Kelly Wheeler '07 Presidential Scholarship Recipient Master of Public Health > Ph.D. in Public Health

Kelly Wheeler’s life-changing moment came when she was traveling with her husband, a medical student, in the heart of rural Guatemala. Though she was a new bride, this trip was no honeymoon. The Wheelers were serving as translators for a medical mission team, Faith in Practice. To reach their remote destination, the team traveled along a rocky riverbed. As she rode on what seemed like a never-ending roller coaster, Wheeler thought about the day ahead in which she would use her limited Spanish vocabulary to help doctors perform vision tests for an unknown number of villagers. She was both apprehensive and excited.

Upon their arrival, the group was greeted by Guatemalan natives, many of whom had walked for days to receive treatment. To Wheeler’s surprise, the natives hoisted the medical team’s heavy trunks on their backs and carried them to a stone edifice that would serve as a makeshift clinic.

“I was struck by the dauntless spirit they exhibited, in spite of their great medical need,” she says. Wheeler pondered what she, an undergraduate communications major, could do to help ease their physical suffering. “I had served as a medical missions volunteer for over a decade, but in the midst of such remote surroundings, I felt inept to meet the dire health needs of these mountain dwellers,” she says. This conviction led Wheeler to question her previous aspirations to become a public relations professional.

Four months later,Wheeler and her husband moved to San José, Costa Rica, for his medical training. There, she was exposed to immigrant slums, known as precarios, where people lived in appalling, unsanitary conditions. Outbreaks of dengue fever and tuberculosis occurred frequently.Wheeler’s desire to alleviate suffering reached a point of urgency, and she decided to study public health and become an advocate for primary prevention among underserved populations across the globe.

“I researched how I could learn to do that from Central America, and Walden’s M.P.H. program offered the benefit of being able to study from anywhere in the world,” she says. The flexibility was especially important as she and her husband traveled frequently between Costa Rica and the United States.

In February 2007, Wheeler earned a Master of Public Health from Walden University with stellar achievement. She praises the access to instructors and the quality feedback and encouragement she received from the university. Wheeler is now pursuing a Ph.D. in Public Health at Walden with a specialization in Community Health Education and Promotion.

“This pursuit will enhance my effectiveness to engage community members, establish successful health education programs, and take a proactive role in improving the health of the indigent,” she says. “The degree will also increase the breadth and depth of my public health scholarship in preparation for future research endeavors.”

Walden’s mission was also a factor in her decision to matriculate in the Ph.D. program. “It’s very much in line with my own goals of wanting to do medical missions, which is one of the ways to be an agent of social change,” she says. “America is such a blessed country that it’s generally easier to focus on what we can gain in this life versus what we can give. But we need to be contributors. That’s how you build a strong sense of community, that’s how you build a better society, and that’s how you achieve a higher quality of life—not just for yourself, but for others.”

A volunteer since her teens, Wheeler now conducts community health assessments in Costa Rica and in her hometown of Houston. She hopes someday to facilitate health education initiatives, particularly concerning HIV/AIDS. “Earning a Ph.D. will help me maximize my potential and be the best that I can be in my field,” she says.

The Presidential Scholarship offers $5,000 to alumni of a Walden master’s program who are pursuing a doctorate at Walden.

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