From Veteran to Legal Advocate: A Monarch Public Health Alumna Working Toward Change

August 26, 2026 - 21:34

When Melissa Feliciano left the U.S. Navy in 2021, she had a clear picture of what came next. She planned to go to medical school, become a physician, and care for patients directly. That path made sense. It was straightforward and familiar. But as she started studying public health, working as a medical assistant, and volunteering in her community, that picture began to shift.

Feliciano, who earned her Bachelor of Science in Public Health from Monarch in 2024, realized that the kind of change she wanted to make was bigger than a single exam room. She saw how policy, access, and systemic barriers shaped health outcomes long before someone ever sat across from a doctor. The more she learned, the more she wanted to work upstream.

Now she is moving toward a career in legal advocacy, using her public health background to push for changes that help entire communities rather than just individual patients. Her time in the Navy taught her discipline and resilience. Her public health training gave her a new lens. Together, they pointed her toward a different kind of service, one where the mission is to reshape the systems that decide who gets to be healthy in the first place.