Leah Yingling: How can the Pittsburgh Health Corps shape your future?

How do you see your service experience this year shaping your future?

During my service year thus far, I've had the opportunity to learn about and inform others about diabetes. Through this, it has been revealed to me how nutrition and lifestyle are central to chronic disease conditions. In the future, I hope to work in a clinical setting where I can implement nutrition intervention for preventative care. Next year, I will begin a position as post-baccalaureate researcher at the National Institutes of Health, where I'll research disparities in health care influenced by socioeconomic conditions. I hope this experience, in addition to my Pittsburgh Health Corps service year, will set a solid foundation for a career in Nutritional and Clinical Epidemiology.

What is your New Year's service resolution?

At the UPMC Shadyside Family Health Center, I meet with patients with diabetes on a day-to-day basis to set self-management goals and to ensure their health maintenance needs are met. My New Year's service resolution for 2014 is to individualize my approach. I've quickly realized every patient has individual barriers and completely different approaches to diabetes. Thus, being more thoughtful and individualized in my conversations with patients will help me provide patient-centered diabetes care.