“谁能说枪支暴力不是公共卫生危机？”’.
Nicole Poellinger MPH Candidate
Breakfast: Oatmeal with peanut butter
Hometown: New Berlin, Wisconsin
Extracurricular: I play tennis and love to cook
Nicole Poellinger is a first-year MPH candidate studying Epidemiology/Biostatistics. We sat down with Nicole to learn more about her interest in public health and her experience advocating for research around gun violence.
What led you to become interested in public health?
I have always been interested in communicable diseases since I was very young. I initially began my undergraduate career at the University of Wisconsin—La Crosse to pursue a degree in biology, so I could become a Physician Assistant. After a couple of years on the Physician Assistant track, I realized that I would rather prevent disease and disability instead of treating it.
That’s when I decided to switch my focus to public health. This field constantly fascinates and inspires me to develop my knowledge base. I knew pursuing an MPH would help me learn more about the social determinants that have major impacts on an individual’s disease outcome, so that is what I decided to do!
Why did you choose BUSPH?
My career goals are completely in sync with BUSPH’s mission to improve the health of underserved populations in our community and beyond. I love that I was able to pick a specific stream within the MPH program so that I can really focus on what I’m passionate about -epidemiology!
Soon I will have a much better understanding of the root causes of emerging public health issues. I really believe that having a strong, foundational knowledge of epidemiology will help me be better prepared to advocate for the implementation of more specific health policies!
What led you to become passionate about advocating for public health?
Last year, I attended the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) annual advocacy summit in Washington, DC, to learn and practice my public health advocacy skills. The main topic of conversation was the impact gun violence has on public health. My team and I went to Capitol Hill to talk to our Wisconsin legislators. Our primary purpose in attending the advocacy summit was to try and convince them to repeal the Dickey Amendment.
What is the Dickey Amendment, and why are you against it?
The Dickey Amendment is a legal mandate that was lobbied for by the National Rifle Association to heavily discourage the CDC from funding research about gun violence. This is not acceptable. Innocent people are dying from multiple mass shootings every single day. How can anyone say that gun violence isn’t a public health crisis?
At the SOPHE advocacy summit, we educated the legislative aides that gun violence should be researched in the same way as communicable diseases. We need major research organizations to be able to explore the various aspects of gun violence so that we can be strategic in our approaches to prevent gun-related injuries and deaths. Research would enable citizens in our country to better understand the causes of this phenomenon; people need to be aware of its impacts on their own health.
The Dickey Amendment is unfortunately still in place. While it was an incredible experience participating in the summit and being a part of a group who were inspired to ignite change, I want to encourage others to attend future summits! We need to have the amendment repealed to fuel research that will help put a stop to gun violence. I hope to attend many more advocacy events in the future and would love to connect with others who share my same passion for public health, too!