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Managing Time to Manage Change

According to Danielle Bargo, there’s a shared mantra among non-traditional students that you can’t have it all—at the same time.

But Bargo, a Doctor of Public Health candidate in the Department of Health Policy and Management, a full-time employee at AstraZeneca, and a mother to a two-year-old daughter is an example that you can—with a lot of time-management skills.

“I’m going to be 50 with or without a doctorate, so why not? ” Bargo said. 

Bargo, 37, has spent the past decade working in the pharmaceutical industry, in the U.S. and abroad. 

"I'm going to be 50 with or without a doctorate, so why not?"

Her initial career plan was to be a lawyer. (She received a bachelor’s degree in political science.) But a summer internship at the Department of Public Health in Indiana set her on a different path. There, she worked with a health economist on a project that assessed whether offering smoking cessation services would decrease the burden of respiratory illnesses for Medicaid beneficiaries. 

Bargo then moved abroad to teach English in Madrid, Spain and became fascinated with European single-payer health systems that were able to provide free health care. The experience steered her from a future in law to one in health economics.

Bargo extended her time in Europe to pursue a master’s at the London School of Economics in social policy, with a concentration in health economics.

“The plans you make at 18 or 22 can really change,” she said. 

Bargo worked for Pfizer in London for several years and, at 30, returned to the U.S. when the company offered her a position at its New York headquarters. 

After her daughter was born in 2022, she attended an informational session for the Bloomberg School’s Doctor of Public Health program. Bargo was looking for a doctoral program that would prepare her to work toward health policy changes in the U.S. while making use of her experience as a health economist.

“You have a lot of reflective moments after having a child, and I thought, now is the time,” Bargo said. “Let me at least apply and see if I get in.” 

With a family and a full-time job, she needed a program that offered flexibility and a part-time approach. After doing her research and compiling a list of potential schools, the Bloomberg School program was the clear choice. 

“The program directors emphasized that they understand life happens,” Bargo said. “Non-traditional students are at a point in our life where we’re buying houses, having kids, getting married, and the program understands that. That kind of openness made me feel like this is something I could do, and that the program would support me.”

"If it's something you want to do, just go for it"

Bargo is now in her second year of the DrPH program. These days, she attends classes remotely in the morning before going to work, and in the evenings after her daughter is in bed. Family time is the priority on weekends. 

In addition to her coursework, Bargo attends School events and lectures at the Hopkins Bloomberg Center in Washington D.C. and is involved with faculty research projects in the Health Policy and Management Department. 

After earning her DrPH, she hopes to use her skills to inform and evaluate state-level policies that increase affordable access to health care. In the meantime, she is immersed in her studies, her career, and raising her daughter—and hopes to graduate before her daughter begins kindergarten. 

“I know it's not easy for everyone to decide to go back to school when they're working full time, and they have a lot of other commitments,” Bargo said. “But, if it’s something you want to do, just go for it.”