Nicole Mintz, an Epidemiologist at DOH Shares Her Journey to Public Health
- HPHWCL Staff
- Apr 3
- 4 min read
Growing up, Nicole Mintz was people-oriented and always had an interest in science. In high school, she decided to pursue these passions and completed her first summer internship with a startup organization based in Kenya that was focused on sustainable energy and sanitation solutions. This experience opened her eyes to how impactful the public health field is, “I was overwhelmed with how collaborative, innovative, and service-oriented public health could be.” Her love for public health snowballed from there, leading her to complete more internships globally and domestically, and ultimately, a Bachelor of Science (BS) and Master of Public Health (MPH) at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health in Washington, D.C.
While completing her MPH, she looked at post-graduate fellowships with hopes of hands-on and meaningful public health work. She landed a fellowship with the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) at a host site on Oʻahu in the Hawaiʻi Department of Health (HDOH). Her primary focus was Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAI) and Infectious Diseases (ID), although she could dip her hands into several other subject areas. She found the variance of work exciting and engaging. Not only did working in a variety of subject areas provide exposure to a large array of projects, but it also introduced her to many different public health professionals from epidemiologists and data scientists to community health workers and clinicians. She said, “Building relationships with other public health practitioners and the community is by far the most rewarding aspect of public health for me. I’m grateful it happened through a wide range of subject areas, which introduced me to many wonderful people and became familiar with various public health specialties.”
Many of her favorite projects from the fellowship align with her current job, including data analysis on publicly available Medicare data to evaluate antibiotic prescribing in outpatient settings in Hawaiʻi, a Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) surveillance system evaluation, the Community Assessment for Public Health Emergency Response (CASPER), listening to community concerns after the Lahaina wildfires, interviewing residents that were affected by the Red Hill petroleum spill, and participating in active Tuberculosis (TB) screening in the Federated States of Micronesia.
Nicole regularly applies what she learned in the fellowship to her work at HDOH. Regarding the MRSA surveillance system evaluation, “I can take that methodology and apply it to evaluate almost any surveillance system, and then come up with recommendations for improved disease or event surveillance. Just by having one lengthy hands-on application of the methodology with a real disease surveillance system, I now feel very comfortable applying what I learned to another setting and mentoring incoming fellows on how to do the same.” Another project that translates to her current position is the data analysis of public Medicare prescriptions data to evaluate antibiotic prescribing in outpatient settings in Hawaiʻi. She said, “The code we wrote for that took us a few months to narrow down and get right. I still use that code in my job today for similar projects, and I find it so helpful to go back and take snippets of it.”
The CSTE Applied Epidemiology Fellowship was beneficial both for her and the HDOH because she was able to meet many new people and learn new things while being able to take time to make her work as good as possible. “Post-graduate fellowships, such as the CSTE fellowship, are incredible because they encourage growth through intentional application of skills and opportunities for mentorship. I was encouraged to learn, ask questions, and take my time working through challenges. It made the transition from school to full-time epidemiologist much smoother by providing protected time for growth,” she said. She is thrilled that she stayed with her host site after completing the fellowship because everyone at the HDOH was super supportive in her transition from fellow to epidemiologist.
If Nicole could give one piece of professional advice, it would be to speak and work with as many people in the organization as you can. “I am most proud of the relationships I built within and outside of HDOH during my fellowship, so I would suggest trying to make meaningful connections with colleagues and the community you’re serving. Sometimes, these connections happened over lunch, while other times they happened during long hours for fieldwork projects. The most opportunities came from asking colleagues about their projects and then asking how I could help,” she remembered. The work connections made through those projects further helped her with her own work, by giving her the confidence to ask for help when she felt stuck. Simply just asking someone to help her out with a project or task that would normally take her a few hours to figure out will end up taking 30 minutes to figure out together. “After that collaboration, we got to know each other better, I learned a new skill, and they got better at it by teaching me. Everybody wins and we often walk away with a new pal.”
“When I think of connecting with those above me as networking, I get a bit stressed out. But when I just ask them ‘What are you working on these days?’ I realize they have so many stories and we have many things in common. I am always a little hesitant about the first step, but once we start chatting, I learn so much from peers and colleagues!”
Nicole leaves us with inspiring advice for anyone in public health and in general. “My advice is to reflect on why you entered public health. If you’re here to serve the community, then go out, volunteer and do that. If it is to think deeply about data, find a free dataset online and explore which questions you can ask and answer. When I’m stuck or overwhelmed in public health, it helps to remember my ‘why’ and follow my curiosity.”
Thank you for this amazing advice and sharing your experiences, Nicole! Such an inspiring and positive story, and I hope all who are reading this are also inspired and thinking about what drew them to love public health in the first place 😊<3
Links to CDC fellowships:
CDC Fellowships: https://www.cdc.gov/fellowships/php/index.html
Link to DOH job postings:
