She joins an elite group from all over the world selected for their intellect, character, leadership, and commitment to service. Immersed in their chosen fields of study, they will work toward a singular goal: to make a positive impact on the world. It’s a goal Yao began working toward long before becoming a Rhodes Scholar. The simplicity of her mission—to improve health through public service—belies the complexities involved in carrying it out, but the 22-year-old clearly has a keen sense of the social, economic, and political forces at play.
“Health care is a unique market,” she says by phone from the Office of the Governor of Illinois, where she’s been helping advance health, human services, and public safety policy as a James H. Dunn, Jr. Memorial Fellow since last year. “It’s both a human right by global standards and a consumer good, and often we’re somewhat shortsighted about the investments we make to improve health.”
“That’s why I believe in a ‘health in all policies’ approach,” Yao continues, “and that’s why I’m always extremely persistent about talking about health policy no matter where I go. Everybody, whether they’re in government or public health, has the capacity to improve the health of their community.”
Yao was in elementary school when she learned that even private citizens can have a positive impact. A letter she wrote to the mayor of her hometown, Naperville, Illinois, was read before city council, where the 10-year-old, an asthma sufferer herself, campaigned for smoke-free public spaces, despite pushback from local bar owners. Eventually, the state enacted a smoking ban, validating for her the link between public policy and public health.
Yao’s parents, both engineers, always emphasized health education and hard work, she says. Her grandparents, Chinese immigrants, taught Yao that “everybody should be able to participate in democracy, that we all have the capacity to make change in our communities.”
Expecting to make that change as a nurse, Yao worked as a certified nursing assistant/ caregiver while in high school. Seeing all the preventable conditions the nursing home patients manifested sharpened her focus on the many factors outside of the medical system that impact health, from where we live to who we socialize with. It also convinced her that studying public health would allow her to make a bigger impact on a larger population.
A National Merit Scholar, she earned the prestigious Stamps Scholarship and Foote Fellowship to attend the University of Miami, setting her sights on not one, but two degrees—a Bachelor of Science in Public Health from the School of Nursing and Health Studies and a Bachelor of Business Administration. First, though, she had to convince UM to authorize this unprecedented course of study, ultimately making her case to UM’s then-President (and now Congresswoman) Donna Shalala.
“I was just a freshman,” recalls Yao, “and I was trying to explain that it was really valuable for public health leaders to understand good management processes to be able to run large organizations that are focused around improving people’s health and to understand how to realign incentives for private sector actors to keep people healthy. President Shalala just gave me this look and said, ‘Yes, of course that makes sense.’ Of course [the former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services] understood very well the value of being able to find those win-win solutions that work for both business and public interest.”
Yao earned both degrees, summa cum laude, in 2018. “From the very first day Kristiana set foot in the classroom, she was already well informed,” recalls Andrew Porter, one of Yao’s mentors and an assistant professor of clinical in the Public Health program. “Her vision is to make the world a better place for everyone by ensuring that people have better access to health and health care. It’s just at her core. It’s that singular ethic she’s had as long as I’ve known her.”
Yao’s résumé also reflects her commitment to improving health through public service. As a TrumanScholar, she researched ways to devise better health care delivery systems. A position as a health policy analyst for the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, plus internships at county health departments in Illinois and Florida, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the White House, provided critical insights into how policies are developed, enacted, and implemented.
Alongside these opportunities, Yao gained practical community experience at Jackson Health System and IDEA Exchange, a syringe exchange program run by physician Hansel Tookes. “Being able to see how health policies work on the ground and affect individuals was extraordinarily impactful,” she says. “It improved my learning while letting me play a small part in giving back.”
Yao’s public health capstone was titled The Syringe Exchange as a Gateway to Recovery. “I was humbled by the opportunity to serve people struggling with substance use disorders and inspired by their resilience,” she says.
“Nobody wakes up intending to develop a substance use disorder. Ultimately, it’s a disease like any other—it can be treated and managed, but we have to provide adequate supportive services.”
Porter says Yao has “all the qualities needed to be an effective Secretary of Health, a congressperson, or someone writing effective legislation at the very highest level in the United States, making sure everyone has access to health.” He marvels at her skillful harm reduction efforts as a student, like launching a rehydration campaign that encouraged more water consumption at tailgate events, rather than trying to get fellow students to curtail drinking. “She was able to use this elegant strategy to decrease the negative impacts of alcohol by supplying water to vulnerable, at-risk populations,” he says.
Yao credits the accessibility and passion for teaching of people like Porter and Associate Dean Mary Hooshmand, Ph.D. ’10, with helping her put her various experiences at government agencies into perspective. “My professors were phenomenal,” she says. “I could call to discuss policy or current events, or just chat and catch up. Feeling like I had this whole community in my corner was really empowering.”
Yao was one of 32 U.S. Rhodes Scholars named in 2018. She is only UM’s third Rhodes Scholar ever. Quoting the Rhodes motto—to fight the world’s fight—she says, “Understanding how to keep people healthy and enable them to live their best lives—that’s something I take seriously, and it will definitely be a motivator as I continue my work in health policy.”
Still, she knows not every endeavor will be a win, despite the passion and hard work of those who support it. “But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to fight for what you believe in, even against long odds, because by standing up for what you think is right and in the public interest, you’re engaging more people in the process,” she continues. “You’re getting educated yourself, alongside others, as to how to make the system better. You’re showing leaders that people care about specific issues and that they, the leaders, will be held accountable for their actions.”
