Wave-Maker Spotlight: Hana Shirriel

Over the past few months, we have been posting profiles on the amazing alumni that have come out of the Making Waves College and Alumni Program. These profiles are meant to both highlight our inspiring alumni and support young professionals in understanding their own career path. If you have questions for us or our alumni, please post them below. Today, the spotlight is on a conversation that we had with Hana Shirriel, a third waver from Richmond, graduate of San Francisco State University (bachelor degree in health education and master degree in public health), and Center Manager at LifeLong Medical Care. Hana provided us a wealth of insight and wisdom in our conversation below.

We also suggest that you read a wonderful article about Hana. In this article, her advisor, Professor Mary Beth Love, said the following: "What I find most impressive about Hana is how she balances her passion with pragmatism, combined with her commitment to helping youth and their families advocate for themselves to improve their overall quality of life." What an inspiration for us all to do just a little bit more to recycle our success!

What does your job look like on a day-to-day basis?

• I am the clinic manager of school based health centers for LifeLong Medical Care. The day-to-day varies and that is really what brings me joy. My school based health centers provide medical, dental, and behavioral health services for Tk-12th grade students. One day I may be negotiating and planning with stakeholders such as CEOs, CMOs, doctors, lawyers, city and county employees, and school district personnel about long term plans for the school based health center. Other days I am meeting with my site supervisors, teachers, and principals about the day-to-day logistics. My favorite days are those that I am able to provide direct service through a food pantry, health education campaigns, and/or filling in for team members. My role involves mostly administrative duties, but the direct service opportunities remind me why it is important to have an advocate for the people at a decision making level.

Describe your career path? What experiences provided insight along the way? Was your career path straight and planned, did you stumble into it, or was it somewhere in between?

• My career plan was not planned or ideal, as much of my life story, yet life has a way of working out. I wanted to be an OB/GYN...then a PA...then a NP...and then I had to get creative in how to maximize my time as I was constantly pursuing these goals. I stumbled into being a health educator while in school and became very curious about the ways to impact healthy changes without being a medical provider. I fell in love in my role as a supervisor for a health clinic and 3 years later, I am now managing the entire department and impacting how the student populations access and receive medical, dental and behavioral health services. Yet, I would not have known that this could have been a calling without exploring the entirety of the medical field, not just the spotlighted medical providers.

What advice do you give to those interested in your field and type of work? Are there any experiences and skills that you recommend them working on while in college?

• Please volunteer in hospital and clinic settings. This is great exposure to what happens outside of the exam room, that is essential to the overall patient experience. Stay committed to every volunteer activity that you embark on, whether it is ideal or not, you never know what connections can come of it. 

What general advice do you have for college students still trying to understand their own path?

• Remember that health does not just happen in a hospital. Look for opportunities to provide health education, lead walking groups, to build a park, encourage liquor stores to sell fresh fruit and veggies, advocate for affordable health insurance. The ways in which one can support health are endless so be creative in your approach. Challenge yourself to think beyond your internal beliefs, in doing this you really learn what you do and do not like about areas of service.

If you could give a piece of advice to your college self, what would it be?

• Oh goodness...I would tell myself that it is OK to fail. Failure and disappointment are just as natural as success and satisfaction. I think society and family has created this deeply molded internal concept of what success looks like, thus creating unrealistic ideals on how life should be.

What are your career dreams you have for yourself over the next 5-10 years?

• Over the next 5-10 years, maybe I will expand on my thesis: How microaggressions affect the mental health of Black women in the workplace. Despite challenges, black women and other people are cracking a glass/cement ceiling that was thought to be impossible to penetrate. It is time to teach persons in these majority male and White industries how to check their own implicit bias, identify how they perpetuate microaggressions and how the color of their skin shackles them to White privilege and fragility just as mine binds me to the disproportionate amount of stereotypes. This struggle and the resulting adverse mental health impacts needs to be quantified. It is hard to quantify racism and discrimination, but not impossible. I will dedicate time to addressing perpetrators of these actions. So in short...research through community organizing and educating stakeholders. 

When you are 80 years old, what do you hope people say about you?

• I am a Black girl, from Richmond, California, with a master's degree. I am my ancestors' wildest dreams and the dominant culture's greatest fear. My journey to get to this point did not start with me, I am from a mother and father who grew up farming in the south, on land tilled by slaves and stolen from indigenous person. This blood runs through my veins, their sacrifices painted on my skin and this history forever antagonizing each success that directly contradicts where my heritage says I should be. I have challenged what it means to be a researcher and have significantly moved forward research on the detrimental impact of racism and discrimination on bodies of color. More importantly, I have created curriculum and a toolbox addressing persons who consider themselves allies in the fight against "-isms," which starts with a very difficult self-reflection on how to accept their own internal bias, privilege, and fragility.

What does it mean to be a Wave-Maker?

• Being a Wave-Maker means that I am an agent of change. Someone believed in the idea that all students should have a right to equitable access to education, but also acknowledged that students in Richmond were not getting this. I am the product of this conundrum and an attempt to rectify a history of oppression and execution. It was a long journey, it was not perfect, but I am appreciative of the dynamics of this process. 
• The momentum of the ocean results in waves, sometimes small and non-threatening, other times cataclysmic and life changing. As a Wave-Maker, as an agent of change, I have the freedom to ebb in and out of the impact that I want to make, knowing that I am apart of a larger network of Wave-Makers who exude power, create inspiration, and manifest strength that can influence progress in just one wave.

Looking for more inspiration from our Wave-Makers - check these Wave-Maker Spotlights out!

• 1st Waver (San Francisco) - Stella Nnodim
• 1st Waver (San Francisco) - Vitalis Obidi
• 1st Waver - Andres Orozco
• 3rd Waver - Brandy Varnado
• 4th Waver - Brenda Hernandez
• 5th Waver - Jennifer Ojeh
• 6th Waver - Lamont Hill
• 7th Waver - Hossain Albgal
• 7th Waver - Brenda Godoy
• 8th Waver - Ariadna Diaz
• 8th Waver - Ivonne Tejeda
• 8th Waver - Genesis Merino
• 9th Waver - Enrique Romero
• 9th Waver - Betty Tran
• 9th Waver - Anahi Hernandez