Jennifer Mandelbaum, MPH, graduated from Derryfield in 2010. She attended Brandeis University, earning a double degree in health: science, society, and policy and sociology, with a minor in women’s and gender studies. Mandelbaum then went to the Yale School of Public Health, where she attained her MPH in social and behavioral sciences with a concentration in global health. At Yale, she worked in research in community-based initiatives that aided low-income neighborhoods in New Haven. Currently, Mandelbaum is pursuing her PhD in health promotion, education, and behavior and is planning to graduate in 2022. She is currently working as a special projects evaluator at the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control in the Division of Diabetes and Heart Disease Management. Mandelbaum led the creation of a data dissemination project. Madelbaum and her team are compiling this information into a manuscript that is currently under peer-review. The team is also working on another paper about how to identify priority populations to target for medical interventions. Mandelbaum shared that, like at Derryfield, the goal of this work is to be collaborative and to critically consider broad issues of public health. She discovered her fascination for public health in Ms. Keefe-Hancock’s “Diseases” course at Derryfield, where she learned to look beyond the biomedical aspect of health and into the social, geographical, and environmental nuances. Mandelbaum says the curriculum at Derryfield emphasized the importance of different perspectives and critical thinking.
“The education I received at Derryfield laid the groundwork for considering different perspectives and looking at things from different angles. That type of thinking lent itself really well to a career in research and public health. A Derryfield education was truly the greatest gift my parents could give me.” – Jennifer Mandelbaum ‘10