Graduate student speakers will offer insights at Commencement on navigating setbacks to reach goals

Nadia Tsado: Navigating hurdles on the way to a strong finish

From a young age, Nadia Tsado's interest in public health has been personal. She witnessed family members struggle with health issues (most of which were preventable) and navigate health systems that didn't always seem to have their best interests in mind. She grappled with how providers could better serve patients.

"I've always been drawn to the work of helping to move beyond health disparities in the U.S. and the world, and to working to address certain issues, like access to care, especially for underserved populations," Tsado said.

Yet her public health journey was unexpectedly thwarted by a health issue of her own. Her personal story, and looking forward to the Summer Olympic Games, inspired the speech Tsado will deliver at the master's degree ceremony, where she will focus on the role of determination in pursuit of goals in sports, school and life.

Tsado's brother studied biomedical engineering at Brown, and while celebrating his graduation in 2016, Tsado met students from the School of Public Health who, she said, raved about the community work in which they were engaged and the mentorship they received from faculty. She was also attracted to the culture at Brown, which she said put an emphasis on improving the conditions of underserved and diverse communities.

"I wanted to be in a place of action, where there's a lot of research and service that is geared towards communities that haven't been typically served in the U.S.," Tsado said. "I also knew Brown had initiatives - like the Health Equity Scholars Program - geared toward people who look like me, and that was important to me."

During her first semester at the School of Public Health, Tsado connected with faculty members Akilah Dulin, Alison Tovar and Kim Gans, and joined their research project to understand how to improve the health of the Southeast Asian community in Rhode Island, specifically through diet-related interventions. Tsado created curriculum for healthy eating classes and also helped devise program assessments: one, called a veggie meter, used a finger scan to show participants whether they were eating enough fruit and vegetables.

Tsado didn't feel like herself, though. She was in pain and constantly exhausted, and not just from the demands of an MPH program or her involvement in the Graduate African Student Organization, the Nabrit Black Graduate Student Association and Women in Public Health. Last spring, she sunk to a point where managing everything seemed untenable.