I met Dr. Joshi four years ago following my transfer to the University of Nebraska Medical Center, UNMC,as a graduate MPH student in Epidemiology. I must say that those four years have been a rewarding experience for me in my professional career. Dr. Joshi is a mentor, a visionary, an innovator,and a friend. He has a heart for students, and he is definitely one of a kind.
I started working as his Research Assistant within my first few weeks of joining UNMC, and in the two years following that period, I was awarded a graduate assistantship that covered the most of my tuition fees, but more especially I had the privilege to work with research teams on three locally and internationally funded public health research projects in Nebraska, India and Nigeria. Dr. Joshi was the principal investigator on these grants at the Center for global health and development at UNMC. It was indeed very timely owing to my passion for global health. I’ve never seen such a passionate researcher like him.
The experiences I garnered during this process served a great deal in galvanizing my future goals.Following my graduation, I had the privilege of continuing to work with him in multiple capacities as a Research Assistant, and Program coordinator for his online certificate in Population Health Informatics. In these capacities of working for Dr. Joshi, I have watched myself rapidly transform into a seasoned and creative public health professional, with ample potential for more growth. Dr. Joshi’s fervor for entrepreneurship has been very instrumental in encouraging me to set up my NGO, which has been my long term ambition. His innovativeness and enthusiasm towards his field of Population Health Informatics is unparalleled. But most especially, what I will take away from my experience with him is his desire to help students succeed, a true quality of an outstanding mentor. Through listening to his creative ideas, seeing him actualize them and succeed, I have acquired, and am still acquiring a sound understanding of how I can improve public health and on the long term, improve health outcomes in resource-poor settings.
