Meet Dan Hatfield: Friedman School alum and senior public health researcher for a global nonprofit.
From High School Teacher to Public Health Leader: Dan Hatfield's Transformative Journey at the Friedman School
Dr. Dan Hatfield's path to becoming a Senior Public Health Researcher at FHI 360, a global nonprofit, was far from linear. The former English teacher and coach was no stranger to the career pivot, having spent four years as a management consultant in addition to six years in the classroom. While both careers were rewarding and challenging in their own ways, he didn’t feel either was the right fit. In his free time, Dan was drawn to health and fitness, and he found himself frequently reading nutrition articles.
“It’s important for me to have a career where I’m really excited about what I’m doing every day,” says Dan.
What he had loved about teaching was the ability to make a direct impact on others, and consulting introduced an exciting pace and intellectual stimulation. Nutrition checked both boxes: a dynamic, intellectually engaging field and the potential to make a real difference in people's lives. Research and recommendations from others led him to the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. Ten years after graduating from undergrad, he was a student again, starting his M.S. in Nutrition with a focus on nutrition communication.
Classes like the nutrition communication course with Jeanne Goldberg assured him he had made the right decision. “[This course] centered around a real world project that you were developing for an actual client…that kind of hands-on, translational work really appealed to me,” says Dan.
The former English major also developed a love of statistics. “Parke Wilde taught a regression analysis course where I came out feeling like I wasn't just plugging numbers into a formula —I actually understood how the models were operating,” says Dan.
In every course, from nutrition communication to statistics, and behavioral theory to research, Dan built skills that he continues to use every day in his work. He learned from mentors making a difference in the field.
He references the powerful influence of Dean Dr. Chris Economos, later his PhD committee chair and mentor, who led the landmark study, Shape Up Somerville. The study generated new research evidence around how to promote healthy weight in community settings in kids, while also establishing sustainable programming.
“I was really drawn to that focus on research being translational, not only in terms of generating evidence that can inform policy and practice more broadly but also in leaving communities in a better place. That way of thinking had a huge influence on how I try to approach my own work,” he says.
A pivotal moment for him was engaging in the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship, where he developed a physical activity and healthy eating program for kids with overweight and obesity at a community health center in East Boston. Despite making "a ton of mistakes" that first year, he loved it, and his passion for community-engaged work grew.
“A lot of what I was learning about things like evidence-based and theory-based intervention design was not fully being translated into on-the-ground practice,” he says. The former teacher, coach, and consultant saw an opportunity for him to bridge this divide, sitting "at that intersection of research and practice.”
“That experience really changed my direction and moved me more toward doing research that involves developing new programs, testing them, and generating data, while also doing good things for communities. And that continues to be the bulk of the type of work that I do now.”
What started as a two-year master's degree turned into a 15 year journey, including a PhD, a postdoc, joining Tufts as staff member, then in a faculty position, and now in an adjunct role. In fact, Dan has taught a few of the Friedman School courses that had such an impact on his career trajectory.
“The diverse training, coupled with working alongside bright students with varied interests, provided a powerful mix of skills that set Friedman School graduates apart,” he says. “There were organizations that only wanted to hire people from the [Friedman] program because students at no other institution had the same mix of communication experience and high quality nutrition and statistical training.”
Beyond the training, Dan also still taps into the Friedman School network, with alums frequently appearing in his day-to-day circles, at events, and connected to his research. For example, in support of the National Collaborative for Child Obesity Research (NCCOR), he’d reached out to Friedman School Dean Chris Economos, Associate Professor Erin Hennessy, and NIH Program Director and Friedman alum Dr. Allison Brown to speak at workshops. In Dan’s experience, “the Friedman School network is often synonymous with the broader network of people working in nutrition policy.”
