Faith Angus, a recent Master of Public Health graduate from the University at Albany’s School of Public Health ( SPH), is the latest featured author for MCH Leads. In her Health Equity Edition entry, titled “The Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs (CYSHCN) Health Equity Improvement Project,” Faith reflects on her experience as an intern with CYSHCN Health Equity Improvement Project at the New York State Department of Health and the opportunity she had to examine how local health departments in New York State enrolled in CYSHCN fostered health equity in their programs. During this internship Faith suggested next steps and best practices to improve community engagement with the program. Reflecting on this experience and how it relates to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility she stated, “This competency aligns directly with my passion for equitable access to care for all, which is especially important in our current political climate. For public health programs to achieve health equity, they must understand the community they serve and ensure that individuals from varying backgrounds and cultures are represented.”
Faith Angus ( She/Her) is a recent Master of Public Health graduate from the University at Albany’s School of Public Health ( SPH) with a concentration in Health Policy and Management. She also earned her Graduate Certificate in Maternal and Child Health (MCH) from the University at Albany MCH Program. Through her internships with the New York State Department of Health and New York State Association of County Health Officials, she has gained extensive experience in health policy development and analysis. Her main areas of interest are maternal mortality and the intended and unintended consequences of policy on the health of minority populations. Overall, she is passionate about ending health disparities among minority populations in New York, specifically regarding access to care, maternal morbidity and mortality, communicable disease transmission, and food insecurity. Faith graduated from Nazareth University with a bachelor’s degree in biology before attending UAlbany’s SPH. She pivoted to public health outreach and gained managerial and leadership skills through her role as a canvasser and later a field outreach manager for NYC Test and Trace’s Covid Initiative. This experience has equipped her to inspire change in underserved communities. Faith is currently employed as a Disease Intervention Specialist at the Albany County Department of Health (ACDOH). In this role, she is responsible for conducting investigations on communicable diseases and serves as a co-coordinator for the Hepatitis Program within the Epidemiology Department. She remains involved in MCH through her work in the Perinatal Hepatitis B Prevention Program at the ACDOH.
Learn more about Faith’s contributions here!