On a 2004 trip to China, instead of joining her friends on a sightseeing tour in western Xinjiang Province, Joanne Chan hiked up into the mountains and spent the afternoon talking with the local mulecart drivers and yurt dwellers. “I like to observe an area through the eyes and experiences of people who can see beyond the glistening polish of a country,” she says.

Chan doesn’t feel the need to water down her reality. She has been a certified emergency medical technician since 2002 and is a volunteer translator at a legal-resource hotline for Chinese immigrants. (Besides English, she speaks Cantonese, Mandarin and Spanish.)

Chan hopes to use her MPH and law degrees to further the public’s health in three possible areas: examining the legality of existing health policy; amending food and drug laws to give consumers greater protection; and helping migrant workers to get health care.