Published 12/10/24, Written by Audrey Baker

Avni Patel ‘22 was committed to advancing social justice as an MPH student, and was determined to continue doing so through a career in health policy. After graduation, Patel began working with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Legislative Affairs Office as a Presidential Management Fellow (PMF)—a highly prestigious leadership program with the U.S. government.

After completing a rotation on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Health, Patel’s next rotation was in the White House, working on Vice President Kamala Harris’s public health portfolio.

During this rotation, Patel spent a lot of time strategizing ways for Vice President Harris to engage with the public through different meetings and events. In March 2024, Patel helped facilitate a first-of-its-kind trip to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Minnesota. “We wanted to highlight the work that clinics are doing in states where abortion care is legal,” she recalls, “and we wanted the public to see the logistics for out-of-staters traveling for reproductive care—do they drive or fly, where do they stay, and what is recovery like? In post-Roe America, this is very necessary work.”

At first, Patel expected federal policy to move faster. Over time, she learned that it can be a slow process—for some very good reasons. “When creating a bill,” she points out, “there are checks and balances in place. We make sure that every line has input, because it can potentially impact thousands or even millions of lives.” Of course, Congress is not always as efficient as it could be, largely due to partisan politics. Even maternal health, which “all members across political parties can agree on,” can become politicized on the Hill, she says.

Nonetheless, Patel has already witnessed many legislative successes. While traveling with Vice President Harris, she has seen some impacts of her Congressional work first-hand. On one such occasion, Patel helped organize an event in which Vice President Harris visited a community where lead pipes were being removed from roads and replaced—an initiative made possible by grant funding from Congress and the Environmental Protection Agency. “It was inspiring to see families’ hope and excitement,” she says.

Now that she has completed her rotation in the White House, Patel has returned to the CDC as a Public Health Specialist, working on policy issues for the CDC’s Injury Center. “It’s a heavy portfolio,” she acknowledges, as it includes issues like suicide, gun violence, and substance use disorder. Lately, Patel has been preparing documents for the CDC’s Injury Center Director to use when testifying in Congress. “You have to zoom out a bit from the nitty gritty evidence in front of a Congressional audience,” she reflects. Framing content for different audiences, she says, is something she learned in the Public Health Communication class at Cornell. In fact, Patel says that effective writing is one of the most important skills she took away from her time as a Cornell MPH student. “I not only learned how to communicate with different types of audiences, but how to make a case,” she says.

In the future, Patel says her career goal is to “build a deeper understanding of programs, especially at the community level,” in tandem with her work in federal policy. “I want to gain a better understanding of the challenges facing our communities at all levels, to create stronger and more effective policy recommendations.”