Alandrea Harris matriculated at GW in the fall of 2023, drawn by a passion for maternal and child health that GW itself helped spark, and by a longer path than most: she minored in health advocacy as an undergrad and wanted a graduate degree before pursuing med school. Looking back on the winding road that got her to GW, she calls it a "crazy full circle moment," reflecting that she "needed to go through all these steps to finally get to GW."
She built close friendships with her cohort, penpals, as she describes them, and found the program comprehensive in scope, noting that it "really goes through all subsections of MCH." She still draws on her MCH II and MCH policy analysis coursework in her policy work today.
What Drew You to MCH?
Alandrea's path to MCH crystallized after hearing a lecture by a public health director in Cincinnati. As a Black woman, the reality of racial disparities in maternal health hit close to home: "As a Black woman, I felt like this can happen to me, my sisters. This is something that needs to be investigated and solved." She's encouraged by a shifting national conversation, observing that "people are starting to see that this is about medical racism and bias."
Where are you currently working? The evolution of “Why MCH?”
Alandrea is now a fellow with the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, placed with the Senate Finance Committee under Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon on the health subcommittee, covering Medicare, reproductive health, and child welfare. Her days are filled with stakeholder meetings, research, policy analysis, and long-term projects. The pace keeps her on her toes: "Things change every day; there's always some breaking news on the Hill, so my job is very fluid."
The Most Useful Skills from GW and the Center of Excellence
Above all, Alandrea points to research skills, particularly what she learned in MCH II and MCH policy analysis, as tools she uses daily, along with a stint in foreign affairs. She uses R and Stata for large data processing and analysis.
On networking, her advice is about quality over quantity: “It's not about how many people you meet, but the small, genuine personal connections you build. That instinct,” she says, “goes back to how we learned to make friends as kids in elementary school by simply putting ourselves out there.” She encourages students to use their GW email and affiliation to open doors and points to opportunities such as the Winston health policy fellowship, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation fellowship, the AAAS fellowship, and the NIH health policy fellowship, as well as health policy society mixers as places to connect. Her top piece of advice for the job search: "Tell everyone you're unemployed and looking for a job; that's the best advice I've gotten. Everyone in DC is looking for a job."
Share a personal win!
Outside of work, Alandrea has been growing a garden full of wildflowers, lettuce, mint, cilantro, parsley, cucumbers, and tomatoes, "anything and everything everything." She's also been nurturing a monstera plant for the past five years, which has quadrupled in size!
What are you most passionate about?
When asked what she's most passionate about, Alandrea points to decreasing maternal mortality for Black women, particularly through the lens of providers: helping them understand the issues and biases that can arise, and the snowballing effect that mistreatment of Black women in hospitals can have. She's equally focused on increasing access to midwives and doulas for all groups
CoE Shoutout
Throughout her time at GW, Alandrea worked closely with Dr. Vyas, who was pivotal in building her confidence to proceed with her capstone project. She says that she is grateful for Dr. Vyas’s encouragement to move forward with her project.