“These people [UNC Faculty] have got your back!.” – Dr. Sancta St. Cyr
The ID Fellowship program welcomed three distinguished alumni on Monday May 24th via zoom to present at the first Alumni Career Panel. This panel focused on Public Health, and featured Dr. James Lewis, Dr. Victoria Mobley, and Dr. Sancta St. Cyr. The three reflected on their time as ID Fellows at UNC, shared stories of their path to success and experience, and imparted wisdom to current ID Fellows.
See more about the panelists below.
The panel began with introductions and laughter about memories on service and a “cheer’s” to virtually re-uniting. From the beginning, the theme of the night was mentorship and network-building. When asked how she got to her current position, Dr. St. Cyr spoke of the importance of finding mentors and how she same to UNC to gain mentorship from Dr. Arlene Sena. She stated, “I purposely sought out mentors that could help me become the physician or person I wanted to be,” and reminded the fellows that “these people [UNC Faculty] have got your back!.”
On the theme of mentorship, Dr. Mobley expressed the importance of finding mentors that align with your interests and trusting them to help you. She also expressed how important it is in public health careers to reach out to others for guidance and suggestions, because “everyone is in it for the public good.” This sense of collaboration in public health careers and the importance of building a network helped Dr. Mobley arrive at her current position. Similarly, Dr. Lewis detailed how after spending time at the NC Department of Public Health, he moved to Seattle for his Wife’s postdoc position, and was able to leverage his UNC network to find a job in a different state doing COVID-19 Surveillance. He expressed how important it was to have the UNC Network to help him transition. He also told fellows about the importance of flexibility in your career. He stated, “be willing to be somewhat flexible- if you can do that, you can seemingly find a good career in public health.”
The advice was greatly appreciated and taken to heart. Having the opportunity to hear from alumni was a unique experience, but one that will not be unique for long as we continue to roll-our our alumni career panel series. Thank you to Drs. Lewis, Mobley, and St. Cyr for their time and a great evening!
About the Panelists:
Dr. James Lewis: James received his MD from The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in 2010, followed by completing internal medicine residency at Barnes-Jewish Hospital/Washington University in St. Louis in 2013, infectious diseases fellowship as well as preventive medicine residency at the University of North Carolina in 2016. Additionally, he completed a MPH at the UNC Gilling’s School of Global Public Health with a focus in Epidemiology in 2016. After completion of training, he joined the UNC Infectious Disease faculty as a Clinical Assistant Professor in 2016 as well as working as the interim part time medical director of the vaccine preventable diseases program for the North Carolina Division of Public Health (NCDPH). In 2017 he accepted a full-time position at NCDPH as the Medical Director of the Surveillance for Healthcare Associated and Resistant Pathogens Patient Safety (SHARPPS) Program. Additionally, in 2018 he was appointed as adjunct assistant professor of medicine for the UNC School of Medicine as well as an appointment as adjunct assistant professor of epidemiology at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. The NCDPH position was held until moving to Seattle upon accepting a position as a medical epidemiologist overseeing the COVID-19 pandemic response for healthcare settings for Public Health Seattle and King County in 2020 where he is currently working, his UNC appointments are still active.
Dr. Sancta St Cyr: Sancta St. Cyr, MD, MPH is the Project Officer for the Gonococcal Isolate Surveillance Project (GISP), the national sentinel surveillance system for antibiotic resistant gonorrhea. She joined the Surveillance and Data Management Branch of the Division of STD Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as a Medical Officer in 2017. In her role at the CDC, she regularly contributes to programs and publications involving antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea and recently co-led the gonorrhea subcommittee for the upcoming CDC’s 2021 STD Treatment Guidelines. Dr. St. Cyr earned her medical degree from Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center- New Orleans, trained in internal medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota and completed her infectious diseases fellowship and Master of Public Health in epidemiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Dr. Victoria Mobley: Dr. Mobley is currently the HIV/STD Medical Epidemiologist and Field Services Unit Director for the North Carolina Communicable Disease Branch, Division of Public Health. She completed her internal medicine residency at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD and my Infectious Disease fellowship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is board certified in Internal Medicine and Infectious Disease and also has a Master’s degree in Epidemiology.