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Farhang Ahadzadeh, a Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) Master of Public Health (MPH) graduand, shares that his educational and professional journey has been driven by a single, enduring curiosity: how do system-level interactions, both at the micro and macro scale, shape human health?

After pursuing his Bachelor of Science in Microbiology and Immunology at the University of British Columbia, Ahadzadeh worked initially as a Chemist, then was promoted to a Continuous Improvement Specialist at a biotech company. He learned that improving outcomes, whether in a cell, a team, or a community, requires understanding the whole, not just the parts. However, with these experiences, he felt something was missing.

鈥淭hat single, enduring question has been the thread connecting every step I have taken,鈥� he explains. 鈥淓ach role I had sharpened a different facet of my understanding, but I lacked a unifying framework, one that could hold together the science, the leadership, and the deeply human dimensions of health that I had encountered across every chapter of my journey. That realization led me to pursue an MPH at SFU, because public health, I came to understand, is precisely where those threads converge.鈥�

During his time at SFU, he was driven by his desire to have his assumptions and curiosities challenged, especially as the MPH program pushed him to integrate his learning into the entirety of his academic, personal, and professional lives. He saw interdisciplinary thinking as not just an academic virtue, but a practical necessity in facing problems in public health.

鈥淭he moment this became most vivid for me was during my practicum and capstone projects. Going in, I carried a solid theoretical foundation, frameworks, models, and evidence-based approaches that I had internalized through years of coursework and life experience,鈥� he explains. 鈥淏ut the practicum and capstone project held up a mirror to the gap between what we know and what we are actually able to do. I saw firsthand how social, organizational, and structural realities shape, and often constrain, the application of even the most well-supported public health knowledge.鈥�

Ahadzadeh shares that some of the richest learning he experienced did not come from his lectures or readings, but from the peers who saw problems entirely different than he did. For him, those moments of friction and exchange embodied the program.

鈥淐hallenge your learning relentlessly, and trust that the person you are becoming through that process is exactly the kind of public health professional the world needs more of.鈥�

Aiming to be a future leader in public health with his MPH degree in hand, Ahadzadeh looks back on his journey of leadership in his community. In 2021, he received the Provincial Chair鈥檚 Commendation Award for his leadership and creative problem-solving skills in fostering meaningful connections during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2023, he received the Order of St. John Medal, sanctioned by Governor General of Canada on behalf of His Majesty the King, for his sustained contribution to emergency response, and dedication to public service excellence both provincially and nationally. And in 2025, he received the King Charles III Coronation Medal in recognition for his leadership and dedication to his community in the fields of public health and social justice.

鈥淚 see myself better equipped to continue a journey that began long before I set foot in a classroom,鈥� he explains about his future. 鈥淭he microbiology, the diagnostic work, the decade of emergency response leadership, the policy and systems thinking developed through my Master鈥檚, points toward a single, evolving purpose: to improve the conditions under which people live, and to contribute to the systems that make that possible at scale.鈥�

For students looking for advice, Ahadzadeh advises to never treat a class as something to just complete, but as an opportunity to push for growth through discomfort.

鈥淐ommit to absorbing something new, contributing a perspective, asking a question that pushes the conversation further, or sitting with an idea that makes you uncomfortable. Growth lives in that discomfort, and the classroom is one of the safest places to encounter it,鈥� he recommends. 鈥淓very lecture, every group discussion, every case study is an opportunity that will not come back in quite the same way, and the students who extract the most from a program are rarely the ones who were the most naturally gifted. They are the ones who showed up with intention every single time.鈥�