UIC School of Public Health grads champion advocacy, motherhood
Story Intro
When Veronica Castillo Le Maitre and Tynetta Hill crossed the stage to receive their master’s degrees in public health this month, it was more than a personal achievement — it was a celebration of purpose.
Castillo, a pediatrician from Venezuela, moved to Chicago as a single mother with her 7-year-old daughter to pursue a public health degree that would allow her to affect maternal and child health on a broader scale. Her graduation was all the more poignant as it took place on Mother’s Day.
“I wanted to continue my work in maternal and child health, but at a systemic level,” she said. “I’d been helping people one by one, but public health would let me help a community.”
Castillo’s experience as a single parent and student became the foundation of her advocacy at UIC. She looked for support systems and relied on her mentor, Jessica Rothstein, assistant professor of community health sciences, for academic encouragement, and on School of Public Health staff for support as fellow mothers balancing mounting priorities.
Recognizing that the demands on student parents are often overlooked, Castillo pursued change at a community level. She led the formation of a supportive community for parenting students across campus.
Castillo was instrumental in the creation of UIC’s first dedicated study and family room for parenting students, a project she helped initiate through heartfelt conversations with staff and peers. She also spoke at a recent UIC Women’s Leadership and Resource Center symposium that highlighted the challenges and triumphs of parenting students.
“We found each other — parenting students, staff, faculty — who all needed community in different ways,” she said. “We shared stories, advice and created something meaningful together.”
Rooted in Resilience
Hill’s journey to public health is deeply personal as well.
Raised by a sociologist mother and shaped by her childhood experiences during Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana, Hill saw how systemic inequities affected communities’ access to health, housing and safety. After a friend with leukemia died, Hill resolved to become a doctor to help ensure more equitable health care for everyone.
As a young adult facing housing insecurity, Hill found that plan evolving to encompass a desire to understand health disparities on a broad scale.
“I want to impact the social systems by which people live,” Hill said. “When I think about public health, I think about all the people who need access to resources in an equitable, justice-oriented, liberatory framework.”
As a part-time Master of Public Health student, Hill was selected for the Public Health Scholarship Program, a Health Resources and Services Administration-funded initiative to prepare public health professionals to serve in medically underserved areas.
While completing their degree, Hill also worked as a doula and community advocate focused on advancing birth equity, particularly for Black queer women.
“Being a doula is aligned with my framework of collective work and responsibility,” they said. “It connected me to the communal aspects of bringing people throughout the life course.”
Hill’s work extended beyond the delivery room. They helped lead community campaigns like Treatment Not Trauma and Bring Chicago Home, which fought for mental health access and housing justice respectively, issues intimately linked to maternal and infant health outcomes.
Support systems the key to success
Throughout it all, Castillo’s daughter was by her side, all the way to graduation day.
“She’s doing really great. She’s learned English, loves her school and is very good at math, even helping me with math for classes,” Castillo said. “I tried to include her in everything. She’s been part of this journey.”
Castillo’s dedication to public health earned her the Alan W. Donaldson Award, the School of Public Health’s highest honor for academic excellence, leadership and service.
“Receiving the award, carrying the flag at graduation — it all felt like a culmination not just of my hard work, but of our story as mother and daughter,” Castillo said.
A vital source of strength throughout Hill’s graduate journey was their now-fiancé, Paige Minett, who also earned a master’s degree in public health from UIC this year.
“We made it together,” Hill said. The couple supported one another through late-night study sessions, weekly “date nights” that doubled as homework time and even a home renovation during their final semester.
Both Castillo and Hill have bright, community-oriented futures already underway. They leave UIC with more than a degree, but also with the tools and passion to bring accessible care to the communities they serve.
Castillo is a research coordinator with Endeavor Health for I’m Speaking, an initiative focused on patient safety in maternal health care settings across 22 Illinois hospitals.
Meanwhile, Hill is working with EverThrive Illinois and UIC’s Center of Excellence in Maternal and Child Health on a birth worker mapping project to help families find doulas in their area. And yes, they are planning to apply for medical school and keep the promise to become a doctor made to their childhood friend.