Meet your host

I’ve experienced some of our most complex social and health systems as a nurse, a foster parent, a parent of kids with special needs, volunteered as an advocate for domestic violence and sexual assault victims, and a medical case manager for people with very complex social, legal, and health problems. One thing I’ve seen is that all of the separate spheres of our life come into play when we’re talking about the health outcomes that we see in these systems. A public health approach steps back from individual people’s experiences and looks for patterns. These patterns are clues, leading us to causes that are bigger than individual people. No one person can fix these problems, but working together we can make our systems work better for all of us.

My passion is making these systemic problems and the promising solutions we are discovering understandable for everyone. Because of how our systems are divided, even those of us who work hard in our roles to help the people in front of us are often missing important pieces of the puzzle. We need to take these conversations out of our individual professions and collaborate together to find solutions that really work for people. In short, I want to present solutions that are holistic and rehumanize the people we serve.

But this isn’t just for people working in social and health fields. This is for everyone. The more we understand about how the world around is working, the better we can vote, advocate for ourselves and our loved ones, and collectively decide what and how we fund our public services.

Athalie Miller, RN, BSN