After earning his M.S. in Public Health at Walden in early 2007, Doan transitioned into the Ph.D. in Public Health program with a specialization in Epidemiology. “The staff, faculty, and students who I met in my master’s program made my Walden experience an enjoyable one,” Doan says. “I wanted to repeat that experience in my doctoral program.”

 

As a doctoral student, he will focus his dissertation on diabetic macular edema, the most common cause of mild to moderate vision loss among patients with diabetes. The topic holds personal meaning for Doan—his father was diagnosed with diabetes three years ago and became legally blind a year later.

 

At an age when most kids only plan as far ahead as summer vacation, Doan recalls wanting to earn a graduate degree. He attributes this to an experience in elementary school when a classmate was ill with cancer. “My friend would always miss school, and I never understood why,” Doan says. “Then I found out that he had cancer and that his treatments would keep him homebound. I decided then that I wanted to work in some capacity that would improve the quality of life for others.”

 

Doan attended the University of California, Los Angeles as an undergraduate student, and discovered an opportunity for contributing to the health of patients. “My time at UCLA opened my eyes to research. I could be on the cutting edge of work that could lead to a new lifesaving drug.”

 

Today Doan works in a division of Allergan designed to fast-track research. As a result, he is involved with the earliest phases of clinical trials in which safety is the primary focus. He feels privileged to play a role in finding new treatments for such ailments as asthma, psoriasis, heartburn, and glaucoma. One product that Doan helped make available is the Advair Diskus, a popular breath-activated device now used by asthma sufferers nationwide.

 

“I’m on my path to my personal goal, which is to improve the quality of lives of other people,” Doan says. “My professional goal is to ultimately lead my own department and decide which drugs and compounds to develop.” With a Ph.D. in hand, he expects to be wellpositioned for greater responsibilities in the future. After all, he will have gained hands-on experience by pairing work with his Walden studies. He says he will also have benefited from Walden mentoring relationships.

 

Before finding Walden, Doan spent two years seeking the right university to meet his needs. Now, he encourages others to join him at Walden, citing his own experiences of supportive students, faculty, and staff. He tells others not to allow common challenges, like time management, to get in the way of earning an advanced degree

 

“No one will hold you back more than yourself,” Doan says. “But once you have convinced yourself that a degree is what you really want, then the sky is the limit.”

 

 

 

 

 

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