Remembering when she landed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to begin her U.S. Peace Corps service, USF College of Public Health alumna Wilnie Merilien said, “I was shaking with uncertainty and apprehension, but I was following my passion.”

After a competitive application process stressing applicant skills, adaptability and cross-cultural understanding, Merilien was invited to serve as a volunteer with Peace Corps in October 2012.

While completing her 27-month service, Merilien was assigned as a community health and HIV/AIDS prevention volunteer. In this role she was responsible for developing institutional and community partnerships, identifying and addressing public health needs in diverse communities, and maintaining and presenting accurate quarterly reports.

During her Peace Corps service, was stationed in the Amhara region of Ethiopia where she worked with a variety of high-risk groups such as commercial sex workers, day laborers, orphans, vulnerable children, religious leaders and local/government agencies.

She also managed to learn two languages while in Ethiopia: Amharic, the Ethiopian national language, and American Sign Language.

Merilien is exceedingly proud of her Peace Corps service, but there were many hardships she had to overcome in order to better serve and become a trusted member of the community.

“When the people of my town were informed they were receiving an American volunteer, they envisioned a Caucasian male, not a Haitian-American woman. My ethnicity and gender ensured that I would have a constant awareness of my relative status in Ethiopia,” she said.

Over time members of the community began to accept her and important relationships were developed that proved to be invaluable. They strengthened her belief that her place was in the field of public health.

Merilien completed several different projects during her service. One project was developing and co-facilitating a gender equality club with a twelfth grade English teacher at the local high school. She was able to use her two disciplines that she had studied at USF – public health and women and gender studies – to teach local Ethiopian youth relationship skills, teen issues, decision-making skills, communication skills and about HIV/AIDS.

Merilien graduated from USF receiving her bachelor of science in public health with a minor in women and gender studies in 2012.

She wasn’t always a public health major, though. After taking an Introduction to Public Health course Merilien decided to change her declared major from psychology to public health in the spring of 2011.

After switching majors she said that she said she could feel a change within herself.

“Classes became challenging and meaningful. I was engaged in real discussions that could impact real people’s lives,” Merilien said.

Merilien was born in Cap-Haitian, Haiti and moved to Florida when she was five. Having come from an underserved immigrant community she realized she has an important perspective to offer to the field.

“I can vividly remember the scenes from my childhood of my family’s summer visits to Haiti. To see the tragic destiny of countless victims of Polio and poverty has changed all of us. It has also made me the person and professional that I am today,” she said.

This connection to Haiti and underserved communities is what drives her passion for improving the public’s health.

“I am a product of marginalized communities and their unique stories. To improve the quality of life in these populations is not just a subject of interest; it’s a responsibility to my community and all those who struggle for the most basic right, the right to health.”

Merilien currently works as a service representative at the Social Security Administration where she educates elderly and disabled individuals about Medicare and its policies. She plans to continue her education by getting her MPH in global health with a concentration of global disaster management and humanitarian relief.

After completing her MPH degree, Merilien wants to pursue work in her birth country where rates of infection for HIV and other preventable diseases have continued to rise and eventually become a health and development officer for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). There she could evaluate programs and plan policies that could help great numbers of people.

Recalling her last day of her Peace Corps service, Merilien remembered looking at her phone and seeing 11 missed calls from her Ethiopian family and friends.

“All day they were calling to tell me what a difference our work had made in their lives, but really they changed me. Once I understood what it meant to serve; I could not turn back,” Merilien said, “I am committed to increasing the quality of life for all communities, especially those who are underserved and underprivileged.”

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Fast Five for COPH Alumni:

What did you dream of becoming when you were young?
I wanted to be a doctor, but I learned early on that I am squeamish.

Where would we find you on the weekend?
On the weekend, I am normally riding my bike, going to the local markets and the beach.

What is the last book you read?
The Black Jacobins.

What superpower would you like to have?
My superpower of choice would Teleportation, there are so many places and cultures I would like to explore and experience.

What’s your all-time favorite movie?
Beetle Juice.

 

Story by Caitlin Keough, USF College of Public Health