Behind a Grad’s Professional Journey, a Personal One

Wildaline Figaro needs you to know something: Healthcare is more than clinics and hospitals. It’s in your walkable neighborhoods, your access to grocery stores, your community gardens. And the absence of those things — they’re felt too. Figaro knows that from personal experience growing up in Haiti. In Haiti, people can die prematurely because of a lack of access to healthcare. 

“Healthcare is just nonexistent in Haiti,” she said.

She’s many miles from Haiti now, having left in the early 2000s, graduated from Weber State’s MHA program and now in a fellowship with the Moses Weitsman Health System in Connecticut. The health system is wide ranging, dedicating itself to underserved populations in particular. While the fellowship is entry level in nature, it is tailored for being close to the executive process. Figaro immerses herself in the boardroom meetings, the tough discussions with wide ranging implications and the heady policy discussions.

“Healthcare is a maze,” Figaro said. “It’s not as simple or linear as people may think.”

As she navigates that maze, her home country isn’t far from her mind. She hopes to bring her knowledge, with all of its complexity, back to Haiti one day. She knows that there will be new mazes to navigate over there, with new regulations and procedures, but she’s building the foundation.

The molds for that foundation were poured at Weber State University, and Figaro is grateful for the comprehensive education she received, and she one day hopes to apply it to her home country.

“This is a very personal thing for me,” she said.