Emma Hynes was a Population Health Service Fellow
from 2011 through 2013 with dual placements at the Wisconsin Division of Public
Health and the Wisconsin Alliance for Women’s Health. Prior to the Fellowship,
she earned
a BS in English Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with
certificates in Global Cultures, Women & Gender Studies, European Studies,
and Leadership. She continued on to graduate school at UW-Madison where she
earned an MPH from the School of Medicine & Public Health, an MPA from the
La Follette School of Public Affairs, and a graduate certificate in Consumer
Health Advocacy.
Emma has already achieved quite a lot in the first few years of
her career including writing and publishing numerous reports and papers,
organizing and running 300+ person health policy conferences, writing and
receiving grants, coordinating an evidence-based teen educator program, and
creating a preconception health website for providers and patients. In the last
six months, through her role at the WI Council on Children and Families (WCCF),
she has repeatedly been quoted as a health policy expert in Wisconsin
newspapers and was recently cited as one of Madison's "biggest
brains" and was asked to share her ideas for
how to improve health care coverage in 2014. Despite all these accolades, Emma
feels that her biggest achievement thus far has been creating jobs that she
finds to be meaningful and that allow her to work with people that she admires,
respects, and can learn from every day.
Emma
currently holds two very different public health roles in Madison. She works
part-time as a Health Policy Analyst with the Wisconsin
Council on Children and Families (WCCF) assisting with the implementation of
the Affordable Care Act in Wisconsin. Emma provides technical assistance and
works collaboratively with diverse stakeholders (advocates, government
partners, hospitals, providers and others) to ensure that Wisconsin children
and families are getting the best possible support, guidance, and coverage
available to them. She also works part-time as a Policy Associate and
Program Manager with the Wisconsin Alliance for Women’s Health where she runs the Wisconsin Adolescent Health Care
Communication Program that helps bridge the communication gap between youth and
health care providers. In addition, Emma also teaches youth and adult yoga,
which she considers to be her 'clinical practice' of public health.
In
addition to Emma’s busy professional life, she also has big plans in her
personal life. She will leave in early February 2014 to go to Costa Rica, where
her fiancé and she will be getting married surrounded by family and friends.
After the wedding, they will travel to Tokyo and then on to Southeast Asia for
an extended honeymoon adventure. She hasn’t decided where to end up after her
sojourn, but the wonderful public health community in Madison is certainly a
compelling argument to move back!
Emma
has some great advice for current and prospective Fellows: “Don't be shy about
what you want to learn and work on. Don't get trapped doing only the things
you're already good at. Find a good balance of things you do well and
things that you're just trying out to see how they fit. You'll probably never
have as good of an opportunity to learn and to fail - which is a great
way to learn more about yourself. Also, be sure to take advantage of all
of the resources around you as a fellow - the program director and organizers,
your preceptors, the power of the university, etc - everyone around you
wants to see you succeed and they are always there to give you direction when
you need it and to offer a leg up when you need a boost. It's your time, make
it meaningful, and don't wait for someone else to do it for you - only you can
make it great!”
By
far the most valuable thing Emma did as a Fellow was meet people. She went out
of her way to introduce herself to everyone she met in her field (and out) and
to make the connections needed to help her in the next phase of her career. The
second most valuable thing she did as a fellow was diversify her experience,
but also find a couple of things to truly become an expert in
- both breadth and depth are powerful tools! She suggests both! She knows
with certainty that the Fellowship directly led to the development of her
public health skills and gave her the opportunity and experience needed to do
the work she currently enjoys. Emma has said on more than one occasion that she wouldn't be where she is
without having been a Population Health Service Fellow.