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Alumnus Takes 'Opportunity of A Lifetime' Serving on White House Coronavirus Task
Force
Kurtis Oakley MB'07, MT'08, associate director, regulatory affairs at Merck, was in the car with his wife when he got a call in March from the military asking
if he wanted to take on “the opportunity of a lifetime”: joining the White House coronavirus
task force.
“I didn’t even ask how long it was or where it was,” he says. “I got off the phone
and my wife said, ‘You’re going to go, huh? I think you have to. Since I’ve known
you, since I met you, this is all you’ve talked about – this is what made you go into
the sciences and made you sign up.’ So that was it.”
Oakley is a graduate of USciences' microbiology and medical technology (now medical laboratory sciences) programs. It was what made him go into the sciences and become a microbiologist. Oakley found
his calling after watching a team of scientists find a cure for a dangerous virus
in the film “Outbreak” when he was in high school. “That moved me, and from watching
that I said, ‘I’m going to be a microbiologist,’” he says. “And this mission that
gave me strength and woke me up every morning to get where I am is literally happening
now.”
In the months since that phone call, Oakley’s life has been a whirlwind. He was deployed
in April as a COVID-19 microbiological operations officer with the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers (USACE) White House task force unit. Though he was hesitant to spend
months away from his family, Oakley made the tough decision to move from Pennsylvania
to Washington D.C. His primary task: increasing hospital bed capacity
“There are anxieties – I’m away from my family. How will they get groceries? I have
the normal fears that most people have,” he says. “But if we don’t control this, it’s
going to spin out of control and keep spreading. There’s pride and honor that comes
with knowing that when I sit in that office with my team, I’ll be able to assist.”
Oakley says even while on military leave, Merck has been there for him. In April,
Oakley’s mother fell ill and was hospitalized. He says the support he received from
Merck’s Veterans Employee Business Resource Group helped him stay calm and resilient.
Kurtis’ mother has since recovered, and Kurtis has been able to stay fully focused
on his mission.
During Oakley’s mission so far, the USACE worked with Federal Emergency Management
Agency, the U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) and local officials in Washington,
D.C., to convert the Walter E. Washington Convention Center into a temporary hospital
in less than 30 days.
He feels that his work at Merck has prepared him well – and vice versa.
Oakley recounts a task force meeting he attended to review previous projects and recommend
best practices on building alternate care facilities.
“Like I would at Merck, I listened, I guided and I asked questions,” he explains.
“From that meeting, we were able to find out what our biggest challenge was, and we
utilized that lesson learned within days.” Oakley’s work in the USACE is all about
agility.
The Heart of the Matter: Alumnae Strive to Make OT Services Accessible for All Families
Offering quality care to their patients isn’t enough for Brittany Smith MOT’12 and Janki Patel MOT’12. As the founders of Jump Ahead Pediatrics, headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey, the alumnae are on a quest to make occupational therapy and speech therapy treatments for children in need more affordable and achievable
for families.
“Therapy can be extremely expensive,” said Smith, who knows firsthand the high cost
of out-of-network care because her son has speech delays. “I have experienced how
expensive and how tedious it can be to get good care.”
Smith’s family is fortunate enough to have good out-of-network insurance benefits
so that her son can go to speech therapy regularly in a location convenient to their
home and his school. But she also knows that is very rare.
“I can’t imagine the pressure to spend that much money on something your child needs
to be successful in their occupation of playing and socializing and getting ready
for school,” she said.
Finding a Way to Make Care Affordable
Smith and Patel are cofounders on a mission to make pediatric occupational therapy
treatments affordable for families in New Jersey, working with insurance companies
to make sure treatments are covered.
“There were many parents that couldn’t afford out-of-pocket services. They borrowed
money, took out loans, etc. We wanted to provide a service that was accessible and
affordable for everyone,” said Patel. “Now we are one of the only clinics in New Jersey
to take in-network insurance.”
Jump Ahead Pediatrics works with most major insurers, as well as their patients, to
ensure children get the occupational or speech therapy they need with the lowest possible
out-of-pocket expense. This means they have to put more time and effort into billing,
but they say it is worth it to reach a population that needs assistance and is underserved
in their community.
This mission has been a success for Smith and Patel, who have expanded to three locations
in New Jersey since opening their flagship in Jersey City three years ago. And they
have been awarded several contracts with various school districts to provide services
throughout the state.
In addition to their location in Jersey City, Patel and Smith have opened a clinic
in Little Falls and Roseland. They employ more than a dozen other therapists and staff,
are actively hiring, and are also looking to expand to include physical therapy services.
Despite the rapid growth, Smith and Patel are working to keep their growing business
feeling small. They personally drop into the different clinics and work hard to train
their staff so that the standard of care remains high and the quality is consistent.
“We want to make sure the kiddos are getting exactly what they are entitled to as
far as the quality of service,” Smith said.
The Pathway to Partnership
The two met during their Introduction to Occupational Therapy course during their
first year as undergraduate students at USciences, quickly becoming friends after
carpooling to a fieldwork site. Both were enrolled in an accelerated master of the occupational therapy program and had an interest in pediatrics. They spent countless hours studying for their
certification exam together. “We clicked right from the start,” said Smith. “We both
had similar aspirations, similar dreams, and a wealth of knowledge.”
They started their first jobs together, but soon went off to work at a variety of
different places and in different care settings, keeping in touch about personal milestones
and consulting one another about particularly difficult patient cases.
Both agreed that USciences provided them with a good variety of fieldwork experiences,
which prepared them for their chosen fields and helped them to adapt to different
care settings.
“I learned what I liked, what I didn’t like, and discovered the type of provider I
wanted to be,” said Smith. “We both wanted to open a business for the independent
aspects of owning our own business. We trusted each other and just did it.”
“We ended up opening a business very similar to a company we worked for in the past.
We learned the ins and outs of working for a private practice,” said Patel. “That
made things a lot easier when we decided to branch out on our own.”
Smith and Patel said they were scared to take the leap from working for someone else
to starting their own business, but their confidence from prior experience and in
one another helped them to become successful.
“It was the scariest thing,” said Patel. “I said to myself, I’m going to make a little
bit less right now; I have to, I have to give all of my time and energy to this business.
It was just something I had to do. It wasn’t an option because I knew that this business
was what I wanted for my future.”
Smith has the following advice to others looking to become their own boss: “I would
say just do it. That’s always been my motto,” said Smith. “It was definitely a struggle
to get things off the ground, but we would have never done it any other way. You just
have to give yourself more credit and know that you are capable.”
Oakley is a graduate of USciences' 
Oakley says even while on military leave, Merck has been there for him. In April,
Oakley’s mother fell ill and was hospitalized. He says the support he received from
Merck’s Veterans Employee Business Resource Group helped him stay calm and resilient.
Kurtis’ mother has since recovered, and Kurtis has been able to stay fully focused
on his mission.
Smith and Patel are cofounders on a mission to make pediatric occupational therapy
treatments affordable for families in New Jersey, working with insurance companies
to make sure treatments are covered.
In addition to their location in Jersey City, Patel and Smith have opened a clinic
in Little Falls and Roseland. They employ more than a dozen other therapists and staff,
are actively hiring, and are also looking to expand to include physical therapy services.
Both agreed that USciences provided them with a good variety of fieldwork experiences,
which prepared them for their chosen fields and helped them to adapt to different
care settings.
Smith and Patel said they were scared to take the leap from working for someone else
to starting their own business, but their confidence from prior experience and in
one another helped them to become successful.