Shereen Sodder ’17

Overview

Project Director, Boston Public Health Commission
Boston, MA

• BA, Science, Technology, and Society, Vassar College
• MPH, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health

Shereen Sodder (she/her) is the Project Director for Boston Overdose Data to Action (OD2A) for the Boston Public Health Commission (the city’s health department). Shereen oversees all of Boston OD2A’s activities and overall strategy, contracts and budgets, and evaluation. She was previously a fellow in Public Health Administration and Implementation Science for CDC’s Division of Overdose Prevention, supporting the OD2A program at the federal level, and has also worked in academic medical settings in the Boston area, specifically in writing foundation and government grants and supporting addiction training and technical assistance. While a Master of Public Health student at Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, Shereen contributed to several research projects related to addiction treatment and drug policy. Shereen studied Science, Technology, and Society, and minored in biology and Italian at Vassar.

Advice to Students:

Generally speaking, for public health, having specific skills—grant and budget preparation, project management, etc.—can be more useful for getting new opportunities rather than subject matter expertise (unless you’re a researcher, a lot of that can be learned on the job). As a liberal arts student, you will already have a foundation for many desirable professional skills, and you should be able to further those through internships, any jobs you hold while being a student, etc. For that reason, it’s important to study whatever you find most interesting, not necessarily what you think is the best major for a given field. Diversity of academic background is also a strength and gives you a unique perspective on and a critical approach to anything you do.