In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, we’re spotlighting one of our Rollins "power couples" who are not only a #RollinsLove story but also successful public health practitioners. Rajan and Kinnery Patel not only met at Rollins but also credit it as the place that helped each of them get started in careers that they love: infection prevention with Kasier Permanente for Kinnery and product engineering at Google for Rajan. The couple and their three children now call Los Altos, CA, home but will always have a soft spot in their hearts for their time at Emory.
Alumni Spotlight: Kinnery Patel, MPH and Rajan Patel, PhD
Name: Kinnery Patel, MPH
Department & Class Year: Epidemiology, 2006
Title: Infection Prevention Manager
Employer: Kaiser Permanente
Hometown: Yorba Linda, California
Current town: Los Altos, California
Name: Rajan Patel, PhD
Department & Class Year: Biostatistics, 2006
Title: Vice President of Engineering
Employer: Google
Hometown: Tampa, FL
Current town: Los Altos, CA
Tell us about the path that brought you to working in your current position.
KP: After Rollins, I took a position with the Public Health Prevention Service Fellowship at CDC which placed me in Northern California for a field assignment. After finishing the fellowship, I did some international work and eventually returned to Northern California to work for Kaiser Permanente in infection prevention. I was able to apply skills I had acquired in surveillance systems, antibiotic stewardship, and health education to my current position.
RP: After graduating from Rollins, I moved out to California to work at Amgen. It was an incredible learning experience, allowing me to utilize many of the skills I learned at Emory. About a year into my role there, a friend and fellow Emory graduate, Eric Tassone, sent me a job posting for a position at Google. The position brought together the data analytic skills I learned at Emory and the computer science skills I learned as an undergrad at Rice. I applied, got the job (thanks to my great professors at Emory for giving me the foundation which got me through a tough interview!) and have spent the last 14 years of my career growing at Google!
What is a typical work day like for you?
KP: Due to the pandemic, currently my day is usually filled with all things COVID related. I am involved in outbreak investigations, exposure notifications, case reporting, COVID patient placement, educating staff on disease transmission and proper PPE usage, and policy writing using available evidence and science of COVID. Outside of COVID, my daily work includes oversight of surveillance systems for hospital acquired infections, managing data related to infectious diseases, and educating staff on infection prevention policies and procedures.
RP: I lead several teams responsible for parts of our core Search product, as well as new technologies like augmented reality and computer vision. I spend much of my time helping set the strategy for that area through meetings with leads on my team and collaborators across Google. In addition, I sit in reviews with my team to help provide feedback and guidance where appropriate which help us move quickly to make products like Search and Google Lens more helpful for all of you! Lastly, I have at least two or three 1:1s with people who report to me. These are critical because they aren’t just about our products, but also about helping grow folks on my team and help them achieve their career goals.
What types of skills do you think are important to being successful in your career? How did Rollins help to prepare you?
KP: I think having a willingness to constantly learn has been the key to success for me. Infectious diseases are ever evolving!
RP: Rollins gave me two critical skills that have been the foundation of what’s lead me to success thus far. First, it gave me the technical foundation to be able to understand data and make sense of it. This is critical at a company like Google, where we have billions of users and run thousands of experiments each day to help make our products better. Second, it taught me how to synthesize observations from different areas into ideas and generate hypotheses and questions that might help improve our products. I learned this largely through the process of independent research during my PhD. While I don’t apply that research itself in my current role, I do use the skills I learned while writing those papers (including learning how to communicate technical observations clearly) every single day.
On days you feel the most accomplished at work - what did you do that day?
KP: The days I really feel I have made an impact is when I am able to teach. Whether it is working through an issue with a physician or nursing team, or explaining a disease prevention process to the environmental services group, I feel great after I have been able to collaborate with various disciplines to work towards one shared goal, which is keeping patients and staff safe.
RP: I’m a builder at heart, so I always feel most accomplished when I either had the opportunity to write some code that fixes a bug we have in one of our products or proves that a new idea might have some legs and is worth pursuing further. It’s been harder and harder to have the time to write code at work, so I appreciate every day where I have that opportunity!
How has the Covid-19 pandemic impacted your work?
KP: The pandemic has completely shifted the focus of my work to all things COVID related. Over the course of the pandemic, employees have come to rely on infection prevention to answer questions about COVID transmission, COVID prevention, etc.
RP: Most employees at Google, including myself, are now working from home. In fact, we’ll be working from home until at least September and in part for the foreseeable future afterwards. That’s been a huge shift, at least for myself who loved the day to day interaction with my team, the hallway conversations, and of course the incredible meals! With every challenge, however, there are incredible learnings and opportunities. First and most importantly, I’ve been able to spend a lot more time with my family and my kids. I get to spend more time with them before and after school (and sometimes during school when they’re virtual learning), and I’ve been better about ending my work day closer to 5 PM. At work, I’ve been better about communicating more over e-mail and chat channels, documenting ideas and decisions rather than just having them over hallway conversations, and being more deliberate about how I spend my time each week.
What advice do you have for those who are interested in working in a similar position/career path as you?
KP: Become familiar with hospital epidemiology, hospital acquired illnesses, and prevention of infection in the hospital environment. APIC is a great resource.
RP: My general advice to everyone coming into Google is to make sure you develop a deep expertise in a particular area that you’re passionate about (be it epidemiology, computer vision, front end design, data analytics, or anything else), but also have a thorough horizontal understanding of what’s going on around you. Read about the industry, the broader problems and questions that need to be solved, spend time learning about the problems others in the company are facing, and see where you can add value by bringing together what you observe with your expertise. The deep expertise you build might stem from what you learn in undergrad or graduate school, or it could be something you learn in your first few years at the job, the most important thing is that you have a skill that you learn how and where it can be helpful and where it might not be.
More broadly, what advice do you have for current students looking to pursue public health roles?
KP: Look for internships that interest you. Talk to people and try to network with as many people as possible. Never be afraid to ask questions!
RP: One of the big shifts we’ll observe over the next 20 years is in how our health is measured and analyzed, and how treatments will be developed to personally suit each individual. My main advice is for everyone going into public health have an eye on the technological breakthroughs that will fundamentally change how we improve public health, and develop a competency and understanding of those technical concepts.
Want to connect with Kinnery and Rajan or more alumni like them? Check out our RSPH Alumni Group on LinkedIn and Emory Connects .