2008.01.03: At age 27, Leilani Johnson has already served two years in the Peace Corps in Kenya, traveled extensively, earned a master's degree in Public Health (MPH), worked with an international service organization and is now preparing for the next chapter, work abroad as a nurse practitioner

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Kenya: Peace Corps Kenya : Peace Corps Kenya: Newest Stories: 2008.01.03: At age 27, Leilani Johnson has already served two years in the Peace Corps in Kenya, traveled extensively, earned a master's degree in Public Health (MPH), worked with an international service organization and is now preparing for the next chapter, work abroad as a nurse practitioner

By Admin1 (admin) (151.196.10.59) on Wednesday, March 31, 2010 - 10:08 am: Edit Post

At age 27, Leilani Johnson has already served two years in the Peace Corps in Kenya, traveled extensively, earned a master's degree in Public Health (MPH), worked with an international service organization and is now preparing for the next chapter, work abroad as a nurse practitioner


At age 27, Leilani Johnson has already served two years in the Peace Corps in Kenya, traveled extensively, earned a master's degree in Public Health (MPH), worked with an international service organization and is now preparing for the next chapter, work abroad as a nurse practitioner <BR>

When I got back I didn't really know what I was going to do. I was looking for work internationally. But having an MPH is a dime a dozen in that field. I was applying for things and getting opportunities, but a lot of the opportunities I was being selectively looked at were for domestic work, rather than international. I really wanted to get back to international again. Then I started hearing about a lot of people getting involved in nursing work or medical school. Actually, one of the visiting professors for that program in the spring tried to get me to go to medical school. I looked into it and thought, "that's a lot more years in school. I'm not sure I'm ready to put in another seven or eight years," so I started looking into nurse practitioner programs. That's what I decided I wanted to pursue to get back into the international field and actually provide hands-on work, in addition to the community-type work that my MPH had prepared me for.

At age 27, Leilani Johnson has already served two years in the Peace Corps in Kenya, traveled extensively, earned a master's degree in Public Health (MPH), worked with an international service organization and is now preparing for the next chapter, work abroad as a nurse practitioner


Same goals, different settings

By Nancy Babine, Correspondent Thu

Jan 03, 2008, 02:19 PM EST BOLTON -

Leilani Johnson's life story promises to be a great read. At age 27, Johnson has already served two years in the Peace Corps in Kenya, traveled extensively, earned a master's degree in Public Health (MPH), worked with an international service organization and is now preparing for the next chapter, work abroad as a nurse practitioner.

Johnson, who moved to Bolton at the age of seven, found models of altruism in her own home. Her father served in the Peace Corps in India. Her mother was a special education teacher at the Perkins School.

When Johnson attended Pitzer College in Claremont, Calif., where she studied psychology and sociology, her proclivity for service to others was reinforced by the school's focus on social justice and international issues. She became more aware of the needs of the underserved and the uninsured, piquing her interest in health care. Upon graduation, she decided to pursue an advanced degree in Public Health with a concentration in international needs, which she earned at Boston University (BU).

Johnson met Sera Bonds, founder and executive director of Circle of Health International (COHI), while at BU. After Johnson returned from Kenya, she assumed the position of administrative manager of the organization. Besides her participation in COHI, Johnson is taking prerequisite courses before embarking on a Masters Degree program in Nursing Science.

Having just completed her final exams, Johnson spoke about her work with COHI and her future plans.

Q. What have you been doing since you returned from Kenya?

A. For a while I just ran around and visited friends and family, who I hadn't seen in two years, which was really nice. Last spring, I helped teach at BU, one of the complex humanitarian emergency courses they have - looking at refugees and refugee camps, different issues involved with sanitation and HIV/AIDS, maternity and child care.

Q. When you returned from Kenya did you have a clear vision of the next chapter of your life?

A. When I got back I didn't really know what I was going to do. I was looking for work internationally. But having an MPH is a dime a dozen in that field. I was applying for things and getting opportunities, but a lot of the opportunities I was being selectively looked at were for domestic work, rather than international. I really wanted to get back to international again. Then I started hearing about a lot of people getting involved in nursing work or medical school. Actually, one of the visiting professors for that program in the spring tried to get me to go to medical school. I looked into it and thought, "that's a lot more years in school. I'm not sure I'm ready to put in another seven or eight years," so I started looking into nurse practitioner programs. That's what I decided I wanted to pursue to get back into the international field and actually provide hands-on work, in addition to the community-type work that my MPH had prepared me for.

Q. Where will you get your nursing degree?

A. I've applied all over. I've applied to schools out in San Francisco. I'm looking at one of the schools in Hawaii, but they don't start their program until fall of '09. I'm not sure I want to wait that long. And I'm also looking at Boston College. One of the California schools and Boston College are my top two picks. Q. How long is the program?

A. BC has a two-year program, pretty rigorous and intensive, which I like because I'd be able to get back into the field earlier. Most of them are about three years. Four years, if you really want to specialize in HIV/AIDS or something like that.

Q. Currently, you're working with COHI. What is COHI?

A. [It's] an organization that focuses on providing women and health care professionals with the services they need during crises settings. It started in '04.

The executive director, who founded the program, saw a real need for people to focus on women during conflicts and disasters. She found there is a neglect of woman's health services. Things that you'll still need during those conflict kind of times become even more hard to provide in those types of circumstances. Clean, sterile environments to have a child, if it's a complicated pregnancy, and that sort of thing.

Q. Where is COHI involved?

A. They have projects now in Israel, Palestine, Tanzania. They have a project in Tibet. And we're also trying to get into Sudan. Their first huge project was Sri Lanka tsunami relief work

Q. What is your role?

A. Right now I'm the administrative manager, but having the MPH background, I'm also able to provide input on some of these issues. [I] keep track of COHI monetarily, all of our financials, the donations that are coming in and going out. Also, just sort of fielding requests from people all over the place saying, "I'm interested in volunteering on that project."

Q. From where do grants come?

A. We just got one from a Danish organization, to work on our Palestine project. World Vision was really huge in the Sri Lanka project. And other grants have just been slowly trickling in here and there from different organizations. In addition, COHI does a lot of partnerships with organizations.We're working not just with grant monies, also with supplies and relief goods.

Q. Do you have a central office?

A. Just about everything is Internet based, e-mails and some phone conversations and even a lot of Skype. We do try to meet once a year or so, but it's very hard. The women who are on the board are just amazing and doing phenomenal work. We have one woman on the board from Pakistan, a 70- or 80-year old woman who has been working on woman's health issues ever since she graduated. She's just so interesting and so involved, but it's just so hard to get all of these women together to put them all into one area, but via e-mail everybody does a really neat job of working together and inputting ideas for projects and how to move forward with COHI.

Q. Where do you envision yourself in five or 10 years?

A. I really want to go back abroad. I do think you need to come back for a little while and recondition yourself and get another world view from your home base. Come back; get a grip on things again before going abroad. But I think I'll eventually not want to spend all my time going abroad, and come back to the U.S. There are plenty of needs. Especially with health care, it's getting more and more complicated. I'd like to figure out how I can serve in the US.

Q. Through your experiences with the Peace Corps and COHI, you've seen things most of us never will. What would you like those of us living in the U.S. to know about the needs of people in other countries?

A. You can't push people to see what you see. We were working on contribution cards for COHI during the Christmas holiday season. We wanted to put on pictures of projects we've had abroad, and we wanted to put on some pictures of kids and of mothers and babies, and there was one picture of all these kids and they all had runny noses and their hands were all dirty and I thought, "yeah, that's how the kids look sometimes," but then I thought, "that doesn't look nice on a holiday card."

You want people to know what it's like, but at the same time you don't want people to think that life isn't just as wonderful. I guess that's [what] you want people to know. That the values and the joys in life are all the same throughout the world. Having a baby, doing well at work or stresses of life are the same. The same background, same beliefs, same goals, just in different settings.

Learn more about COHI at cohintl.org. The Nov. 3, 2006, Bolton Common article about Johnson's experiences in the Peace Corps can be found at www.peacecorpsonline.org/messages/messages/467/207 1438.html. Nancy L. Babine can be contacted at NLBab@comcast.net. Comments (0)




Links to Related Topics (Tags):

Headlines: January, 2008; Peace Corps Kenya; Directory of Kenya RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Kenya RPCVs; Medicine





When this story was posted in March 2010, this was on the front page of PCOL:




Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers RSS Feed

 Site Index Search PCOL with Google Contact PCOL Recent Posts Bulletin Board Open Discussion RPCV Directory Register

Feb 10, 2010: Senator Dodd to Retire Date: February 19 2010 No: 1433 Feb 10, 2010: Senator Dodd to Retire
Dodd retires from Senate 6 Jan
Cameron Hume named US Ambassador to Pakistan 8 Feb
Florida RPCVs sponsor Everglades Experience 6 Feb
Jeff Hall brings aid to Sierra Leone 1 Feb
Peace Corps to reach 11,000 PCVs in 2016 1 Feb
Hugh Pickens writes: Standing Bear Looks to the Future 27 Jan
Ann Varghese survives 55 hours in Haiti rubble 26 Jan
John Guy LaPlante at 80 was oldest PCV 17 Jan
Steve Radelet to advise Hilary Clinton on Development 15 Jan
Obituary for Co-Author of ‘The Ugly American' 14 Jan
Peace Corps Establishes Program in Indonesia 11 Dec
What Happened to Obama's Promise? 3 Dec
George Packer writes: Obama's Troubles 24 Nov
PC Mourns Loss of Morocco PCV So-Youn Kim 17 Nov
Peace Corps volunteers return to Madagascar 16 Nov
PC to grow by several thousand over next 2 years 15 Nov
Former Hostage John Limbert named to Iran Bureau 11 Nov
Carrie Hessler Radelet named PC Deputy Director 9 Nov
Garamendi Sworn into Congress 9 Nov
Jesse Lonergan writes graphic novel "Joe and Azat" 4 Nov
David Macaray writes: Hearts and Minds in Afghanistan 29 Oct
Dustin Hogenson writes: Sauna in Kazakstan 26 Oct


Memo to Incoming Director Williams Date: August 24 2009 No: 1419 Memo to Incoming Director Williams
PCOL has asked five prominent RPCVs and Staff to write a memo on the most important issues facing the Peace Corps today. Issues raised include the independence of the Peace Corps, political appointments at the agency, revitalizing the five-year rule, lowering the ET rate, empowering volunteers, removing financial barriers to service, increasing the agency's budget, reducing costs, and making the Peace Corps bureaucracy more efficient and responsive. Latest: Greetings from Director Williams

Join Us Mr. President! Date: June 26 2009 No: 1380 Join Us Mr. President!
"We will double the size of the Peace Corps by its 50th anniversary in 2011. And we'll reach out to other nations to engage their young people in similar programs, so that we work side by side to take on the common challenges that confront all humanity," said Barack Obama during his campaign. Returned Volunteers rally and and march to the White House to support a bold new Peace Corps for a new age. Latest: Senator Dodd introduces Peace Corps Improvement and Expansion Act of 2009 .

Meet Aaron Williams - Our Next Director Date: July 30 2009 No: 1411 Meet Aaron Williams - Our Next Director
Senator Dodd's Senate Subcommittee held confirmation hearings for Aaron Williams to become the 18th Peace Corps Director. "It's exciting to have a nominee who served in the Peace Corps and also has experience in international development and management," said Dodd as he put Williams on the fast track to be confirmed by the full Senate before the August recess. Read our exclusive coverage of the hearings and our biography of Peace Corps Director Aaron Williams.



Read the stories and leave your comments.








Some postings on Peace Corps Online are provided to the individual members of this group without permission of the copyright owner for the non-profit purposes of criticism, comment, education, scholarship, and research under the "Fair Use" provisions of U.S. Government copyright laws and they may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner. Peace Corps Online does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the postings, which is the sole responsibility of the copyright holder.

Story Source: COHI

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Kenya; Medicine

PCOL45443
64


Add a Message


This is a public posting area. Enter your username and password if you have an account. Otherwise, enter your full name as your username and leave the password blank. Your e-mail address is optional.
Username:  
Password:
E-mail: