When Meredith Simmons, MPH’23, applied to study in the Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine’s hybrid Master of Public Health (MPH) program, the longtime corporate lawyer envisioned using her new credential to skip a few rungs as she clambered up the career ladder. “I was thinking I would use my MPH to transition my career from finance toward more healthcare and pharmaceutical deals,” she says.  

Her studies, however, uncovered a bigger opportunity. “I realized that I was in the wrong profession,” says Simmons, who began her Dartmouth studies in July 2021. “I had reached the apex of what I could do as a lawyer—I had been general counsel of a financial firm, of a public company, I had been the only woman in the boardroom. I came into my MPH with a transition in mind and it turns out there was a much greater transition in my future—I could not have come to that realization without Dartmouth.”  

Multiple charities—and the pandemic—set the stage for Simmons’ epiphany. Eighteen months before she began her public health studies, in July 2020, Simmons became president of the board of directors for Crossroads Community Services, a combined soup kitchen and food pantry in mid-town Manhattan. And as a lifelong animal lover, she has, over the last 20 years, volunteered with and provided pro bono legal services to help animal-focused nonprofits maintain or achieve their tax-exempt status. 

The pandemic transmuted some of Simmons’ disparate interests. The concept of zoonotic disease transmission leapt from the pages of peer-reviewed journals to the public lexicon, putting One Health, the nexus of human, animal, and environmental health, in sharp relief. Scientists raced to formulate a COVID-19 vaccine and pharmaceutical companies negotiated the financing and contracts that would protect their intellectual property and speed vaccine production and delivery in the U.S. Meanwhile, demand for Crossroads’ services skyrocketed; Simmons worked closely with the Crossroads team, leveraging her legal and finance expertise to facilitate getting the right protections in place for both volunteers and guests so Crossroads could continue to serve the community. Studying remotely from her family’s Manhattan home, Simmons concentrated her coursework in the fields of One Health and health equity. 

The two subjects converged in Simmons’ Dartmouth practicum placement in late 2021 at the University of New Hampshire’s PAWS Veterinary Clinic, which offers low-cost veterinary care to qualifying pet owners during the academic year. Simmons worked with Dr. Sarah Proctor at UNH to assess how the health of the rural, low-income pet owners, themselves, could be supported through PAWS. “We thought maybe we could bring in a Medicaid doctor to provide human healthcare while people were waiting for their pets,” she says, “provide a one-stop shop.” 

She started by designing qualitative surveys to learn more.  Those interviews revealed that the team’s assumptions were way off the mark. PAWS’ human clientele had zero interest in MDs—they feared doctors, often felt condescended to. “I knew from my work at Crossroads that pet owners are more likely to get their pets to the clinic and fed before they take care of themselves,” says Simmons, whose own blended household contains dogs, horses, and four children. “I just didn’t understand that deeply enough.”   

Simmons and Dr. Proctor regrouped and as they asked more questions, the answers revealed a wealth of actionable opportunities. “[The clients] said, this is an ag school and we do not have enough to eat. We spend all our money on gas to get our pets to the clinic. Give us a basket of fresh veggies grown by the students, give us a sandwich while we are waiting. Have nutrition students show us how to cook the stuff we are getting from the food pantry.” Follow-up interviews revealed that even if MDs were a no-go, the PAWS clientele were game to have their blood pressure and blood sugar checked by a student nurse; instead of receiving a handout, they could contribute as community members to the university’s teaching mission.  

Already, Simmons has found ways to bring those insights to Crossroads, which offers a pet food pantry whenever pet food donations reach a critical mass, with the aim of enhancing this offering as soon as possible. Leadership is also currently exploring ways to partner with visiting nurses and mobile clinics to further support client wellbeing. “Doctors say that when their patients are educated about their health, they’re healthier,” says Simmons. “This is a way to start a really positive cycle.” 

Simmons credits her hybrid coursework at Dartmouth for starting another positive cycle. Growing up in California, she loved biology and imagined a career in medicine. But when her performance in math and physics lagged, high school teachers steered her toward the humanities. It was not until she enrolled at Dartmouth—after a bachelor’s in political science and government from UCLA and a JD from Georgetown University—that she embraced the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) challenge.

"When you learn at your own pace with the right tools, it can be incredibly freeing to learn that you’re not bad at learning something,” she says, “you just don’t learn it in the traditional way.

That discovery opened a world of possibility Simmons thought she had foreclosed as a teen. This fall, she began her doctoral studies in veterinary medicine at the University of Pennsylvania with the right supports in place to allow her to make the most of her adult learning style and her love of animals.  

As a veterinary student, Simmons plans to dig deeper into One Health, but she is not ready to narrow her post-graduate career prospects—another lesson she credits to the hairpin turn her legal career took during her Dartmouth studies. “Coming at this later in life, I’m open to anything,” says Simmons, noting that she is open to applying her One Health perspective clinically, in research, or in public policy. “I’ve had this eye-opening experience at Dartmouth, and I have ideas about what I can bring to the table, but I’m totally open to continue to learn what my strengths are.”