The distance from classroom to world impact was a short one for Sydney Spivey.

Spivey graduated with her Master of Public Health degree from Virginia Tech in May 2023. Three months later, she was hired to a position which, a year later, has her assisting in coordinating responses to deadly global disease outbreaks. 

Spivey ’20 MPH ’23 is a program assistant for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Outbreak Response Team. She is currently serving on response teams for the ongoing Marburg and mpox outbreaks.

“I'm currently serving as the information manager for mpox, so I assist with  a lot of the communications that go out in regards to the outbreak -- situation reports, fact sheets that go up on the USAID website and to Missions [USAID offices in developing countries], talking points, and senior management team updates,” Spivey said.  “For both Marburg and mpox, I serve as the executive administrative coordinator, so I do a lot of the scheduling of meetings, keeping trackers up to date, sending out meeting notes, minutes, pretty much any coordination task. “ 

Mpox is a viral disease genetically similar to smallpox that typically causes flu-like symptoms, swollen lymph nodes, and a painful rash. The virus primarily spreads through close contact with an infected person or through exposure to contaminated objects. Currently USAID is working closely with U.S. government interagency partners, including the Centers for Disease Control and the Department of State, the governments of Democratic Republic of the Congo and other affected countries in the region, and other global partners to support the clade I mpox response. 

“I'm in constant meetings from sunup to sundown supporting fellow colleagues on the response. We’re in constant communication with interagency partners and missions in countries responding to or preparing for mpox,” Spivey said. 

It would have been difficult for Spivey to see where she is now when she was studying psychology as an undergraduate at Virginia Tech.

“I got my degree in psychology, and then as I got closer to graduation, I started realizing I didn't want to be a practicing psychologist or a psychiatrist, but I was still interested in the health sphere,” Spivey said. “I had two friends who were in the public health master's program, and just listening to the things that they were working on, I started looking more into public health, and how I could kind of mesh psychology and public health together.” 

While pursuing her MPH, Spivey served as an assistant outreach coordinator for Cook Counseling Center at Virginia Tech. In that role, she helped supervise and manage a peer education program, as well as assist with mental health outreach events across campus. 

Spivey said that work “bridged the gap between psychology and public health” as she refocused her studies on infectious diseases. 

The public health program’s position within the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine has proven beneficial for Spivey, she said, particularly the emphasis on One Health, the philosophy that human, animal, and environmental health are inextricably linked.

“The public health program being in the vet school, I think, gave me a lot of leverage in my job,” Spivey said “A couple months after I had started at USAID, the agency released a position statement on its dedication to One Health, which is a big thing in the vet school, the link between animal health and human health. The fact that we've hired more veterinarians and I’m working directly with veterinarians on outbreak responses, my studies in the vet school gave me a lot of really good experience that I use for my job pretty much daily.” 

The public health program at Virginia Tech prepared her well, Spivey said.

“I can say that pretty much all of the classes that I took for public health have been helpful in some shape or form for everyday work.” 

Contact:

Tags

Share this story