How a Seattle U Graduate Is Using Public Administration to Lead Health Equity Efforts

Tiffany Go ’18 always knew education would be part of her story. As the daughter of immigrants from the Philippines and the first in her family to pursue a graduate degree, she understood that higher education pathways could open doors across generations. 

That sense of family and purpose eventually led her to Seattle University’s Master of Public Administration (MPA) program within the College of Arts and Sciences. 

Today, her work in health equity leadership reflects the heart of public administration: using policy knowledge and organizational skills to help people feel seen and supported during some of the most vulnerable moments of their lives. 

“My experience at Seattle U changed my life,” she says. “It has led to so many opportunities.” 

From First-Generation Student to MPA Graduate

Education was a core value in Tiffany’s family long before she pursued graduate studies. “I've always been tied to health care in some way,” Tiffany shares. 

That connection to health care grew alongside her family’s belief in the power of education. As Tiffany began thinking about the kind of impact she wanted to make through her work, graduate study became part of a larger family story. 

“My parents immigrated here from the Philippines, and I was the first one to go to college,” Tiffany says. “I'm also the first one to pursue a graduate degree.” 

Her family saw education as a pathway to opportunity across generations, and that belief stayed with Tiffany as she began to build her own career. 

“It's a dream come true for my parents,” Tiffany explains. “Education has been such an important core value in our family.” 

When Tiffany entered Seattle University’s Master of Public Administration graduate program, she was already working full time. She had earned her BA in Human Services, and her work at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, now part of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, gave her a closer view of how patients experience care within complex health systems. 

Her early view of patient experience helped shape the path she has followed since. Today, Tiffany serves as Health Outcomes Senior Manager at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, where she works across programs to identify disparities in care and improve the systems that impact access. 

Seattle University’s MPA program gave Tiffany a way to connect her health care experience with the public administration skills needed to lead that kind of systems-level work. 

She now helps translate health equity from a broad value into everyday systems. Her recent work has included: 

• Collecting patient-reported sexual orientation and gender identity data across outpatient clinics 
• Creating no-cost parking support for low-income patients 
• Translating critical patient-facing documents 
• Improving clinical trial enrollment for patients facing barriers 

How Tiffany Learned to See Policy Through Patient Experiences

When Tiffany entered the MPA program in 2016, national policy debates felt especially immediate. That year’s presidential election drove key conversations about access to care and federal decision-making. “The topic of social justice was literally at the forefront,” she explains. 

Public administration gave Tiffany a way to move from broad debates toward practical questions. In policy courses, she explored how federal-level decisions could shape people’s access to care.  

In human resources coursework, she considered how organizations manage legal responsibility while also caring for employees. Through these classroom experiences, she examined how decisions made at the federal level could impact someone’s daily life once moved into public systems. 

“For example: What would the impact be on actual people should this type of policy go forward?” she says. “We were challenged with our own thinking to navigate a question like that.” 

In one course, Tiffany recalls discussing abortion access and women’s health access through a public administration lens, considering how policy moves from federal debate into program design and agency decisions. 

Her human resources coursework brought similar questions into organizational thinking. In a class guided by Dr. Larry Hubbell, Professor Emeritus and Seattle University faculty member, students looked at how an organization can meet legal responsibilities while still focusing on justice for employees.  

“There was discussion about policy decisions that happened at the federal or public level,” she explains. “And then how that gets implemented with a public service and a public administration perspective.” 

Those experiences gave Tiffany a way to connect public policy with the people who feel its effects the most. They also helped her bring a sharper lens to health care work, where decisions about access to care and patient experience influence whether people feel seen when they seek support. 

Applying MPA Skills to Health Equity Work

Tiffany traces a clear line from an MPA program to the kind of analysis and leadership required in an academic cancer center. Her coursework at Seattle University helped her grow her public administrative skills, including: 

• Budgeting 
• Literature review 
• Program evaluation 
• Organization development 
• Strategic planning 
• Human resources 
• Health policy 

Across these areas, Seattle University’s MPA program connects technical skills with the real choices public leaders face. Faculty such as Chengxin (Michael) Xu, PhD, help students use evidence-based thinking to evaluate public problems. Faculty such as Olha Krupa, PhD, bring public budgeting into focus, helping students see how financial decisions affect communities and the programs that serve them. 

Tiffany’s public administration training became especially meaningful during her capstone, where she explored leadership in health care through patient experience data. 

“It has always been important to me to center the patient perspective in care,” she says. 

Her capstone professor, Rich Nafziger, now commemorated with an MPA student scholarship established in his name, helped her see a connection she hadn’t yet named: Leadership style can shape how patients experience care. That idea continues to influence how she views health equity. 

“I never thought about how someone's experience could be impacted by how someone leads a team,” Tiffany says. “That was one of the most powerful parts of the program.” 

That focus is part of a much larger national need. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes health equity as a fair and just opportunity for each person to reach their highest level of health. The National Cancer Institute also notes that cancer disparities can affect survivorship and quality of life after treatment. 

Today, Tiffany uses her MPA training to help guide the Health Outcomes Program, which works to reduce disparities in patient care and research. 

Her work supports quality improvement goals across the organization, giving her a direct role in strengthening how care is delivered. Tiffany’s current work speaks directly to the connection she studied during her capstone: leadership decisions influence how patients experience care. 

Unexpected Skills Became Everyday Tools 

Tiffany laughs when asked which skills surprised her most. “Statistics,” she says. 

While in the course, she found the topic to be challenging. Now, she feels grateful for that training. She sees it as one of the most practical parts of her education—and it shows up most frequently in her current work. 

“I never thought I would use statistics,” Tiffany says. “And lo and behold, here I am.” 

Budgeting also became more useful than she expected. Before the MPA program, she had not been in a role that required her to manage a budget or think through forecasting. That shifted as her career grew. 

The MPA program’s focus on applied learning helped Tiffany bring work questions into the classroom and return to work with a stronger toolkit. 

“I think one of the benefits of having a program like this is that you can bring things from your professional life to class and actually use that as a case study,” she says. 

That approach felt especially relevant in an academic cancer center, where teams often look to research and evidence before making decisions. Skills such as literature review and program evaluation gave Tiffany a practical way to approach workplace questions with more structure. 

How Seattle University Supported Tiffany’s Growth 

When Tiffany began considering graduate programs, she was looking for a place where she could feel at home while building the skills to turn her commitment to justice into action. Seattle University’s Jesuit mission and commitment to social justice deeply resonated with her from the start. 

“There was just no doubt in my mind that Seattle University and the MPA program specifically were the most welcoming and the most natural place that I could go to kind of feel at home,” she says. 

Earning an MPA While Working Full-Time

That sense of belonging mattered deeply as Tiffany balanced graduate school with a full-time career in health care. Seattle University’s MPA is built with working professionals in mind, with evening and weekend course options that helped Tiffany continue to advance in her field as she pursued her degree. 

“They put a lot of thought and care into designing this program to serve working professionals,” Tiffany says. “I really, really valued that.” 

The flexible course schedule made it possible for Tiffany to continue working full time while pursuing her degree. During the program, she commuted to Seattle for evening classes and took advantage of Saturday courses as she balanced graduate education with her career. 

What stood out most was how quickly the coursework connected with her work. As she took on more responsibility as Patient Experience Specialist at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, she was able to bring real workplace questions into the classroom. Her capstone project even grew out of her work in health care, allowing her to explore leadership and patient experience in a structured environment. 

A Graduate Community That Lasts Beyond Graduation

The support Tiffany found at Seattle University extended far beyond the classroom. She built friendships and professional relationships that have lasted well beyond graduation. 

“I felt at home,” she says. 

Over the years, Tiffany has watched classmates move into leadership roles across the region while staying connected through the relationships they built during graduate school. Some became close friends, while others became professional contacts she still values today. 

That community remains one of the most meaningful parts of her experience. “I've made lifetime friends,” Tiffany says. “It's been 10 years since I enrolled in that program,” she says. “I still have at least 10 to 15 people in the MPA program that we went through grad school with, that they're my people.” 

Leading for Better Health Equity Outcomes

Tiffany’s career in health equity is guided by a clear hope: helping people feel seen during some of the most vulnerable moments of their lives. Her Seattle University MPA education gave her the tools to work toward that goal through leadership, evidence, and advocacy. 

“I just want to improve people's lives,” she says. “I want better outcomes.” 

For Tiffany, that includes better experiences for people facing a cancer diagnosis and more equitable care for patients whose identities or backgrounds may shape how they navigate health systems. 

“I also don't want who you are as a person, whether that's your gender identity or orientation, or your culture or language, to be the thing that contributes to a bad or negative experience or outcome,” Tiffany explains. 

Tiffany’s story shows how a public administration degree can shape meaningful work across health care and public service careers. Through Seattle University’s MPA program, students build practical skills while learning to lead with care for the people affected by public decisions. 

“When I say that it was life-changing, I mean it was life-changing,” she says. 

Explore Seattle University’s Master of Public Administration program to learn more