Episode 105
How to Build a Global Health Career (Public Health Master’s, Oxford & WHO Africa) - w/ Dyuti
How do you go from running tuberculosis programs in rural Bihar to studying at Oxford and eventually working with WHO Africa? There is no clean answer — and that is sort of the point.
Who this is for
- You are breaking into a new lane and need proof before the story looks obvious.
- You would rather hear Dyuti's version while the mess is still fresh than get another polished hindsight sermon.
Key takeaways
- Build a Global Health Career (Public Health Master’s, Oxford & WHO Africa) - w/ Dyuti
- In this episode, I sit down with Dyuti Sen to talk about what a public health career actually looks like when you do not start as a doctor, do not have a linear plan, and refuse to pretend the journey was smooth.
Need the cleaner version?
I pulled the sharpest parts of this lane into a guide so you do not have to reconstruct the answer from memory later.
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The complete conversation is available with timestamps, speaker labels, and links to the exact questions it answers.
Transcript-backed moments
A few lines worth stealing before you hand over the full hour.
Jyoti Sen did not study science. She started out with a fellowship in public health battling tuberculosis in Bihar. Today, she works at the World Health Organization. I took up economics but I ended up working in the global health field. It was like a week into the program
that I got to know that I will be living in this place called Dalsing Sarai in Bihar. It was the first time I even heard about this place. And once she started her journey at Dalsing Sarai, the work was nothing
like the outsider version, most of us would imagine. There were people who didn't have the 10 rupees cash for transportation to go to the hospital. Yeah, no, and they're blowing mine. Yeah, so keep going. This is all crazy.
Like, I knew nothing about what he just said. Those five years were my master's degree. Eventually, I did go to Oxford to do my masters. From the villages of Bihar to getting her masters in Oxford,
all the way to regional offices of WHO in Africa. Here we go. beauty, welcome. Hi, Naman. It's wonderful to be here. It feels like just about last week where we were both chilling in MP Birla.
Show notes
How do you go from running tuberculosis programs in rural Bihar to studying at Oxford and eventually working with WHO Africa? There is no clean answer — and that is sort of the point. In this episode, I sit down with Dyuti Sen to talk about what a public health career actually looks like when you do not start as a doctor, do not have a linear plan, and refuse to pretend the journey was smooth. Dyuti studied economics, then entered the development sector through a social leadership fellowship in India.
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