Monthly Public Health Consultant Spotlight: Vinu Ilakkuvan, DrPH, MSPH
Each month, I will introduce you to a public health consultant or entrepreneur and they will share their path to self-employment and outline key pieces of advice for aspiring business owners.
Today we welcome Dr. Vinu Ilakkuvan from Fairfax, VA!
1. Please share your educational background and business title/name.
Founder and Principal Consultant, PoP Health
Degrees: Masters, Health Communications and Doctor of Public Health (DrPH)
2. Tell us how you entered the field of public health and what your education and work experience was prior to consulting or starting your own business.
I was a biomedical engineering major in undergrad – I loved it academically but soon realized none of the possible career paths appealed to me. I had done journalism all through school and college and loved both writing and public speaking. I wanted to find a way to merge my interest in communication with my interest in health and stumbled upon the field of public health (which I didn’t even know was a thing when I was applying to college!). I entered the field interested specifically in health communications, but quickly became invested in addressing upstream determinants of health through policy, systems, and environmental change.
After my Master’s program, I managed the bullying prevention program at the Virginia Department of Health, then worked on evaluation of the truth antismoking campaign, and most recently, managed policy development and communications at Trust for America’s Health. I also went back to school (part-time) for my DrPH in Health Behavior at George Washington University, where I now teach health communications and advise thesis students in the online MPH program.
3. When did you start your business and what were your motivations for pursuing self-employment?
My older daughter was born in January of 2017, and after a few months of maternity leave, I returned to my full time job, while also working to complete my dissertation and navigate new motherhood (not to mention nearly three hours of commuting each day). Needless to say, something had to give. I didn’t want it to be the dissertation (or my daughter, of course!), so I tried to negotiate a more flexible schedule and/or telework, and when that didn’t work out, transitioned to consulting independently – initially just continuing some of my existing projects while spending more time on my dissertation and with my daughter. Once the dissertation was wrapped up, I decided to give the consulting thing a real spin – that’s when I began taking additional clients and formally established my consulting practice, PoP Health, LLC.
While much of my initial motivation for the transition into consulting was personal – a desire to have a more flexible schedule and more time at home with my daughter (now daughters!) – there was also a professional element to it. I had always felt a little constrained in my full time roles, siloed into a particular topic or set of job responsibilities. Part of the appeal of consulting was being able to have ownership over the kinds of projects I pursued and took on, shaping a body of work that aligned most with my passions.
Both my engineering and public health training grounded me in the idea that problems – and their solutions – operate at a systems level, where various factors and sectors intersect. I created PoP Health to focus on strengthening and supporting multi-sector community health improvement efforts addressing upstream, root causes of poor health and health inequity. In particular, I wanted to bridge the 30,000 foot policy level work I had been doing around multi-sector health improvement with the work actually happening on the ground in communities.
4. Who is your ideal client? What services do you offer?
My ideal client is a community based organization, academic center, nonprofit, or other organization seeking to address upstream determinants of health in their community in partnership with individuals and organizations across sectors, with a particular emphasis on collaboration and co-ownership with community members. PoP Health’s three major lines of service are in the areas of community collaboration (facilitating and participating in community events and discussions, interviewing key community members and stakeholders, and distilling key themes and community perspectives), communication (developing engaging, visually powerful reports, briefs, and presentations tailored to a particular audience), and research & evaluation (including literature reviews, qualitative data collection and analysis, and evaluation planning and implementation).
5. Do you have a particular product or service that you’d like to highlight? Tell us all about it!
Yes! I am excited to share that PoP Health’s monthly newsletter, PoP Health Perspectives, will be launching on May 6, with an issue about Equitably Getting Out the Vax and how mobile clinics, home visiting programs, Get out the Vote strategies, and more can be leveraged to get the COVID vaccine to those who need it most - instead of expecting them to come to us. Every month, I’ll apply a population health/public health informed lens to a particular topic, share my thoughts, and link relevant articles and resources. Please sign up for the newsletter here – you can expect it in your inbox on the 6th of each month.
I also recently developed a one-hour Evaluation 101 training (geared to those who are new to rigorous evaluation). The training walks through the steps of determining the audience for the evaluation, defining the program/partnership/policy/etc. that will be evaluated, establishing SMART objectives (including developing examples together), planning and implementing process and outcome evaluation (including common designs, metrics, and data sources), and dissemination of results. I will eventually be turning this into an online course, but in the meantime, am refining the training by continuing to deliver it virtually directly to participants in a group setting. If anyone knows of a group that might be interested, please connect them with me, I’m happy to share an outline of the training and testimonials from prior participants, as well as answer any questions they may have to determine if it would be a good fit for their needs.
6. How has your consulting business been impacted by COVID-19? What adjustments have you made in order to continue to be successful?
Much of my work was virtual to begin with, or could easily be modified to become virtual, so there have not been too many changes or adjustments in that sense. There have been more RFPs and potential consulting opportunities given COVID-19 specific funding, grants, and programs. On the flip side, with a four year old and one year old at home full time until just recently, my time and capacity have been more limited than in a typical year. The primary way I’ve adjusted to that is waking up very early to get work done before the rest of my family wakes up!
7. Many of our readers are considering a career as a self-employed public health consultant or entrepreneur. What is your best piece of advice for those considering or just starting out?
Have both humility and confidence. These may seem like opposing characteristics, but holding onto both simultaneously is vital. As a consultant, you will often be the new person or outsider on a team – while you are brought in for your expertise, it is important to value and respect the experience and knowledge of those who have been doing this work long-term in the organization or community you’re working with. Listen deeply and keep an open mind. Whenever possible, seek out and elevate marginalized voices as part of your work. Simultaneously, take pride in your expertise, know your value as a consultant, and approach both client-facing work and business development with confidence. You got this!
8. How can readers connect with you? Please share links to relevant websites and social media accounts:
I’d love to connect! You can find me on Twitter (@pursuitofPH), PoP Health’s website and newsletter, and LinkedIn.