Tamera Sullivan is no stranger to unexpected developments. A few months into her Fulbright study grant in Taiwan, a novel illness spread across the world, shutting down schools, sports, cinemas — and ending international exchange experiences. For the 2019 South Carolina Honors College graduate, however, the COVID-19 pandemic would not end her Fulbright studies, but define them.
When the pandemic struck, Sullivan was earning a master’s degree in global health at the National Taiwan University in Taipei.
“It was a perfect opportunity to learn about global health because we all saw how a pandemic can affect our lives,” says Sullivan. “And then the different ways we can respond to it, and hopefully learn from it, and prevent the further spread of diseases like that in the future.”
Four years later, Sullivan is still committed to improving global health and well-being. As a Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Program fellow, she is preparing for a career as a U.S. Department of State Foreign Service officer — a career that will require her to adapt to life in many countries and connect with cultures around the world.
Sullivan is more than up to the task. In fact, it could be argued that adapting to new situations and interests is her specialty.
“It was an Honors class [that] changed everything,” she recalls.
The spring of her junior year, Sullivan, a chemistry major, took a course focused on maternal and child health taught by professor Emily Mann. For Sullivan, who had been considering medical school, the class deepened her understanding of the many factors contributing to human health and well-being.
“I thought I’d become a doctor, but then quickly realized I really like more [of] the social determinants of health side of things and the other factors related to health outside of your physical traits and well-being,” says Sullivan. “A lot of it is where you live, your socioeconomic status, the area you grew up in.”
Sullivan took note of the disparities that exist within the American healthcare system, especially for immigrant women. Inspired to learn more, Sullivan participated in the Global USC in Costa Rica Maymester course. The instructor, Ana Cueto, would then serve as the second reader for Sullivan’s Honors thesis, with Mann advising the project. The two instructors guided Sullivan as she compared immigrant’s and women’s health in the United States and Costa Rica. By this point, Sullivan’s passion for public health was clear, but there was one problem: Graduation was near, and it was too late for Sullivan to change her major. But there was another option.
After attending a Fulbright informational webinar, Sullivan decided to apply to earn a master’s degree in global health in Taiwan. She was awarded the fellowship, and even amidst the pandemic’s uncertainty, Sullivan flourished in her program, which encompassed the broad scope of factors affecting global health. She also committed to studying Mandarin Chinese so that she could connect with the local culture.
“Health is such a large topic, and especially in Taiwan, it was learning about all the ways our daily life and our routines contribute to our health or negatively impact our health,” says Sullivan. As she expanded her knowledge, Sullivan continued to focus on maternal and child health, writing her master’s thesis on the mental health outcomes of the children of immigrants in Taiwan.
She gleaned global perspectives on healthcare throughout her degree — “My classmates were from all over the world, so that was really valuable, having them chime up in class and say, ‘Oh yeah, we do it a little differently’” — and brought this international expertise back to the United States. After earning her master’s degree, she was accepted into the CDC’s Public Health Associate Program and spent the next year and a half working in Kannapolis, North Carolina, a Charlotte suburb.
“That was where I felt like I really got to finally practice all of these public health skills I had gotten from my courses at USC and then my courses in Taiwan, and I really enjoyed that too,” says Sullivan. “I love the community health aspect of it and the interactions.”
She recognized the importance of designing programs to ensure that physical wellness wasn’t the only factor being addressed at doctor’s visits. Sullivan and her team worked to implement a questionnaire assessing social determinants of a patient’s health — living situation, access to nutritional food, safety — and to connect patients with the resources they needed.
“I had never worked on a project for that long, and it’s like baby steps,” she reflects. “And then finally, you see, ‘Oh, this is what we’re all working towards,’ and you see [it] go live, and you start collecting the data, and it’s like, ‘Oh, wow, this is actually helping people, going out into the community.’”
As she engaged with the community in Kannapolis, Sullivan found herself missing the cross-cultural connections she’d made in Taiwan, and she realized that she couldn’t ignore her passion for serving communities around the world. Sullivan applied for the Pickering fellowship, and in 2022, she earned a spot in the 2023 Pickering class.
Now, she’s pursuing her second master’s degree at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. In addition to providing $84,000 for graduate school and a career in the Foreign Service, the Pickering fellowship also supports two summer internships. This summer, Sullivan interned with the Bureau of East Asia Pacific Affairs, Office of Maritime Southeast Asia, and was able to draw from her experiences in Taiwan.
“It has made me realize,” Sullivan reflects, “that in every bureau of the Department of State, there’s wonderful people to support and mentor and supervise and help you grow as a person and a leader.”
For Sullivan, the concept of well-being is as expansive, complex and nuanced as the world itself, and the more she learns, the more she wants to explore. Her interests still focus on maternal and child health in Latin America and Southeast Asia, but as a Foreign Service officer, she’s aware that she could be posted anywhere in the world, that she might be tasked with developing a multitude of solutions over the course of her career.
Unsurprisingly, she isn’t daunted. It’s an opportunity to learn and adapt, after all.
“As a Foreign Service officer, I’m going to learn a lot just being [in other countries] and being the face of U.S. foreign policy. And that really appealed to me, being able to integrate into the local culture but also maintain my identity as a U.S. citizen,” she says. She looks forward to learning from other cultures and “being able to represent the duality of the U.S. and hopefully, as a Black woman, be able to break down people’s preconceived notions about what an American looks like.” She’s also eager to learn from other Foreign Service officers, who come from a variety of backgrounds and careers.
And Sullivan isn’t only interested in interacting with international communities. There is another community much closer to home that she hopes to influence: her younger cousins and family members. She wants them to realize that, though the world is vast, that’s all the more reason to engage with other cultures, to learn, to work toward a healthier and more sustainable future for everyone.
“We’ll find somehow, some way for you to do what you want to do,” she says, championing her younger family members. “A lot of the young people behind me really inspire me as well, to keep going and make sure: Anything I want to do, I can do.”