Feven Lencha, an MPH studying epidemiology and biostatistics, at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland during the 2026 Global Youth Summit for Change, where Boston University’s Institute for Global Sustainability sponsored her to serve as a delegate. Photo courtesy of Feven Lencha.
From SPH to the UN: An MPH Student Researches Respiratory Health in Ethiopia
What started as a course paper became a research fellowship with BU’s Institute for Global Sustainability, and ultimately led Feven Lencha to the Global Youth Summit for Change in Geneva, Switzerland, where she met with other young leaders to discuss peace, sustainability, and social justice.
Before returning to campus from a visit home to Ethiopia this fall, Feven Lencha stopped at the United Nations Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland to attend the 2026 Global Youth Summit for Change. There, she collaborated with over 100 other young leaders from around the world on solutions for peace, sustainability, and social justice.
Nearly a year earlier, Lencha sat in a classroom at the School of Public Health, writing what she thought was just another course paper. That assignment—for Individual, Community, and Population Health (PH720)—would become the foundation for a summer research fellowship at Boston University’s Institute for Global Sustainability (IGS), and would ultimately open the door for her visit to the UN.
“I had no idea I would [take it] this far,” says Lencha. “I’m grateful for the entire BUSPH community, for my advisors, and for everyone who supported me. It has already been an incredible one-year journey.”
Public health research is a newfound passion for Lencha, who aspired to become a doctor from a young age. As a child in Wolaita Sodo, a regional hub for healthcare and education in southern Ethiopia, she frequently observed foreign missionaries volunteering in local hospitals.
“I have seen, growing up, how their work has been impactful in my society and in my community,” she says. “[Medicine] was a passion of mine from what I’d seen in my environment.”
Feven Lencha with other delegates of the 2026 Global Youth Summit for Change at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. Photo courtesy of Feven Lencha.
Feven Lencha at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland during the 2026 Global Youth Summit for Change. Photo courtesy of Feven Lencha.
After graduating from Hawassa University in 2022 and completing two years of mandatory service as a general practitioner, Lencha enrolled at SPH to study epidemiology and biostatistics and global health. While completing her core coursework during her first semester at the School, she was pleased to discover that she would not have to wait until graduation to apply what she was learning in the real world.
When Sophie Godley, Lencha’s PH720 instructor and a clinical associate professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences, assigned the class to write about respiratory health and biomass fuel use in Ethiopia, Lencha took the initiative to reach out to the former health minister of Ethiopia to discuss related policy implications. Then, later that semester, Lencha noticed an advertisement for the IGS graduate student fellowship on a screen in the Talbot Building. She brought her idea for further epidemiologic study of biomass fuel use and acute respiratory infections to her Foundations in Global Health (PH760) instructor Jennifer Beard. Beard supported her development of a research proposal, and she was accepted to the program in the spring. The pair collaborated on the project over the course of the summer.
“Feven is a superstar! I have so enjoyed working with her over the past year—both mentoring her and learning from her,” says Beard, a clinical professor in the Department of Global Health. “I was fortunate to have had her as a student in my class. She brought wonderful perspectives and examples from her time working as a physician in Ethiopia to our discussions. I have also enjoyed watching her expand her knowledge, skills, and network of mentors as she worked on her IGS project this summer.”
That same summer, Lencha balanced her IGS research fellowship with a practicum at Boston Medical Center (BMC), where she assessed specialty care access across the BMC system and supported Patient and Family Advisory Councils at two recently incorporated hospitals: BMC Brighton, formerly St. Elizabeth’s, and BMC South, formerly Good Samaritan. The experience reinforced her commitment to health equity, and helped to inform the policy recommendations she would develop for her IGS project.
Feven Lencha during her practicum at Boston Medical Center. Photo courtesy of Feven Lencha.
Feven Lencha with colleagues during her practicum at Boston Medical Center. Photo courtesy of Feven Lencha.
“It was really something that was close to my heart, and I really loved doing that. The staff was amazing. Overall, I had a really good experience,” says Lencha. “The team was encouraging me, pushing me to grow.”
Lencha is not entirely sure what is next, but in the long-term, she hopes to become a physician-scientist and bridge her clinical background with her ongoing public health training. Below, she discusses with SPH the moment she realized medicine alone was not enough, how she landed at SPH, and the advice she would give other international students.