Eileen Monyok, PA

My journey to advocacy for universal health care did not start in any way to have provided even the slightest clue that I would have reached this point. My undergraduate degree is in Chemical Engineering. For almost 18 years I worked in engineering jobs in Corporate America, including chemical companies, a utility company, and ultimately a medical device manufacturer. In the final years of this chapter of my life, it became clear to me that I had to get out of corporate America. Rather than helping a greedy company make profits, I decided that I’d rather help people who needed help. I went to PA School with the goal of helping the uninsured and underserved. After graduation, I worked for 17 years with the underserved at the community health center Clinica Family Health, primarily at their Lafayette site. Then for two years I contracted with Indian Health Services, serving the people of the Jicarilla Apache Reservation in Dulce, New Mexico. The decision to change careers and leave corporate America was the best decision I’ve ever made. Other advocacy work that I’ve done has been as a board member of the group Friends Interested in Dogs and Open Space (FIDOS). Our FIDOS group had some great successes with Boulder City Council in a David-and-Goliath-style manner, advocating for off-leash dog access in Boulder’s Open Space and Mountain Parks.