Student Spotlight: Fabiana Izidro Alves de Lima Laying

National University brings together students from all over the world with wonderfully diverse backgrounds.  Due to the accelerated pace and often online nature of the programming here, we might not get a chance to get to know our fellow classmates or those participating in the same program as us.  This is an opportunity for you all to get to know one of your fellow students, to see what they have experienced so far in their career and where they are headed after they finish up here at National University.  If you have a recommendation of a student of alumni that you would like to be featured in the blog, email me here.

Fabiana Izidro Alves de Lima Layng is a 39-year-old Brazilian obstetrician/gynecologist and pelvic surgeon with ten years of experience in providing care to under-served and underprivileged women. As a physician, Fabiana provided individual health services but, has always been aware of the pivotal role of the social environment on a person’s health outcomes.  Starting at the beginning of 2016, in order to expand her public health perspective and acquire research knowledge, she started the Public Health Graduate Program at National University, focused on Mental Health, which she expects to complete by July 2017. 

Here are some highlights of her experience as an OB/GYN in Brazil: 

• 2004-2008: she provided low-risk pregnancy prenatal care and general gynecologic care for a low-income community in Sao Paulo. 
• She developed, implemented, and coordinated the family planning services, provided Pap smear training to expand women’s health preventive services, improved the OB/GYN’s referral system, created and coordinated the multidisciplinary team 
• Represented the Vila Santana Community Health Center, Women’s Health Unit at local government meetings. 
• She also provided general gynecologic care at a non-for profit health care organization between 2011 and 2013. 
• May 2008-January 2016 she worked in tertiary health care, at a maternity funded by Sao Paulo’s local government, providing comprehensive emergency obstetric care and high-risk pregnancy care for underprivileged women, including HIV/AIDS and drug addicted patients. 
• She also got involved with the hospital’s educational unit, supervising residents and fourth-year medical students.

Fabiana recently attended the Public Health Day event held at the Spectrum campus where she served as a representative of a local program where she serves as the volunteer program director. At Health Education Advocacy Leadership, Inc. (HEAL), Fabiana develops, implements, and evaluates evidence-based public health programs that integrate mental health in their protocols, in addition to advocacy and policy-decision regarding the health of the City Heights community. In addition, she teaches Basic Life Support (BLS) courses as part of the health education programs offered at HEAL, which are focused on local community’s empowerment.

As you can see, we have amazing students in the School of Health and Human Services at National University. Congratulations, Fabiana, on your upcoming graduation this summer and good luck moving forward into the future!