Greetings, my name is Kaysha Madison.

I am raising money for graduate school. I’ve been accepted into the Rural Health Innovation Program at UC Berkeley, where I will earn a Master degree in Public Health!

All contributions go directly towards the cost of tuition and education materials (books and campus fees).

In my current position, I am a health educator for the Siskiyou County Public Health Department. I provide support services and resources to pregnant women, mothers of infants

from birth to three months of age, and first-time caretakers. I work to encourage healthy family dynamics and work to break unhealthy familial cycles. I have a passion for supporting women and maternal health. Overall, I hold a desire to make a positive impact within the community I serve. Through U.C. Berkeley’s Rural Health Innovation Program, I would be empowered to better serve my community.

The way I view the world, and the importance of access to equitable healthcare, has been shaped by my upbringing in the rural community of Weed, California. Further, my personal

experiences with challenging family dynamics increased my awareness of intergenerational trauma patterns, the importance of disrupting those cycles, and overall increases my empathy for

the individuals I serve. After graduating with my bachelor’s degree in public health from California State University Monterey Bay, I realized that my desire was to move back to Siskiyou County and make a positive impact in my own community.

My academic goals within the Rural Health Innovation Program are to further establish my role as a healthcare provider within the interdisciplinary pathway. I believe this pathway will allow me to explore program planning for women and maternal health programs while

supporting development for well-rounded professionalism in community health sciences, epidemiology, and health management and policy. This will assist me in building the

capacity of women’s health programs rurally and support women of my community while at the Siskiyou County Public Health Department.

What I am most passionate about, in my work as a Health Educator, is implementing the evidence-based Healthy Families America home visiting program curricula into the community,

developing the infrastructure for the home visiting program, conducting outreach, and assisting families with resource needs. My participation in healthy family education and promotion efforts throughout Siskiyou have shown me how imperative resource agency is to maternal/familial health in rural California.

I am excited for the opportunity to expand my knowledge and professional experiences through the Rural Health Initiative Program; to become a more informed and evidence-based

public health leader within my community.