Kiara Ekeigwe, from Rockland County, NY, is graduating with a Master of Science in Global Health. As a student, she served as a teaching assistant in the biostatistics and epidemiology courses. Ekeigwe, whose family is from Nigeria, completed her undergraduate degree at Duke, majoring in biology with a minor in global health, and entered the accelerated MS-GH program to earn her global health master’s degree. She spent four years on Duke’s Track & Field team and served as chair of Duke’s United Black Athletes as an undergrad. Her thesis research looked at oral pain and oral health-related behaviors in primary school-aged adolescents in the Bagamoyo and Dar-Es-Salaam districts in Tanzania.
My interest in global health comes from … For most of my life, my mom has had cancer. It inspired me to want to be a doctor. As I got older, I saw the limitations of being a doctor; there’s only so much you can do at the patient level when there are many external factors influencing someone’s access to care, their quality of care and overall health. That’s something I want to change. Once I started to learn about global health and public health, and how you can impact people through policies, it felt more in line with what I want to do.
My thesis work taught me … to dig into understanding how central oral health is to our overall well-being beyond what you hear in the occasional dentist visit. It also helped me understand the importance of observing the burden of conditions on adolescents, a group commonly overlooked. More importantly, it showed me how context-specific challenges shape how a country experiences and responds to health issues. It’s important to understand those during research.
My plan after graduating is … to do epidemiology-related work. I would be happy doing anything involving health data and analytics. Being able to apply what I’ve learned in this program to health in any capacity would be the dream.
Reflecting on my time at Duke shows me… three things. First, anything is possible. Anytime I was interested in or wanted to experience something, there was a path I could take to get there.
Second, as an undergrad, I struggled with impostor syndrome. For a very long time, I tried to explain how I was not exceptional compared to everyone else. Leaving undergrad and becoming a graduate student showed me we are all exceptional in our own ways, and there’s no need to compare.
Third, I learned everything happens for a reason; initially, I thought it was an annoying thing to say. But I learned anytime I wanted something to go a specific way, and it went differently, I didn’t regret it. Everything happened exactly as it needed to.
Nowhere but Duke could I have … met my mentors! Drs. Wenhui Mao and Joe Egger only exist here at Duke, and I’ve been so grateful to meet such brilliant faculty who are passionate about what they do. Both have been so willing and excited to teach me along the way. I’ve grown so much from my interactions with them. I’m forever grateful for the experience.
What I’ll miss about DGHI is … the people. The community is amazing, from the professors to the students. The professors always make you feel supported, and they show genuine interest in you. They made me feel I’m contributing to something special here. Also, this isn’t a boring department when it comes to personality.
My advice for global health students is … never forget our work and that what we’re striving to do is important. The sentiment towards the field right now by some is not indicative of the importance of our work. Also, let yourself be curious. Acknowledge what you know and what you don’t know and be comfortable with that. As a student, it’s fine to not have all the answers. That’s the best part because it gives space to learn.
