Brandon Hotham ’12

I loved UNE. I still love UNE. I had an amazing experience as an undergraduate and graduate student. The best things about being an undergraduate in the Psychology department were the classes and the faculty. The faculty was the perfect size. It felt large enough that I was offered the courses I wanted, but also small enough (including student class size) that I felt entirely comfortable approaching all faculty one-on-one. This made my experience so rich. I was able to do research with a psychology faculty member as an undergraduate, and this was the experience that ultimately led to my decision about what graduate program I would pursue.

I recently completed my Master of Public Health degree from UNE, and before I completed the degree I was hired the Maine Health Management Coalition (MHMC). The MHMC is an independent nonprofit that aims to triple healthcare in the state of Maine. Upon completing my degree, I was promoted to an operations manager for the Pathways to Excellence program. The program, as a part of the MHMC, conducts public reporting of healthcare providers and hospitals across the state of Maine on a consumer-facing website called GetBetterMaine.org.

The major and the classes absolutely prepared me for my professional life. I use so much of the knowledge I gained from classes in my everyday work life. I also appreciated the strong core in basic psychological principles that I was taught, while also having the freedom to pursue psychology electives that allowed me to dive deeper into the fields of psychology that I found to be the most interesting. Plus, the opportunity for independent study and research with faculty was incredibly useful in my continuing professional/academic career.