Alex Sheehan is a current Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) student at Tulane University and an alumnus of several fellowship programs, including the Health Policy Research Scholars, sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The Health Policy Research Scholars is a national change leadership development opportunity for full-time second-year doctoral students from historically marginalized backgrounds and populations underrepresented in specific doctoral disciplines. He also received the Frédéric Bastiat Fellowship at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, a one-year, part-time fellowship program introducing graduate students to the Austrian, Virginia, and Bloomington schools of political economy as academic foundations for pursuing contemporary policy analysis.
Sheehan also participated in Leadership Tomorrow and the Kagen Leadership Fellows Program. ProFellow recently talked to Alex to learn more about his unique background and life experiences and how they led him to these diverse fellowship opportunities. Sheehan shares insights into his journey and offers valuable advice for prospective fellowship applicants.
What sparked your interest in public health, and then pursuing a doctorate?
My path to the Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) program at Tulane and to the field of public health in general was anything but linear. In fact, I describe it as a mixture between a roller coaster and a house of carnival funhouse mirrors. As a teen, I struggled immensely with my mental health, and I did not seek help. I, like many others at that age, feared the “potential” ramifications of telling others, being seen as “crazy,” losing friends, etc., so I suffered in silence for a long time. I took time off in between graduating high school (with a whopping 2.5 GPA) and going to college because I had not even applied to any, so I figured community college would be a good place to find potential classes and career interests.
After finishing my Associate of Arts degree, I went on to attend the University of Washington Tacoma, where I just signed up for the first major that sounded interesting—criminal justice. I took some psychology classes during my A.A. because I knew I wanted to do something in the mental health field, as, at this point, I began getting help for myself and really leaning into self-care and my support network. During this time, I was also working full-time and making new friends, and things were going very well. Right before graduating, I fell in love with criminal justice and psychology, graduating with my B.A., and was offered a role as a Probation Officer in the City of Federal Way, WA, where I lived at the time. It opened my eyes to something new.
From roughly 2012 to 2021, I worked in various capacities of probation, really finding a niche for therapeutic courts (mental health court, veterans court, and family court) because I felt I could really connect with my clients more and be there for them and their families, focusing more on healing and restoration. During that time, I had gone to graduate school because I really wanted to try to find ways that I could help change systems. I always felt like the punitive approaches of U.S. carceral systems are very linear, black and white, and very retributive, not serving the client to help them heal but rather to see them punished. The disparaging lack of quality mental and behavioral healthcare for these individuals always struck a chord with me, and I wanted to be a part of the solution.
However, I didn’t realize that I had become so disconnected from direct service and the unrealistic demands of the field that my body had a panic attack that I felt like my brain was not recognizing. It was that bad. I called my wife and told her that I was coming home and we needed to talk. When I walked in the door an hour later, I told my wife that I was emotionally and psychologically drained, and I felt myself going back to those same places I did when I was in my teens. Luckily, being a firm believer in the therapeutic powers of therapy and displays of emotion, I realized I needed to quit that job, was going to go back to weekly therapy sessions, and needed to take time to repair an emotionally exhausted and mentally exasperated ‘Alex.’ I took a few months off to figure out my ‘why’ and my passions, as I had been moving at 100 miles per hour for so long and forgotten them, and I needed to learn to slow down and (as my fantastic psychologist says), “learn a state of ‘Being’ instead of ‘Doing,’” so I can connect more with myself.
During four months of employment leave, I traveled extensively, both physically and through the corridors of introspection, to find that I wanted to utilize my lived experience working in the criminal justice system to help improve health policy and systems that directly impact criminal justice system-impacted individuals, particularly at the intersections of access to mental and behavioral health care. I recognized that policy is a lever for change, and I could make a difference on this level. It took cognitive reframing to understand that the direct service work I had been doing for a decade was public health work, but it was not neatly packaged and labeled as such in the corrections field. Now, with a newfound understanding, zeal, and passion for public health, I took on my current role as a Behavioral Health Program Manager and was inspired to continue my education journey (yet again). This roller coaster of a journey brought me to Tulane University, where I am not only excelling but thriving.
You were a member of the inaugural cohort of the Environmental Health and Climate Justice Leadership Academy. Can you tell us about that experience?
I was fortunate enough to become an inaugural Fellow of the Environmental Health and Climate Justice Leadership Academy at the Satcher Health Leadership Institute (SHLI) at Morehouse School of Medicine for eight weeks during the summer of 2022. I applied because, as I had been in my new professional role and progressing in my doctoral studies, I became enamored with discovering and researching the intersections of environmental health and climate justice in different geographies and communities. The program took that one step further by providing training on social determinants of health (SDoH) and political determinants of health (PDoH), which are equated with producing poor living and health outcomes.
This experience taught me about the true interconnectivity and expansiveness of public health and that public health is, in fact, everything we do as people. We met weekly for four hours over eight consecutive weeks, and our teaching led to the culmination of group projects, which we got to present at the last convening together, wherein my group and I developed a program to promote health and nutrition through community action within the Bronx and surrounding areas within NYC. It was a wonderful opportunity, and I made lifelong colleagues and friends from this experience.
You then joined the Health Policy Research Scholars Program. What brought you to this program, and how has it advanced your goals?
In September 2023, I feel like my life changed so much, having been blessed with the opportunity to become a Health Policy Research Scholar. The largest draws to the program for me were 1) the potential of being surrounded by other doctoral scholars and mentors from varying professional backgrounds, personal lived/living experiences, and passions, all wanting to make a difference in their communities so that we can build an America that allows people to not just live, but to thrive and flourish; and 2) the specialized training and support to teach us as Scholars that from any seat, background, or discipline, you can make the difference that you want to see in your lifetime. From the get-go, I felt called to apply for what I could do for my community and that I could help advance a true culture of health.
The four-year leadership development program is for full-time doctoral students from historically marginalized backgrounds. It provides scholars with training, support, and a safe space to learn and grow as leaders as we progress throughout our academic studies. HPRS has served to advance my goals by providing funding to mitigate barriers that have otherwise inhibited my ability to expand my research and knowledge, providing unique networking opportunities within my cohort (go, Cohort #7!) and with other current cohorts and alumni. It has also provided me with training to learn to marry my lived/living experiences with academic research to produce better outcomes for those impacted by the lack of mental and behavioral healthcare within the U.S. carceral system.
You’re also a Frédéric Bastiat Fellow. What does that program involve, and what encouraged you to apply?
As a Frédéric Bastiat Fellow with the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, I am among an international cohort of graduate students from institutions all over the world being introduced to the Austrian, Virginia, and Bloomington schools of political economy to enrich my research acumen related to policy-related academic research and public policy analyses. Throughout multiple convenings throughout the academic year, we explore these frameworks and their interconnectivity to different fields. For me, that is the intersection of public health and healthcare and policymaking. I was encouraged by a prior Fellow and friend to apply for this program, which she thoroughly enjoyed. When I saw that it was a fellowship named for Frédéric Bastiat, I had to jump onto the opportunity. During my Master of Public Administration and Master of Public Policy Studies, I wrote numerous papers on the political foundations and economic ideologies of Frédéric Bastiat and have read a lot of his works. It has been a wonderfully enriching experience, and I have made numerous friends and colleagues.
Your multi-fellowship journey also led you to the Kagen Leadership Fellows Program. What was a day in the life of a Kagen Fellow?
Before discovering this opportunity, I was not a fervent believer in ‘fate’ or ‘being right where you need to be.’ That changed shortly after I became a Kagen Leadership Fellow. I discovered this opportunity two days before discovering the posting for my current full-time professional role. During my time of introspection away from employment, I was just discovering the realm of public health, systems change, and the idea that policy is a lever for change. I felt called to apply for this program because it explored the complexities of systems of care, their values and philosophies, and how we can utilize these principles to make a difference in mental and behavioral health settings. I was fortunate enough to be offered one of 23 spots for this fellowship program. Funnily enough, just two days later, the same agency hired me full-time, allowing me to fulfill both roles simultaneously.
While this program was attended virtually, the strength of unity and bonds I developed in the community with the other Kagen Fellows and leadership staff made it feel like we were physically together. We met monthly for the program and were exposed to different leadership modalities, including adaptive leadership for systems change, coach approach to adaptive leadership, building common ground, aligning perspectives, and managing the dynamics of differences.
These were integral because systems change is only successful when it is done in unity, crafting multi-sectoral approaches to improving policy and systems function related to people and health care. Additionally, we were provided a leadership coach and mentor who allowed us to work out real-life, non-simulated situations utilizing these leadership frameworks. It was an eye-opening experience that helped change my career trajectory and instilled my passion for the “people” business by reminding me that public health is people, and we are in this together.
Finally, drawing on your impressive and diverse experiences, what advice would you give to fellowship applicants?
I have two pieces of advice for any fellowship applications for academic, professional, or personal development.
- Bring all that you are, who you have become, and who you want to become to your application and to the table. Never silo yourself into the “researcher you,” “practitioner you,” or “civic-duty volunteer you.” All of these encompass parts of the whole, and they are all you, so why separate them? There is strength in unity, so unite all of the parts that make up the sum of who you are.
- Let your lived/living experience be your personal guide as you progress through fellowship applications. It is those unique experiences and that lens that led you to this moment, to this application, and to this potential opportunity. So let it guide you. As Pastor Phil Allen says, “There are medicinal qualities right down the corridor of introspection.”
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