Victoria Sevilla is a Master of Public Health student at the New York University School of Global Public Health and received her Bachelor’s degrees in Global Health and Biological Sciences at the University of Southern California (USC). She works part-time at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering (AME) where she is the Co-Chair of the AME Publicity Committee and a member of the AME Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) Committee.
To learn more about Victoria, we spoke with the master’s student about her interest in emergency response, wildfires, and the intersection of engineering and public health. Read our Q&A with Victoria below!
Interviewed by Meryl Phair.
Q: What got you interested in the field of global public health?
A: I was pre-med in undergrad and got involved with a student organization called GlobeMed. They were really the first group that introduced me to the importance of ethical engagement and decolonizing global health. Even in high school, it never made sense to me that going abroad was something that’s encouraged on your pre-med checklist. I think having that as a starting point shifted how I viewed global health and led me to add global health as a major. I was also a healthcare worker during the pandemic which was another big turning point. I was feeling helpless and working at a cardiology office at the time. It felt like all these pieces were coming together, and I was empowered to keep pursuing my education in the field of global health.
Q: What has your experience in emergency preparedness and response been like?
A: My mom had a medical emergency when I was in fourth grade, and I had to call 911. That’s probably my earliest memory of being aware of emergency preparedness and then at USC we had a false active shooter. The way everything was handled received a lot of praise and unfortunately, with the amount of mass shootings especially on college campuses, that’s rarely the case. Being in that situation from a civilian perspective really kick-started me into wanting to be involved more in the emergency preparedness and response aspects of public health.
Q: What is a current emergency or disaster that you believe is critical to address?
A: I’m currently living in California, so wildfires and earthquakes are at the top of everybody’s list. We’ve always had earthquake drills so in terms of preparedness for earthquakes, it feels pretty set in stone, but there’s a lot of concern now for the upcoming fire season because we had so much rain in the past couple of months. I know a lot of people are starting to mobilize in terms of preparing for the wildfire season. It’s something that we talk about in the office at my work a lot. We’re on the fourth floor, so we often talk about how to evacuate, which professors are in their offices, is there some way we can centralize our plans.
Unfortunately, another top concern is now active shooter situations. We’ve talked about whether we should distribute ladders to people whose offices have windows in case they need to break a window and escape. Things like that, it’s another aspect of preparedness our office is trying to be proactive about.
Q: Public health is an interdisciplinary field that encompasses so many diverse areas. Are there any interdisciplinary areas in public health that you’re passionate about or that you have learned from?
A: I work part time for the USC Viterbi School of Engineering Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering. The more I’ve gotten involved with the research aspects, I’ve realized there’s a lot of crossover between public health and engineering. I don’t have an engineering background, so it’s a completely different part of STEM for me. It’s been fascinating to bridge the two fields and especially having started to work on the DEI Committee and feeling like I can bring my public health background into that work has been great.
Q: How do you handle stress and pressure?
A: Well, I guess that’s a good segue into introducing my dogs! This one has been trying to climb into my lap the whole interview! They’ve been very helpful in terms of keeping me present and calming me down, just pulling me away from having a negative mindset about things.
I think the biggest help has been therapy. I know that’s not accessible to everyone, and I’m fortunate to have been able to have found a therapist that works. I started seeing her right after I went back to school, and it’s been helpful for me in terms of processing my time as a healthcare worker during the pandemic.
The last thing is my favorite place, if you’re ever in Los Angeles, walking around the LA flower market! Flowers are also such a good reminder to be present and they’ve always helped ground me. There was a period where influencers were everywhere, but I think that’s settled down a little bit.
Q: What is next for you after you complete your MPH degree?
A: I really like disaster preparedness and response along with health communications. I feel like it has a good balance between what my experiences have been and I’m excited about working more in the public/global health sphere. Whether that’s working for a nonprofit or a UN agency, I’m looking forward to applying my communications background to global public health.