Sara Al-Khafaji
Thinking beyond the brief
Sara at her MPhil graduation in 2024 (left), and in 2026 at the World Health Organization HQ in Geneva (right)
Sara Al-Khafaji Thinking beyond the brief
Sara at her MPhil graduation in 2024 (above), and in 2026 at the World Health Organization HQ in Geneva (below)
When Sara Al-Khafaji arrived at Cambridge to study for an MPhil in Population Health Sciences, she was already training to become a public health doctor.
As part of the NHS Public Health Specialty Training Programme, she had been funded to undertake a master's degree alongside her professional training. Hughes Hall, with its mature student community and close-knit atmosphere, quickly felt like the right fit.
But it was the freedom to think independently that left the greatest impression.
When it came time to choose a dissertation topic, Sara was presented with a long list of possible projects. Rather than selecting one, she decided on a proposal of her own.
Having received little exposure to public health as a medical student, she wanted to explore how public health was taught across UK medical schools and where the gaps might lie.
The project became An Exploratory Qualitative Analysis of Public Health Education in UK Medical Schools, supervised by the academic director himself.
More importantly, it changed the way Sara approached opportunities.
Throughout the MPhil, she began aligning assignments and projects with the issues she genuinely cared about, using coursework not as a box-ticking exercise but as a chance to explore questions connected to her future career.
One module proved particularly influential.
A leadership module challenged her assumptions about leadership and teamwork, encouraging her to think differently about how effective teams are built.
"The module completely changed my mindset about leadership."
The lesson stayed with her. Strong teams, she realised, are not about individual excellence but about recognising and bringing out the strengths of others.
That perspective would shape much of what came next.
Following the MPhil, Sara completed placements across local government, the UK Health Security Agency and academic public health. Again and again, she found herself drawing on the skills and ideas developed during her year in Cambridge.
"That was the best part of Cambridge. They help you think outside the box."
At Thurrock Council, she applied techniques learned through social epidemiology and behavioural science modules to projects addressing mental health and digital inclusion. At the UK Health Security Agency, her experience of acute public health on-call work - including responding to infectious disease incidents, outbreaks and environmental hazards - brought to life concepts she had first encountered in the classroom.
Her research into public health education, first explored through her dissertation, led to work with the Faculty of Public Health and the World Health Organization on global health education and training, and strengthening the capacity of national health systems. The policy and public health modules she completed at Cambridge built on this foundation, informing her contributions to the Global Health Education and Training Initiative, including presenting at the World Health Organization's headquarters in Geneva.
She was also elected UK Co-Chair of EuroNet, the European network for public health trainees, and was elected as the British Medical Association's Public Health Medicine Representative, advocating for public health trainees and the wider specialty at a national level.
Now back at Cambridge's Department of Public Health and Primary Care as part of an academic placement, Sara finds herself returning to many of the same questions that first inspired her MPhil research.
Looking back, she sees the MPhil not as a single step in her career, but as the beginning of many others.
"The MPhil opened doors."
Just as importantly, it gave her the confidence to walk through them.
Today, Sara is committed to encouraging others to do the same.