Behind Prisma
Hi, I’m Hazel.
I'm an environmental health physician-researcher at the intersection of environment and health. My journey has taken me from being the sole doctor for an island community of 27,000, to writing pandemic policies at the height of COVID-19, to conducting exposome research at Yale. Now, I'm bringing these perspectives together through Prisma Environmental Health, aiming to shed light on and address the complex web linking environment, climate change, and human wellbeing.
Through the Prism: International research and work
I currently work on projects with the Yale School of Public Health and Ateneo Center for Research and Innovation, working at the intersection of climate-health research, policy development, and international capacity building. My projects range from health systems strengthening in Cambodia to investigating climate-health-agriculture connections in the Philippines.
My recent work includes co-developing the first Philippine Climate-Health Roadmap 2025-2050 and the draft for the Philippine Environmental Health Act in collaboration with WHO and the Department of Health (DOH). I have also conducted exposome research, investigating personal and environmental chemical exposures.
As a Fulbright Scholar, I earned my MPH from the Yale School of Public Health with dual concentrations in Environmental Health Sciences and Global Health. This training, coupled with my work experience, gave me a perspective that translated public health into practical policies and programs, whether that's building health economics capacity in Cambodia or crafting climate adaptation and mitigation strategies for the Philippines.
COVID-19 at the Central Office: National Policies and Pandemic Response
Three days before the Philippines' COVID-19 lockdown, I joined the DOH Central Office under the Undersecretary for Health Policy and Systems Development Team, where I participated in the country's pandemic response. Our team oversaw the bureaus for international health cooperation, health human resources, local health systems development, and health policy development and planning.
Less than a month into the job and after an inadvertent exposure, our unit was quarantined for 14 days in the DOH compound, during which we drafted critical COVID-19 guidelines including protocols for repatriating overseas Filipino workers and managing the return of human remains. I also accompanied the Undersecretary in Inter-Agency Task Force meetings where high-level decisions shaped the pandemic response, such as the initial pandemic responses, vaccine procurement, and planning for the new normal. Additionally, I led the initial the development of the Universal Health Care training module that now serves health professionals nationwide through the DOH Academy.
Doctor to the Barrios: Grassroots Foundation
My two years as a Doctor to the Barrio were the most formative of my medical career. As the lone physician for 27,000 people in a 4th-class municipality and one of the poorest provinces in the country, it became more real to me that being a doctor extends far beyond treating one patient at a time. Health exists within an intricate web – water quality affects disease patterns, TV and radio shape health behaviors, legislative priorities determine service delivery, and poverty amplifies everything. Here, I gained firsthand experience in the social determinants of health.
As Municipal Health Officer, I led the local health department under the Mayor's office, implementing national public health programs and translating them into local ordinances such as on dengue prevention and management and maternal, newborn, child health. Beyond administrative duties, I held daily clinics handling all clinical cases – pediatric, obstetric, emergency, and adult medicine, including issuing birth and death certificates and post-mortem exams for the entire municipality.
During my stay, we revived the Municipal Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Council and strengthened our nutrition action plans, correcting our database and ultimately removing my town from the malnutrition watchlist. As co-chair of the Municipal Anti-Drug Abuse Council, I completed the SBIRTA and MHGAP training to conduct substance abuse screening and referrals. I managed disease surveillance including two dengue outbreaks (while catching dengue myself in one!), implemented catch-up immunization and measles mop-up campaigns. Throughout this work, I maintained community engagement through health talks at schools, Family Development Seminars, and presentation at municipal and provincial board meetings.
This is where I truly understood the practice of medicine and public health, not as an academic concept, but as lived reality where human wellbeing and environmental conditions are linked.
Chemical Engineering: A Unique Foundation
My foundations began with a BS Chemical Engineering degree from the University of the Philippines-Diliman, providing the technical background for understanding chemistry, mass-transfer processes and fluid dynamics, systems analysis, and environmental exposures and sources. I also practiced briefly as a research engineer in a landfill leachate treatment facility.
This engineering background proved invaluable when I pursued medicine at the University of the East Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Medical Center, allowing me to approach medicine as interconnected systems rather than isolated processes and conditions.