The University hosted its inaugural Public Health Forum event that was co-sponsored by the Hiatt Career Center and the Office of Career Services at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management in the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center Thursday evening.The event included a combination of speeches and networking opportunities that allowed undergraduate and graduate students to evaluate potential future employers and job options.

Daniel Pellegrom, president of Pathfinder International, addressed some of the key issues concerning health care today.

Pellegrom noted how to effectively manage a corporation or organization by "making management an opportunity [and] making the organization for which you work an instrument itself that does a better job at delivering the services that you care about and believe in." Pellegrom also spoke about how to empower employees and what it means to be a competent leader.

"If you do gravitate to leading an organization, do lots of listening, and examine yourself if you see that management is not doing what it should. ... Examine yourself, and figure out ways in which to direct the energy to the organization to make it more productive," he said.

"A leader knows where he or she is going, means what they say, remains optimistic, and is inclined to take action," added Pellegrom.

After his speech, Pellegrom opened the floor to questions.

Students and attendees raised questions regarding how organizations can create better health care integration on a global level related to tuberculosis, malaria and HIV/AIDS, and what, if any, are the setbacks that his own organization is experiencing at this point in time.

Employers from various health care institutions stationed themselves at tables where potential employees, undergraduate and graduate students alike, engaged in 20-minute round-table discussion sessions that enabled them to ask the questions necessary to determine whether or not they were suited for that particular employer.

Employers at the event included the Bowdoin Street Health Center, McLean Hospital, Children's Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School, Tufts Medical Center and Meditech, among others.

In an interview with the Justice, Danielle Gurr '11, who attended the event, said, "I thought the event was really interesting."

She continued, "The keynote speech was really relevant, and the people who were there to network with the students were really interested in the students; some of them were alums, so that made it kind of more comfortable to talk to them because they knew where we were coming from.