Master of Public Health (MPH) in Global Environmental Health Student Amanda Quintana has been elected as the president of the Milken Institute School of Public Health’s Public Health Student Association (PHSA). She will formally begin her one-year term at a formal event being held at the Old Ebbitt Grill on April 11, 2015, during National Public Health Week.
Quintana succeeds Health Policy MPH Student Stuart Portman, who is graduating this year. He “leaves some big shoes to fill,” says Quintana, who ran unopposed for the presidency. “I was nervous about running for president,” she admits, but she says that Portman encouraged her to run. “He thought that I would be great for it,” she says.
Quintana, who is originally from Miami and went to Florida State University as an undergraduate, began serving as the environmental and occupational health liaison for the PHSA this fall, soon after she arrived at GW. Her accomplishments in this role include planning for the recent Environmental Health Professional Panel, which featured Dean Lynn Goldman and other Milken Institute SPH faculty who have worked in the public sector, including governmental and nongovernmental organizations. “It was a big hit,” she says.
She is also well-connected within the George Washington University (GW) community because of her job as the Latino Program Coordinator at the Multicultural Student Services Center. In this role, she has helped plan events such as the Latino Heritage Celebration, and she is in contact with many members of the faculty and staff in different departments around the campus.
One of Quintana’s goals in the next year is to increase the number of social events that the PHSA hosts “so people can get to know each other and build more of that public health student community,” she says. She also plans to figure out how to parley her interest in monitoring and evaluating Water, Sanitation and Hygiene projects into a practicum experience and culminating experience project.
“All students of public health are invited to the formal event on April 11, 2015” Quintana says. She hopes to see some of you there!