topics intersected with healthcare and how she could have a career advocating for health equity.

Upon learning about the Master of Public Administration (MPP) offered at UConn, she knew this was the right path for her. Not only does the campus location allow her to engage with the community she grew up in, but the flexibility of the MPP program allows her to take classes in the Department of Public Health Sciences to fully meld her areas of interest together. Yasmeen says she enjoys being able to, “Focus on race and other social determinants of health care inequity,” and is grateful that DPP programs allow students to fully explore their particular areas of study.

Yasmeen is a driven student who hopes to go to medical school after graduation to work towards becoming a physician and health equity advocate. As a parting message, she shares her post-grad goal, “I want to be able to use my degree to think about ways to generate a more accessible and equitable healthcare system for everyone regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, and socio-economic status.”