Who Is This Ren Fellow?

I was asked the other day to explain my trajectory to where I am now. Five hours later, and we were not even close to finishing. To some, I am a friend. To others, I am a shill for Big Pharma who pushes vaccines for a living. To a certain little girl, I am her dad. To my wife, I’m her better half (and the source of many an eye-roll).

I am an epidemiologist with a doctoral degree in epidemiology, a master’s degree in public health (epidemiology and biostatistics) and a bachelor’s in medical technology. While I’ve always loved science, I also dabble in technology and other disciplines.

I love writing. It is one of the few things in my life that bring me peace and make me think things through a little deeper, even if sometimes it seems like I didn’t think before I hit the “publish” (or “send” button). Check out the last five blog posts below, or scroll down even further to learn more about me.

More About Me

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 now… [This page was last updated in May 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