MPH Student Launches Her Health Consulting Career

Her childhood in Zambia and India sparked Nina Kumar’s interest in public health, and her studies at SPH opened the door to health consulting—a path she explored this summer through a practicum with Willis Towers Watson.

As a third culture kid raised between Zambia and India, Nina Kumar developed a unique perspective on global health systems.

“Growing up in two areas where neglected tropical diseases are a very pervasive issue, it was constantly around me, and that was what piqued my interest, initially, in public health,” says Kumar, who now studies program management and global health as an MPH student at the School of Public Health.

“Whether it was monsoons and cyclones where we’d have flooding and then there [were] issues with infrastructure, waterborne diseases, vector-borne illnesses—that was a very constant aspect of life,” she says of her childhood.

Kumar’s family roots span three continents: Africa, India, and North America. Her paternal grandparents moved from Assam, India to Zambia in the 1970s to work in the tea and coffee industry, and raised her father there. When Kumar’s mother travelled to Zambia for her MPH thesis at John Hopkins, she met Kumar’s father, and the couple fell in love with one another and the country. They raised Kumar and her sister in Zambia until middle school, when they relocated to Chennai, India to reunite with extended family.

“I had a really nice contrast of a super outdoorsy childhood in the bush, and then a very high-density city as a high schooler and a middle schooler, which was awesome,” says Kumar.

Boston’s snowy winters were an adjustment at first, but the city soon became her favorite place she has ever lived, Kumar says. After graduating from Brandeis University with a degree in public health and medical anthropology, she accepted a role as research specialist at a Boston-based healthcare consultancy, where she continues to work part time while pursuing her MPH.

Many of Kumar’s consulting colleagues had health-focused master’s degrees, MBAs and MPHs, so after several years in a research associate role, she began searching for a graduate program that would support the launch of her own career as a strategic healthcare consultant. Her search brought her to SPH.

“I think [Boston] has such a cool international culture, and people are very kind and very intellectual, so that was a further incentive for me to go to BU—to be able to stay in Boston,” she says.

In opting to pursue an MPH, Kumar followed the footsteps and advice of her mother, a behavioral economist working in public health.

“My mom is my role model. She’s the most professional, intelligent, and just compassionate woman I’ve ever met,” says Kumar. “Her advice to me was to focus on where the field is going, because it changes all the time, and doing an MPH will help you understand where the current job market is.”

Summer 2026, following her first year of coursework at SPH, Kumar had her first opportunity to explore firsthand a career in strategic healthcare consulting during a practicum at Willis Towers Watson (WTW). As a health and benefits intern for the Northeast region, she worked with the clients services team to staff five to six large-market healthcare employers over ten weeks. She helped write requests for proposals, draft presentation decks comparing employee benefits packages year-over-year, and attempted her first financial analyses and budget projections.

The highlight of her summer came when her team invited her to shadow a full-day client finalist meeting with senior consultants and vendors—a rare opportunity for an intern.

“It was really cool that they were willing to go above and beyond to make sure that I had the best practice experience,” says Kumar. “[T]o walk in as a junior consultant and get to be a part of that space with a public health background and see how applicable it was.”

Throughout her practicum, Kumar observed the industry’s embrace of AI and participated in trainings on its responsible use. While she did not use AI herself during her internship, she credits several courses she took at SPH with preparing her to be effective on the job: Data to Dashboards: Building Excel Skills to Support Health Program Decisions (GH 854), Financial Management for Health Programs (GH 773), and Human Resource Management in Public Health (PM 736).

“Just knowing how to work in an Excel spreadsheet with about 25 different tabs of financial data and not being scared of it was a really big deal for me,” she says.

Entering her final semester, Kumar has enrolled in Health Program Management (PM 773) alongside a slew of electives, including Global Mental Health (HS 348), Global AIDS Epidemic: Social & Economic Determinants, Impact, & Responses (GH 795) , Digital Disruption In Health: The Effects Of Health Information Technologies On Polices, and Preventing Sexual and Intimate Partner Violence: A Public Health Perspective (PM 804). She will also assume the position of VP of casing for the BUSPH Consulting Club, organizing case workshops and networking events with alums in healthcare consulting for her peers.

Kumar credits Gwenn Knox, associate director of career advising in the Career and Practicum Office, with sealing her decision to attend SPH. Before committing to the program, Knox invited her to attend a virtual summer healthcare consulting workshop featuring alums at top consulting firms. Now, paying it forward, Kumar is eager to help her peers understand the possibilities the industry offers.

“It’s definitely a hidden gem,” says Kumar of the consulting club, which she first learned of during the summer workshop with Knox. “[And] that was a really great event to understand, where can BUSPH take you at the end of the day?”

Source: https://www.bu.edu/sph/news/articles/2026/mph-student-launches-her-health-consulting-career