Hi! I’m Ren!

The TL;DR version of who I am is that I’m an epidemiologist, a father, a husband, a brother, a son, a mentor, and a teacher… Among other things. I have a bachelor’s degree in medical technology, a master’s degree in public health, and a doctoral degree in public health.

Writing has always been my way of expressing myself, but I also do some photography. Having access to smart phones with good cameras is great, but it still doesn’t beat having a good camera with some good glass to capture the light at the right time.

So go on and scroll below or hit the links above to read what I wrote and see the photographs I’ve taken. Or keep scrolling to read the non-TL;DR version about me.

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I was born and raised in Mexico, and moved to the United States when I was ten. When I received my bachelor’s in medical technology, a small hospital in Pennsylvania recruited me to work in their clinical laboratory. That was quite the adventure. I got to see all sorts of interesting medical cases, interact with all sorts of healthcare professionals, and begin building the foundation for all that I know today about public health. With the encouragement of friends and colleagues at the hospital, I attended George Washington University part-time (while working full-time) and earned an MPH in epidemiology and biostatistics.

Armed with the MPH, I got a job at the Maryland Department of Health as an infectious disease epidemiologist. That was also an adventure. I got the job just as the 2009 H1N1 pandemic was about to begin. With some of the innovations I developed and helped implement, we were able to do a lot of good things to keep people in Maryland informed on what was going on. This also allowed me to meet many great people and collaborate on some interesting projects.

That wasn’t enough for me, though. Again, friends, colleagues and mentors encouraged me to return to school and get more training and education in public health. So I looked around at schools and saw that the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health was pretty good. I started working on a Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) degree in 2013 and finished in June of 2018.

With my DrPH degree, I worked for a large health department in Northern Virginia as an epidemiologist, working on mental health and substance use epidemiology. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and I was responsible for the response to institutional settings in the county. Those were some rough months. As the pandemic subsided, I started working with a non-profit as the director of their public health center.

And that is where I am as of November 2023…

Standard Disclaimer

Of course, it goes without saying that any of my opinions shared on this blog are not necessarily those of my friends, colleagues, employers, cats, family, etc. My opinions are my own, and I shared them as free of bias as possible, and always informed with the latest evidence on the matters I write about.

Pictures I've Taken