I studied psychology and art history at USC. Mental health was always a key interest of mine and I knew I wanted to be in the healthcare space. However, I felt that helping people on a more granular level and tapping into my creative competencies would allow me to make more of an impact than venturing down a more clinical path. After graduation, I worked on the marketing and business strategy side of TAV Health, which has since been acquired by Signify. Many of our clients were hospitals and payers focused on their most vulnerable populations which exposed me to the healthcare world, data gaps, social determinants of health, community organization and all of the stakeholders. It was immediately obvious how crazy complex this field was and I started exploring public health programs to learn more.⠀
In March 2020, I was in the middle of my second semester at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health and suddenly COVID was everywhere. New York went from 0 to 100 and there was massive panic. I flew home to Texas and my best friend from school, Gianna, flew home to San Francisco. We were talking every day, waiting to hear what Columbia’s response would be, and we started to compare what we were seeing in Texas and California and how differently our communities were responding to the pandemic. ⠀
Meanwhile, I started seeing influencers I follow for fashion, sales and even my skincare routine tell the world about the pandemic. People were sharing positive antibody test results thinking they wouldn’t get COVID without understanding the specificity or sensitivity of the tests. With so much frustration and misinformation out there, it didn’t feel like these were the right accounts to disseminate COVID-19 information.⠀
Gianna and I saw a huge opportunity to put public health in its rightful place and get people talking within the media and millennial space. The best way we thought to do this was to start Get Your Damn Flu Shot, a podcast and a space to have critical conversations with not only scientists and infectious disease experts, but people across all industries.
Public health awareness is rising. Finally, almost everyone understands the critical importance that health has on our communities. At Columbia, we study this everyday, how we can implement and execute policy that can have a lasting impact in creating an equitable healthcare system. I hope this is only the beginning of what a massive community effort can look like when science and public health information is accessible and digestible to all.
Story: Claire Schenken
Follow Diana and Gianna’s podcast “Get Your Damn Flu Shot”:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/get-your-damn-flu-shot/id1511603337