here was no question in Olivia Moses’ mind when it came to choosing a university. “I am a Seventh-day Adventist, and I wanted that in my life.” After earning a BS at Atlantic Union College in Massachusetts, she headed to Loma Linda, planning to do a master’s in public health before entering medical school. “But,” Olivia recalls. “I realized that public health is what I wanted to do. I’d taught already, and I loved it—and teaching and working with communities is what you do in public health.” Upon completing her master’s degree, Olivia entered Loma Linda’s DrPH program in preventive care— the only such program in America.

Olivia describes her own transformation, from obese adolescent to health-conscious adult. “I know how hard it is—just try telling a teen ‘stop going to fast-food restaurants!’ So when I teach health at a community college, I understand that students don’t recognize how lifestyle today will affect them later. They smoke, they don’t exercise, they don’t eat at home… it’s all fast food, all the time.” It’s her mission, she says, to help people make good lifestyle choices.

Besides working on her dissertation, Olivia teaches, works at Loma Linda’s Center for Health Promotion (a preventive medicine clinic), and interns in the public affairs department of Los Angeles network affiliate ABC7. “I’m working on their diabetes education program—we’re teaching students in the L.A. and Orange County school districts about exercise and nutrition to help prevent diabetes.”

Wherever her life’s work takes her, Olivia is glad she started down the path at Loma Linda. “The academics are strong, and with so many Schools, you can customize your studies to achieve your own goals.”

And, she adds, the experience was life expanding. “I’ve always gone to Seventh-day Adventist schools. Loma Linda was the first place I made really close non-Adventist friends. We can talk about what we believe in an open forum, and by learning what their struggles are in their faith communities, it will help me in my work. I won’t be working in an all-Adventist community, and Loma Linda helped prepare me for that.”