Improving Community Health
Born in Mexico, Carlos Lopez Bray spent his early years in the Rio Grande Valley in south Texas. There, he lived nearby an underserved community and was encouraged by a teacher to seek a career in health care.
Lopez Bray chose to attend the University of Texas to pursue public health as his undergraduate major, excelling in his classes. He sought opportunities to practice and grow his public health skills outside the classroom, including working with a doctoral student to survey residents of San Marcos, Texas, about community housing conditions and collecting environmental samples to assess the risk of intestinal parasitic infections. Later, he worked with university faculty to compare two different modalities for assessing the risk of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in residents of another low-income community, Brownsville, Texas.
“Connecting people to timely quality health care can have a real impact on my community.”
Since graduating in 2019, Lopez Bray has worked with a nonprofit, community-based health insurance provider in central Texas. Although he amassed a wealth of experience in gathering and analyzing data from members on various topics, including preventive screening services, social determinants of health, and COVID-19 vaccination, he decided that an MPH from the Bloomberg School would prepare him to have a greater impact in improving health care.
“I want everyone to have access to quality and timely health care services so they can focus on other important aspects of their lives,” he says.
