Staff Spotlight: Meet Renee Stanley, MPH, a promoter of student wellness and academic support services

Renee Stanley, MPH, is a program manager in student services in the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. She oversees graduate level programs in biostatistics, epidemiology and health behavior research.  This year marks 10 years since she joined USC. She was recruited to the Student Health Center in 2014 and later joined Keck School of Medicine in 2019. Read about her time here.

What sparked your interest in public health sciences?

As an undergraduate student interning at the Cal State Long Beach Health Resource Center, I became interested in college health. Shortly after, I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in health science for community health and school health. After I began working in the USC Student Health Center, I enrolled in the online Master of Public Health program in the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences with the intent to continue working in college health. After graduation, I attended a seminar hosted by USC Student Health that brought together different USC campus partners to discuss student wellness, which sparked my interest in student affairs and supporting student wellbeing beyond the student health building. A position became available in our department, and I was really excited about the prospect of working where I had graduated from and serving future population and public health professionals. It’s been gratifying and important to me to support this student population as an advisor and now as a program manager. One of my goals in my new role is to always consider student wellness within our student advising strategies.

Why did you choose to focus on student wellness?

There is just so much to think about when students come to campus. Their time here can impact their mental, sexual, and physical health — their whole being must be taken into consideration, not just how they perform academically. In turn, we connect them with resources to ensure they experience successful outcomes, academically and beyond their studies.

What would you like for students to learn when they are in college about wellness?

College is a great time to start practicing being active in your own healthcare. The campus offers medical and mental health providers who work directly with students and are aware students may be accessing healthcare for the first-time on their own—without the aid of a guardian or parent. I think this is a good time to get used to making your own appointments, asking follow-up questions with providers, understanding prescriptions, getting familiar with insurance plans and the terminology. For international students, they may not be familiar with how the U.S. health care system works, which can pose a unique barrier and learning opportunity. All students should take advantage of various resources and ask for help because there are many teaching moments on campus. And if you meet with a provider that is not a good fit, request to see a different provider.

What are your main responsibilities in the Department?

As the program manager, I oversee the daily operations of our student services advisor and administrative assistant, and I interact with faculty on a regular basis. I am the main contact for PhD student funding and support student advising and admissions. One of my goals in this position is improving the onboarding experience for new students to provide them with clarity of what their time here will look like, and how we, the staff, can help them successfully navigate through the different milestones of each program.

From your experience of advising graduate level students, who is well-suited to pursue a PhD degree?

The average time to complete a doctoral degree is five years, which is a long time — so I believe having the endurance to get through challenges is important. By coming to our department, students will be learning from top tier faculty, and so being flexible and open to learning new concepts and possibly challenging previously learned ideas is also crucial. I advise students to seek out groups and faculty to aid in the exploration of their research.

What do you enjoy the most about your job?

I love working with students and hearing their feedback. I am committed to improving the student experience in our programs, and it’s great to hear when a student recognizes improvements that support their time here. I enjoy the impromptu conversations I have with students that allows me to get to know them on a more personal level. I am also proud to work for a department that does such important public health research.

Who do you work closely with?

I work closely with Laura Sims, our administrative assistant, who has been with the Department for over a year, and Robbie Weaver, who is our newest addition to the team as a student services advisor.

Get to know Renee

What did you want to be when you were a child?

I wanted to be a pediatrician, and then in my freshman year of high school, because I loved my health class and teacher, I wanted to be a high school health teacher. I have health professionals in my family, so health has always been part of my background.

What do you enjoy doing outside of work?

I enjoy weekend getaways with my family, singing with my toddler, and hanging out with my two cats.