HOW TO SWAP A CAREER IN THE ARTS FOR A PROFESSION IN EPIDEMIOLOGY AND CLINICAL RESEARCH
Marsha Zion, M.S. '99, M.P.H. '99, B.P.S., found her niche at a world renowned rehabilitation hospital.
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ABOVE: If changing careers is hard to do, Marsha Zion, M.S. '99, M.P.H. '99, B.P.S., could write the instruction manual. She went from designing jewelry to becoming a practicing epidemiologist at the renowned Helen Hayes Hospital in Rockland County. |
"I was looking for something," says Zion, her eyes darting as though she still might be able to find it. "I was doing business in the daytime as Marsha Zion Jewelry and taking classes at night in epidemiology—at the Columbia University School of Public Health and at New York Medical College." When she decided to commit to a degree, Zion chose the New York Medical College Graduate School of Health Sciences, which became the School of Public Health in 2003. In 1999 she was awarded an M.P.H. degree in Epidemiology and an M.S. degree in Biostatistics.
Science interest
There were at least two reasons why Zion was successful in changing careers from jewelry design to that of Program Manager at Helen Hayes Hospital Clinical Research Center in West Haverstraw, N.Y. Paul Visintainer, Ph.D., program director of Health Quantitative Sciences, was her thesis adviser. The engaging Dr. Visintainer has long been lauded for his ability to simultaneously inspire serious careers at the same time he is helping the statistics-challenged students through the required course work. That Zion did very well in the program did not surprise her family, friends and colleagues who knew that she had graduated from the prestigious and highly selective Bronx High School of Science.
"Paul is a very good teacher," she says quietly. "He was always very supportive." Her thesis dealt with a project he happened to be working on: "Impact of antenatal steroids on intra-ventricular neurohemorrhage in pre-term infants." The study confirmed earlier findings of the beneficial effects of maternal steroid treatment in preterm birth, which is now standard care, Zion says.
Practicing on the side
After earning her degrees, Zion worked at Columbia University's Sergievsky Center as a project coordinator for a study on febrile seizures—convulsions that are provoked when the body temperature spikes. "I was very interested in neuroepidemiology," she says. "I left Columbia because I had moved to Rockland County, and as a single mother of two, I wanted to find something closer to home." Helen Hayes Hospital, where she found a synergy of clinical and basic research and epidemiologic studies, is only 20 minutes from her home in Tappan.
Founded in 1900, Helen Hayes Hospital is operated by the New York State Department of Health and is affiliated with New York Presbyterian Healthcare. The 155-bed facility is said to be the largest and most comprehensive physical rehabilitation hospital in the state. There are four distinct research centers there, currently holding $11 million in funding from the NIH and other organizations; she works at the Clinical Research Center where her field is metabolic bone disease, primarily osteoporosis.
"Three times the NIH has designated Helen Hayes a specialized center of research in osteoporosis, and we are the coordinating center for the New York State Osteoporosis Prevention and Education Program," she beams. "We are known for our research into parathyroid hormone as a treatment for osteoporosis. Zion works on a number of projects with one epidemiologist and two endocrinologists. "I am program manager for the bone density measurements taken for a 73-site international study of the safety and efficacy of a new intervention to prevent osteoporosis," Zion reveals. "We also have ongoing studies of the effects of various treatments for the disease, and of the predictors of bone health…We recently completed data collection for a fiveyear longitudinal study of the determinants of stress fractures in a young population of West Point cadets; and for a study of bone health among a population of vitamin D-deficient, postmenopausal black women. The data showed that supplementation with vitamin D improved calcium homeostasis and bone turnover in three months."
Efficacy phases
Although Helen Hayes gets contracts from various pharmaceutical companies that use cooperating patients during the later stages of drug development, Zion does not work on these projects. "I'm responsible for oversight of acquisition of the bone density measurements at the clinical sites, and quality control of these measurements in house. I also supervise a staff of three in related data management and statistical analysis for our inhouse studies."
When she casually mentions that "one of the top three specialists in osteoporosis research is Robert Lindsay, head of clinical research at Helen Hayes for 20 years," Zion appears proud and eager to be along for the ride. "I think research on osteoporosis is important. In terms of numbers, there are going to be a lot more people with the disorder," she says. "So with that in mind, I've been thinking about going back for a doctorate."