Staff: Essential to Success
Celebrating Our Dedicated Staff
The Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science at UC San Diego is dedicated to addressing pressing health challenges, enriching educational opportunities and improving access to public health resources. This work is made possible by the commitment and contributions of more than 200 talented staff, whose expertise and dedication form the backbone of the school’s efforts to foster innovation, collaboration and impact in public health.
These staff members, including members of the education team, academic support staff and research staff, help fortify the school’s foundations and connections, and ensure the success of the school’s mission, vision and values through research support, administration, student services, outreach and more. The following profiles showcase three individuals whose dedication exemplifies the strength and impact of our staff.
Education coordinators from left to right Rosemarie Subala, M.P.H., Stella Tripp, Mandi Graham, and Dina Rodgers, M.B.A. (backrow); Carrie Goldsmith, MAEd, and Jane Moon, M.P.H. (front row).
Staff Support for Students’ Educational Journey
Education team staff are key to the success of our school’s growing programs and serve as pillars of guidance during students’ academic journey. Staff members, such as Jane Moon, M.P.H., manage multiple processes from the student’s first email inquiry, to admissions, resource advising, program planning, all the way to graduation and beyond.
“It’s my goal that students leave our programs feeling supported and heard by the school administration, and that they feel equipped to go off and make the world a healthier place,” said Moon. “I feel motivated to ensure students feel like they are getting the most out of their time at UC San Diego.”
Moon grew up in San Diego. After earning her bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley, she worked in elementary school education and spent a substantial amount of time volunteering at birth centers, hospitals and emergency rooms.
It was during these volunteer events that she decided to switch careers and focus on public health.
Moon enrolled at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health as a Master of Public Health student in 2020. She was a member of the third cohort of master’s students in public health offered by the school. She graduated with a concentration in health behavior in 2022.
Although Moon’s educational experience was during the COVID-19 pandemic, and classes were mostly virtual, Moon felt that she was seen, heard, encouraged and supported by faculty, staff and academics in the school. It was due to these reasons that she wanted to return to UC San Diego and the school as a staff member and give back to the university and to her graduate program. She was hired as a Master of Public Health program coordinator in October 2023.
“Whenever I meet with students, I can tell them ‘I have been in your shoes, so I know what it feels like,’” said Moon. “For example, I can share my personal experience with my thesis and I can say, ‘This is how I got started, we can go from there.’”
The success of students and the success of the program give Moon hope. She is looking forward to helping them continue with student success and hopes she will see the program accredited during her career.
Jane Moon, M.P.H.
“Whenever I meet with students, I can tell them ‘I have been in your shoes, so I know what it feels like.’ For example, I can share my personal experience with my thesis and I can say, ‘This is how I got started, we can go from there.’”
– Jane Moon, M.P.H.
Elevating Staff Input and Welfare
Academic personnel at the school, like Susan Madsen, provide support beams and behind-the-scenes infrastructure for the school.
Susan Madsen, M.A. Ed., academic personnel and staff engagement analyst, has worked at UC San Diego since 2013. She joined the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health in 2018 because she felt her personal and professional values aligned with those of the school.
Madsen quickly began working to optimize the staff experience. In 2022, she was elected as an administrative representative to the Dean’s Advisory Committee on Staff Affairs (DACSA), a group of cross-school, elected staff members. The following year, she was elected as DACSA co-chair.
DACSA’s goal is to improve the staff experience from recruitment and hiring through separation, by integrating each individual into the school and supporting the employee as a whole person.
Madsen felt being the chair of DACSA was a crowning achievement. She served a two-year term, setting up longevity protocols within the committee. She is also proud of leading major staff experience projects like analyzing analytics for the Staff@Work survey and using that data to provide actionable recommendations to school leadership to better serve the staff community.
“The school’s research and educational efforts are vast and diverse, with each staff member playing a crucial role in advancing the school’s mission,” said Madsen. “Events like the staff retreat and DACSA facilitate connections among staff from different focus areas, fostering a sense of community and belonging.”
Madsen said she feels that the school recognizes and appreciates the accomplishments of each staff member, and that it works to highlight their contributions and reinforcing morale and continued engagement.
“The team comes together not only for work-related events but also for activities that build team spirit and camaraderie,” she said. “These efforts include sharing personal stories, participating in social activities like walking around different locations in San Diego and enjoying recreational outings such as baseball games.”
Madsen emphasized that these gatherings are essential for promoting a healthy work-life balance while also ensuring that recognition and credit are given where they are due.
“I value the connections I’ve made, which have allowed me to learn from others and collaborate more effectively,” Madsen said. “These connections expand my perspectives and enable me to celebrate accomplishments with fellow staff members.”
Susan Madsen, M.A., Ed.
“Events like the staff retreat and DACSA facilitate connections among staff from different focus areas, fostering a sense of community and belonging.”
– Susan Madsen, M.A., Ed.
Driving Research Innovation
Research staff, such as David Wing, act as architects, harnessing 21st-century public and planetary health needs to fortify the pillars that connect knowledge with action and values with innovation.
David Wing is a senior manager for the Exercise and Physical Activity Resource Center (EPARC) — a joint venture between the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health, the Center for Wireless and Population Health Systems (CWPHS), and the California Institute of Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) — and oversees a robust team that includes full time staff, part time staff and student researchers from the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and San Diego State University.
Wing’s main objectives are overseeing the pipeline that goes from prospective participant to data collector to researchers to final participant results and follow ups. He also helps students with capstone projects, mentors for research papers, oversees image modality information through dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA), which uses x-ray imaging to measure bone density, and instructs how to inform overall health recommendations for participants.
In Wing’s experience, there has been an increasing number of collaborative opportunities across all staff levels, but particularly at a lower-salary level, which he said is crucial for learning.
“The first step is the hardest,” said Wing. “Opportunities for collaboration in meaningful ways across groups creates overall buy-in across the school, and having those connections and opportunities to meet people and interface is invaluable in knowing what you might not know.”
Wing hopes to stay with the school as he completes a doctoral degree at Vrije Universiteit Brussel as an international student in movement and sport science, which he hopes will advance his research efforts.
“The Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health, and more broadly UC San Diego, is a wonderful place to work. Staff in the school conduct research and community programs, guide and support students, and the core administration enables and supports all of our school members and missions,” said Randy Brooks, M.B.A., associate dean of business affairs.
“I’m grateful to be in the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health, where staff are expressly recognized, valued and included in ways that I have not experienced previously, including the dean’s establishment of DACSA, a first official committee in Health Sciences,” said Brooks. “We as staff are an elemental component of our university’s missions and activities that alongside faculty, trainees and academics, create positive change for individuals, our community and the world.”
HWSPH 2024 Staff Retreat.
Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health staff retreat.
