Master of Public Health graduate Dom Francis, '17  has built a public health career around one central idea: improving health requires looking beyond the individual.

As a program manager focused on Community Health and Social Drivers of Health at the South Carolina Hospital Association, Francis works to identify and scale collaborative strategies addressing factors such as housing instability, food insecurity and transportation barriers.

His role brings together experiences spanning state agency workforce development at the South Carolina Department of Public Health, formerly DHEC, Community Health Worker training at the Center for Community Health Alignment, community outreach as an executive minister and now health strategy at SCHA.

“My path in public health has been intentionally diverse,” Francis says. “Each phase reinforced that when you lean into your underlying passion for community well-being, every experience adds a valuable layer to your ability to serve.”

That path began with a much narrower view of health.

With an undergraduate background in exercise science from a top school of public health in the nation, Francis initially focused on physiology and individual behavior. While earning his MPH in Health Services Policy and Management at the Arnold School of Public Health, a professor challenged the class to think beyond individual fitness and consider how systems and policies shape the health of entire communities.

It changed the way Francis approached the field.

“My undergraduate degree gave me a strong foundation in personal physiology and individual behaviors,” Francis says. “However, the MPH expanded my lens from the individual to the entire system.”

 

The MPH program with hands-on experience and applied practice also provided tools for navigating that larger system, from health management and policy to building consensus among people and organizations with different perspectives

Those skills have supported his work developing statewide Community Health Worker curricula, integrating competencies into agency infrastructure and coordinating health strategies across organizations.

“Understanding health disparities theoretically is only the starting point,” Francis says. “The practice side is about how we build the infrastructure to address them.”

For prospective MPH students, Francis says the Arnold School offers more than theory. Students enter a network of people applying public health in communities, agencies and healthcare systems across South Carolina.

“You aren't just learning isolated theory. You are joining a network that equips you to address health holistically across South Carolina.”

The advice for future students is simple:

“Make a plan and execute it with intentionality, but anticipate that the path may change. The lessons you learn when life adapts your plan are often far more valuable than if everything had gone exactly as originally hoped.”