Student Spotlight: Tomas Zurita
Meet Tomas Zurita, M.P.H., a Ph.D. candidate at the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health (SPH). After earning his M.P.H. degree from SPH in 2024, Zurita has continued working toward his ultimate goal of earning his Ph.D. in community health.
Zurita was exposed to the ways that systems of power in the U.S. have contributed to create different health inequities and disparities during his undergrad and M.P.H. coursework.
“My large question that I’ll be working to narrow down to a dissertation question is, ‘how do systems of power and more specifically, systemic racism, impact access to social determinants of health for historically marginalized communities?’” said Zurita.
His goal is to center the voices of those communities with a mix of different methods, including qualitative research and counternarrative storytelling. Hailing from Woodburn, Ore., Zurita has firsthand knowledge of how the current systems can shape a community for the better – or, in some cases, for the worse.
Zurita was motivated by both his lived experience and his undergraduate education at U.C. Irvine to find ways to improve or abolish various components of the systems that impact communities. He’s determined to keep that knowledge local, as well, both by planning to stay in-state after completing his dissertation defense, and by trying to bring the stories of those marginalized communities into conversations about policy and academic research.
One early example Zurita’s drive to build better systems and strengthen his community is the BIPOC Resilience, Empowerment, and Affirmations Towards Health Equity (BREATHE) group.
Zurita and his classmates saw a lack of representation and safe spaces for conversation after starting his M.P.H. studies at SPH, and he was determined to change that. In conjunction with his fellow students, Zurita was able to get BREATHE formally recognized by PSU and the group now has a dedicated space in the Vanport building.
Zurita hopes to see the group expand beyond the graduate student population and cited that as the reason for pursuing space at PSU. The current structure, if expanded, would give the undergraduate population at SPH access to the group and its programming, whereas that would be more challenging to provide by going through the CLDI on Marquam Hill.
“It’s been one of the best things I think I’ve done in my academic career, being able to organize with others and create space for not just us but for people that will come after us,” said Zurita.
The other formative experience Zurita had during his M.P.H. program was serving as an adjunct faculty member for undergrad SPH coursework, confirming his desire to stay active in academia beyond the completion of his Ph.D.
Zurita hopes to one day become a faculty member at OHSU while continuing his research and community work here in Oregon. He hopes to continue to build diversity in the work force by being someone others like him would want to learn from or work with, and by doing so, to build that community and system that he hopes to see here in Oregon.
“I feel a sense of responsibility for making sure that students from the state also end up wanting to work and stay here… I’ve seen is that a lot of people come [to SPH] and then they [take that knowledge] elsewhere, and I’m trying to implement those things that I learned here within, within the state,” Zurita said.
Written by Seth Preuss, OHSU Senior Communications Specialist