Latasha Allen

Tell us about yourself.

I was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, to parents of West Indian descent, which I believe has afforded me many opportunities to explore the world without leaving the city as a youth. New York City is truly a melting pot. I grew up in the NYC performing arts culture, attended public school and took advantage of all that the city has to offer. I have wanted to be an epidemiologist since I was in High School and discovered Public Health via my Medical Anthropology professor in college at SUNY Buffalo (UB). From there I decided to travel from New York to Louisiana to attend Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine for graduate school in New Orleans. As I continued to explore this field and learn that everything is public health, I began to travel the world learning about different cultures and just observing how We live and Be as humans. I stumbled upon the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps (USPHS), when I desired to become a federal scientists... and the journey through public health continues. I have worked as an epidemiologist with the federal government for almost two decades and in the field of public health since the early 2000s. I have always worked in applied epidemiology as an outbreak responder and thought it would be fascinating to learn how our outbreak response methods can be applied to emergency and disaster response. Through this curiosity, I learned about disaster epidemiology and decided to go back to school to learn more about emergency and disaster response and enrolled in an executive master’s program at Georgetown University. Being an epidemiologist during some of our worst weather-related storms and the COVID-19 pandemic has been the most career shifting experience. It has fueled my passion to continue learning, growing, and impacting the expanding field of public health, exploring natural hazards and climate related extreme weather and how it impacts our health, as we navigate life on Earth.

Why did you pursue a DrPH?

I have been contemplating pursuing a doctorate in public health since the beginning of my career, however, work life balance did not allow for it. As I continued throughout my career, I noticed that my work experience and expertise in public health was being overlooked and my advancement in the field appeared to be at a halt, so I decided to embark on this journey to Doctor. I have had many unique experiences that have contributed to my decisions, but one experience that I can highlight is my deployment with the USPHS and the HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) to Puerto Rico, USVI and Atlanta, GA in response to hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria. The opportunity to be in the field, on the ground, after a disaster provided a perspective of public health in action. I also noticed areas for improvement that required researching from data integration to methods for identifying sub-populations at risk of the greatest public health impacts of disasters. It directly led to my research focus as I pursue my DrPH. I also plan to return to teaching, which I did at the start of my career in public health. I taught introductory environmental health at Brooklyn College (CUNY), which gave me the opportunity to nurture and influence young students just beginning to explore their interests in public health. I believe with my years of experience and a doctorate in public health, I would now be better prepared for a role in academia as a professor and scholar.

What are you currently excited about in your job?

I recently returned to the area of outbreak response/foodborne epidemiology after working in disaster epidemiology and public health emergency response for 7+ years. So, I’m excited to be exclusively working on disease outbreaks again. I am also excited to be a DrPH candidate at the dissertation stage of my journey and just working on collecting data for my research. My research interests explore how extreme weather events globally are affecting vulnerable communities who are not normally accustomed to severe weather and utilizing research concepts from the syndemic theory. I envision my work shaping the impacts of hazards and disasters in marginalized communities through the development of innovative methods for integrating data from various sources and combining anthropologic and epidemiologic methods to inform policy change and strategies for implementing implementation science. This approach will serve to identify the most at-risk populations in vulnerable communities and help increase their ability to prepare and build resiliency.

If you could write a book about your life, what would the title be and why?

When I write a book about my life, the title would probably be “Labyrinth: The journey to Me”. This title best describes this journey to rediscovering me and navigating life on Earth.

What is something interesting about you that we should know?

I am a certified yoga instructor registered with the Yoga Alliance and certified skipper registered with the American Sailing Association, who enjoys writing, photography, dance, music and exploring the World. I joke and say that my first public health job was at the age of 4 in a New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Public Service Announcement commercial about children’s health- being active and healthy eating habits.