{"id":3998,"date":"2024-01-30T12:18:24","date_gmt":"2024-01-30T17:18:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/honors\/?p=3998"},"modified":"2024-01-30T12:18:24","modified_gmt":"2024-01-30T17:18:24","slug":"pigoga-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/honors\/pigoga-15\/","title":{"rendered":"Jenn Pigoga &#8217;15"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"ember2913\" class=\"ember-view reader-content-blocks__paragraph\"><strong>Tell us about a favorite memory from your undergrad days. What do you think of the Honors Programs and your time at URI?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p id=\"ember2914\" class=\"ember-view reader-content-blocks__paragraph\">As someone who prefers small group settings and thrives in classes that are more applied\/discussion-based than traditional lectures, the Honors Program was a great fit for me.<\/p>\n<p id=\"ember2915\" class=\"ember-view reader-content-blocks__paragraph\">A favorite memory that I have from the Honors Program was taking a course titled, &#8220;The History of the Irish in Rhode Island.&#8221; This class still stands out in my mind, a decade later. Our instructor, an Irish Rhode Islander, guided us through a deep history of both Ireland and the Irish in our own state. It was a mixed-media class, blending readings, movies, and discussions, as well as field trips to places like the Irish Famine Memorial. I am part-Irish myself, and it was cool to learn more about my heritage in an academic setting. I certainly would not have taken this course if not for Honors, but I am glad that I did! General education courses can sometimes feel pointless &#8211; after all, they may not relate directly to your major &#8211; but the Honors Program made them engaging and exciting in a way that larger lectures could not!<\/p>\n<p id=\"ember2916\" class=\"ember-view reader-content-blocks__paragraph\">The Honors Program was pivotal to the opportunities I was able to pursue post-grad.<\/p>\n<p id=\"ember2918\" class=\"ember-view reader-content-blocks__paragraph\"><strong>Did you complete further studies after graduating from URI?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>MSc (Emergency Medicine) &#8211; University of Cape Town, 2016<\/li>\n<li>MPH (Epidemiology) &#8211; Emory University, 2018<\/li>\n<li>PhD (Public Health, concentration in emergency care) &#8211; University of Cape Town, 2021<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p id=\"ember2921\" class=\"ember-view reader-content-blocks__paragraph\"><strong>Tell us a little about the work you are doing today.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p id=\"ember2922\" class=\"ember-view reader-content-blocks__paragraph\">In the time since completing my PhD, I have worked as an epidemiologist with several organizations, including the World Health Organization and the CDC Foundation. At present, I am a Lead Data Scientist for CVS Health, where I work with health data to conduct clinical trials and safety surveillance research. I leverage existing &#8220;big data&#8221; (such as healthcare insurance administrative claims and pharmacy dispensings) to assess the safety and efficacy of vaccines, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices. This work is unique in that, despite being a &#8220;private sector&#8221; role, we collaborate primarily with local and federal governments and academic institutions to achieve our research objectives. My day-to-day responsibilities include development and management of research projects, data transformation, and data analysis using a range of methodologies, including cost-effectiveness techniques and machine learning.<\/p>\n<p id=\"ember2923\" class=\"ember-view reader-content-blocks__paragraph\">I have also had the opportunity to work with the Honors Program since 2020. I served as a Lecturer for the Honors Program, teaching students about the basic social and epidemiological constructs related to the global burden of disease. Presently, I am assisting with Pre-Health Advising.<\/p>\n<p id=\"ember2925\" class=\"ember-view reader-content-blocks__paragraph\"><strong>What did the path to your current role look like? What are some interesting jobs or experiences you had along the way?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p id=\"ember2926\" class=\"ember-view reader-content-blocks__paragraph\">My career path has been surprising to everyone, myself included. I am a &#8220;reformed pre-med&#8221; who, on the eve of beginning medical school, decided that a non-clinical career in research and public health was my true path. My academic path has been both straightforward &#8211; I completed two Master&#8217;s degrees followed by my PhD &#8211; and unique, as much of my training has been outside of the US. I am lucky to now have a desirable data-centric skillset that allows me to work in a variety of settings and public health contexts. Since graduating from URI, I have had the opportunity to work with health data at a range of healthcare organizations, including governments, non-profits, and the private sector. A few interesting roles that highlight the breadth of my experiences include:<\/p>\n<p id=\"ember2927\" class=\"ember-view reader-content-blocks__paragraph\">Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) &#8211; Epidemiology Fellow: Collaborated with 46 states and local departments of health to evaluate CDC-funded programs for reducing transmission of tuberculosis in high-risk populations.<\/p>\n<p id=\"ember2928\" class=\"ember-view reader-content-blocks__paragraph\">World Health Organization (WHO) &#8211; Data Consultant, Emergency Care: Consultant providing technical guidance and data analytics to WHO\u2019s Global Emergency and Trauma Care Initiative (GETI); responsible for evaluating the impacts of an emergency care systems improvement intervention program across 39 hospitals in 5 countries.<\/p>\n<p id=\"ember2929\" class=\"ember-view reader-content-blocks__paragraph\">African Federation for Emergency Medicine (AFEM) &#8211; Research Fellow and Research Scientist: Over a 6-year period (1 year as a Research Fellow, and 5 years as a Research Scientist), participated in design, collection, and data analysis for, and reported on, more than 20 multi-country emergency care projects in low- and middle-income countries. One particular highlight of my time with AFEM was my work on the Community First Aid Responder (CFAR) course, which I refined for the African context and piloted in five countries. This course has since been adopted by the World Health Organization for broader use worldwide.<\/p>\n<p id=\"ember2931\" class=\"ember-view reader-content-blocks__paragraph\"><strong>What would you like to highlight about your post-grad experience that you feel URI and the Honors Program uniquely prepared you for?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p id=\"ember2932\" class=\"ember-view reader-content-blocks__paragraph\">Two experiences, both of which occurred during my senior year of undergrad and were directly due to the Honors Program, were &#8211; quite literally &#8211; pivotal to my career.<\/p>\n<p id=\"ember2933\" class=\"ember-view reader-content-blocks__paragraph\">The first experience was a connection I made in Dr. Roger Lebrun&#8217;s Honors infectious disease course. Dr. Lebrun had a guest speaker that was a past student and was completing a fellowship in South Africa at the time. The fellowship &#8211; a one-year research fellowship with the African Federation for Emergency Medicine &#8211; was of interest to me, as I had worked as an EMT-Cardiac during undergrad and was interested in the research side of emergency care. Dr. Lebrun connected me with his past student, and I successfully applied for the fellowship. A month after graduating from URI, I packed my life up and moved to Cape Town, South Africa, where I would end up completing both a MSc and PhD. The one-year fellowship ignited my interests in global health and emergency care, and the connections I forged led to additional opportunities to work with the World Health Organization on emergency care development.<\/p>\n<p id=\"ember2934\" class=\"ember-view reader-content-blocks__paragraph\">The second experience that was key to my post-grad life was the Honors Project. After volunteering at a free clinic in Providence for a few years, I chose to do my Honors Project under the supervision of the clinic&#8217;s medical director. We assessed the impacts of the Affordable Care Act on health insurance access in the Providence community, and found that the barriers that existed pre-ACA (primarily, immigration status and cost) were still highly prevalent post-ACA. Conducting research in undergrad, and publishing this work, established me as a researcher and allowed me to be a competitive applicant to fellowships and grad school. It also allowed me to begin to understand the current flaws in our healthcare system and primed me for a career working to improve the system.<\/p>\n<p id=\"ember2936\" class=\"ember-view reader-content-blocks__paragraph\"><strong>What advice do you have for current students?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p id=\"ember2937\" class=\"ember-view reader-content-blocks__paragraph\">One piece of advice that I have for current students is to use the Honors Project, Colloquia, and courses as networking opportunities. Get to know your instructors and ask them for connections! My career to-date is due in large part to the opportunities that the Honors Program afforded me to 1) to connect with like-minded people and 2) begin basic research.<\/p>\n<p id=\"ember2939\" class=\"ember-view reader-content-blocks__paragraph\"><strong>How can students and other alumni reach you?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p id=\"ember2940\" class=\"ember-view reader-content-blocks__paragraph\">I can be reached via email jennpigoga@uri.edu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jenn Pigoga is a URI alumni who has went on to receive a MSc in Emergency Medicine &#8211; University of Cape Town, a MPH in Epidemiology, and a PhD<br \/>\nin Public Health with concentration in emergency care. Learn how Honors was pivotal to her career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5023,"featured_media":4000,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[150,138],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-profiles"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/honors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/honors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/honors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/honors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5023"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/honors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3998"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/honors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4549,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/honors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3998\/revisions\/4549"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/honors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/honors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/honors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/honors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}