Wilson's autistic sibling and her mother's death influenced her decision to build a life in public health. "Public health is a better avenue and a better fit," she said, "because it's really based on primary prevention, establishing and supporting resources in communities that protect people and allow them to have ultimate quality health. "Seeing my mother suffer the way she did, and her being denied certain things that are human rights, like access to health care, and being treated inhumanely by her employer, that gave me the drive and push to go into this area." Wilson's academic rise had its own obstacles. As a poor kid growing up in wealthy, mostly white Huntington Beach, she was a straight-A student even then, but was prevented from taking advanced placement courses, she believes, because "I was the only African-American in my class."
After graduating, Adrienne Wilson spent nearly three years in the Peace Corps as a health educator in Tanzania and Ethiopia, envisioning where public health could lead her
Dave Newhouse: Janitors' daughter a role model
By Dave Newhouse
Oakland Tribune columnist
Posted: 10/17/2010 12:00:00 AM PDT
Foretelling the future isn't easy, but after looking inside my crystal ball, I'm predicting that Adrienne Wilson will one day become secretary of health and human services.
Wilson didn't know about my prediction until now. She's too busy anyway working toward a master's degree in public health at San Francisco State, where she's a straight-A student -- except for one B-plus last semester.
She is one bright light -- the recipient of the 2010-11 Galinson Scholarship, awarded last month by the Cal State board of trustees to a student who exemplifies exceptional public service in the community.
She beat out 22 others for this honor that carries a $6,000 scholarship, which Wilson, who grew up in a family of financial and medical need, will use to complete her master's next spring.
After that, she'll work for a while and then pursue a Ph.D.
"The bar is set high," she said.
Some future president, I'm betting, will want Wilson in his or her Cabinet, though there's no immediate hurry -- she's only 28. But this onetime Oakland resident, who recently moved to Vallejo, is a star in the making.
Her story is inspiring. Both her parents were janitors who struggled to find proper medical care for one of their four children, an autistic daughter. After the parents split up, the mother died of pulmonary fibrosis last year. Wilson believes her mother passed away from inhaling toxic cleaning
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Wilson's autistic sibling and her mother's death influenced her decision to build a life in public health.
"Public health is a better avenue and a better fit," she said, "because it's really based on primary prevention, establishing and supporting resources in communities that protect people and allow them to have ultimate quality health.
"Seeing my mother suffer the way she did, and her being denied certain things that are human rights, like access to health care, and being treated inhumanely by her employer, that gave me the drive and push to go into this area."
Wilson's academic rise had its own obstacles. As a poor kid growing up in wealthy, mostly white Huntington Beach, she was a straight-A student even then, but was prevented from taking advanced placement courses, she believes, because "I was the only African-American in my class."
Moving to Sacramento, "it was a completely different environment," she said. "I didn't feel like such an outsider because of how I looked like (in Huntington Beach)."
At Florin High School in Sacramento, she finished in the top 10 of her class. After enrolling at UC Berkeley, she spent a year in Brazil, teaching science and English in
impoverished communities.
"I had a little bit of an epiphany there," she said. "I was convinced that to really outreach and support community members -- communities of color -- I should know a lot more about the social context that people live in "... their history."
So upon returning to UC Berkeley, she changed her major to ethnic studies. After graduating, she spent nearly three years in the Peace Corps as a health educator in Tanzania and Ethiopia, envisioning where public health could lead her.
"I would like to do something in global health," she said, "and maybe work for the United States Agency for International Development."
Different things drive her, including family.
"I kind of feel that I don't have a choice," she said. "My father doesn't have a job, and my sister's autistic and we will need money to take care of her. I hope I can be in a place where I help support my family, and have a home for them."
And beyond her family, she wants to be a role model for inner-city youth.
"Sometimes we just need to have that face, to encourage them," she said.
Perhaps from her Cabinet position in Washington, D.C.
