Adam Crawley MPH ’11 is President of the Public Health Alumni Association. He has served on the PHAA Board of Director since 2014 and chaired the Curriculum and Professional Development Committee. Adam received an MPH with a concentration in Infectious Disease and Vaccinology from the UC Berkeley School of Public Health in 2011. He is a research associate on the Pandemics Team at Skoll Global Threats Fund (SGTF) in San Francisco.
Q. What motivated you to become involved in the Public Health Alumni Association?
A.As an MPH student from 2009 to 2011, I was engaged with the Center for Health Leadership Student Board and involved with the formation of the student government. The relationships that I built with other students across different cohorts and disciplines were—and still are—really valuable to me and I saw how impactful these kind of programs could be within SPH. The relationships that I built with classmates through those efforts have been enduring and some of these same connections are what motivated me to join the board initially. Knowing that I could continue working with SPH alumni that were thoughtful and passionate about helping the School was really appealing.
Q. What would you like to see PHAA accomplish while you are president?
A. I would like to continue building on the framework that has been established over the last couple of years—with subcommittees dedicated to Events and Networking, Professional Development, and Diversity and Scholarship—and continue improving how we engage with alumni outside of the Bay Area. We had an incredibly successful Diversity Scholarship crowdfunding campaign last year that we hope to replicate this year, which is part of a broader effort to support diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts at the School. We’ll also be expanding on the professional development webinars for alumni that we piloted last year. We have always sought to provide networking and social opportunities for both alumni and students, so this year we’re planning to try some new ideas beyond the traditional happy hour format while we also strengthen our coordination with the student government to ensure we maximize opportunities for students and alumni to interact with each other and learn from one another.
Q. What are some of the challenges facing PHAA? What are some of the opportunities?
A. The SPH alumni network is very large. It spans decades of graduates who reside all over the world. Effectively engaging and communicating with them all is a big challenge. I think that PHAA is making strides on this, but it’s something that we have to continue working on each and every year. There are a number of platforms we can leverage—from email to social media to publications like Berkeley Health Monthly. We want alumni to be aware of what is happening with the School and able to find opportunities to engage and provide support through volunteerism, sharing expertise, or contributing financially. The School’s 75th Anniversary in 2018 provides a great opportunity to come to together as a community of alumni to both celebrate the accomplishments of the school and identify ways to continue to support important public health efforts locally, nationally, and internationally.
Q. What would you like to say to your classmates and fellow alumni?
A.We want you to feel connected and engaged with SPH and we want you to be part of our efforts to grow and strengthen our alumni community. If you’re located in the Bay Area please come out to one of our social events or to events hosted by the School like the Dean’s Speaker Series. If you’re a bit further away, keep an eye out for our professional development webinars. I am always interested in hearing about how we can improve on what we’re doing and make our alumni outreach more impactful.
We are an all-volunteer board and each year we need to recruit new board members. If you’re interested, please submit your CV and application form by March 1, 2018, for next years term starting July of 2018.