A Master's of Public Health Student Highlight featuring Beisi Huang
Beisi Huang began helping survivors of gender-based violence and human trafficking while earning her MSW from NYU Social Work in 2014. Today she works at Restore NYC, a non-profit that provides direct services to survivors of trafficking in the U.S., regardless of immigration status, culture, language, etc. At first, Beisi provided mandated counseling to women from human trafficking intervention court. “At Restore, our work is considered aftercare,” Beisi said. “It's after something happens that we assist individual survivors, which is critical. But there's not much prevention in the aftercare world.” With experience, she came to see that prevention through a public health lens might be an answer, and she wanted to be equipped with more knowledge.
So Beisi turned to GPH to study part-time for her MPH, the most reasonable option. “I chose NYU not only because I'm an alumna, but because the location is accessible; I can easily commute to campus after work.” She didn't want to pause her career to earn a credential, having just stepped into a new role as director of client services. “Doing a master’s degree and working full-time can be tiring, especially given the heaviness of the work that I do,” Beisi said. “Thankfully, I’ve been able to balance it. Classes are usually in the evening, so most of the time I don't need to take time off from work.”
The more she learns in GPH, the more Beisi recognizes how the systems-based focus in her public health studies complements her social work experience, offering fresh perspectives and prioritizing the people she ultimately wants to help. “At GPH, we talk about social determinants and how they relate to health,” she said. “We know that survivors of gender-based violence often have a low socioeconomic status or come from an underprivileged background. To me, it's a complete loop – the public health policies and their hands-on application in the field support each other. My hope is that we can create a new narrative for society to end gender-based violence, because many people still don't connect these two fields.”
Beisi will continue to unite the social work and public health disciplines in the future. “I’ve always been a person who likes to combine the micro and macro levels. At Silver, I learned to work on the micro level, and at GPH I’m learning to work on the macro level. My dream is that ten years from now, I’ll continue making a positive impact on women’s well-being, even beyond gender-based violence.”