March 18, 2024

Drexel Magazine’s latest edition features 40 Under 40 passionate and determined alumni who "hit their professional stride early" and hope to "nurture a better future for all."

The Dornsife School of Public Health is proud of our three alums featured this year: Rebecca A. Hosey, MPH '20, Alton Reid, MPH '17, and Kate Watson, DrPH.

Rebecca A. Hosey, MPH '20

Family Nurse Practitioner, Delaware Valley Community Health's Maria de Los Santos Health Center and Girard Medical Center (Philadelphia, PA)

Rebeeca's greatest accomplishment is "working with an incredible interdisciplinary team at Prevention Point Philadelphia for almost five years."

"I feel so fortunate and privileged to be an alumna of the best public health school; we learned theory and policy and were encouraged and supported to gain experience before day one of classes. My work in substance use and overdose prevention research began with Dr. Stephen Lankenau’s team, including [Senior Research Scientist] Jana Ataiants and Megan Reed [of Thomas Jefferson University] before the traditional year even began."

"I was lucky enough to be in a small orientation group led by Lankenau and asked if he needed a research assistant. My adviser, Dennis Gallagher, encouraged me to try new things and to ask for positions in places that did not have typical internships available. I can say with certainty that I would not be doing the work I am today without these mentors and without Drexel."

Read Rebecca's full interview

Alton Reid, MPH '17

Health Scientist, EPA Office of Inspector General (Washington, DC)

"During my time as a health scientist with the EPA Office of Inspector General (OIG)...I presented research on neighborhood assistance efforts and how that impacts one’s mental and physical health (the subject of my master’s thesis while attending Drexel) for the American Public Health Association’s annual meeting in 2022."

"Drexel gave me access to a lot of tools of the trade. I had no idea what Dedoose, SAS, Qualtrics, and other tools used in public health were before attending Drexel. I learned how to scope and utilize different aspects of my education to better impact communities. I still use a lot of public health data analysis, data visualization techniques and general stakeholder engagement skills I learned at Drexel. These skills show up in the OIG reports I have worked on in my current role as a health scientist, and I laugh at them now because some concepts made little sense to me as a student. Once I got into the working world, however, I thought to myself 'Oh….that is why Dr. Amy Carroll-Scott, Dr. Michael or Dr. Brown said something like that in class so many times.'"

Read Alton's full interview

Kate Watson, DrPH '17

President, Advocacy Academy (Philadelphia, PA)

Over more than a decade, Watson has used her doctorate from the Dornsife School of Public Health to help professionalize a field that has long relied on hotline or shelter volunteers. The 100 workshops each year that she leads around the United States and as far away as Japan and South Korea have trained 50,000 victim advocates, she estimates, many of whom work in schools, hospitals and the military.

Her doctorate examined the training needs of Title IX coordinators who intervene when gender-based violence is suspected in the education system and, she says, gave her the foundation to grow the Advocacy Academy, formally established in 2017.

Read Kate's full interview

This is the twelfth year that the magazine has showcased "40 Under 40" alumni honorees.

Read all "40 Under 40" interviews in Drexel Magazine