A Healthcare Wizard with an Enchanting Personality
Having been bestowed with 41 awards globally, Dr Subrina Jesmin has a remarkable career in healthcare research demonstrating the fact that hard work and dedication can move mountains. Her source of inspiration has been her father whose humanitarian efforts swayed her to become one herself. His ideology of helping people became the driving factor in her life and she feels that it gives her immense satisfaction and happiness doing the same. This factor leads her to work hard towards her goals so that she is in a position to help others as much as she can.
Curious about gaining knowledge right from a very young age, Dr. Subrina’s father acknowledged her potential and sought to provide her with the best education one can receive. A firm disciplinarian, her father ingrained the same qualities in his daughters. Due to the social norms of that time, it was an arduous task to receive the same level of education that a man was provided. But with endless support from her family, she was able to pursue higher studies.
Her journey had its own ups and downs and she had to encounter difficulties along the way. Being a healthcare researcher and scientist had its own set of obstacles and constraints. Earlier on, it was difficult for her to tread a fine line between caring for her family and devoting time to her work as it took a lot of dedication and devotion to work in her field of work. But her children were understanding of the situation and supported her wholeheartedly.
Her biggest challenge was that preconceived prejudices in the minds of people responsible for promoting her, judged her on the basis of her gender that took her a long route to be promoted to her current position. She reveals her strengths and feels that having a clear goal since her formative years has made her determined which she carried in her later life as well. Also, being focused in life is a contributing factor.
She shares her views on success and remarks “Cultivate patience in life. The road to success and fulfilment is not an easy one. There will be many ups and downs. Some moments come in life that may shake your core beliefs and ideals. However, you must never forget that you’re your core ideals because that will be your identity. So, you should always be proud of yourself, you’re your accomplishments and not compare yourself with others. Because you are where you need to be in life for a specific reason.”
Dr Subrina highlights that today’s environment is more welcoming and supportive of working women. The corporate structure has modified with the changing times and has made a concerted effort to understand their female employees’ distinct values and abilities. The pandemic was also a contributing factor for corporates to be more open to working from home which made it easier for women to balance their work and home.
Dr. Subrina feels that organisations should become open to more gender inclusivity. Men and women working together is a refreshing and important change that makes the workplace more dynamic. When women’s success is highlighted and appreciated, they are prompted to put forth more of their ideas.
On being asked about her work-life balance, she says “It is not very easy to strike a balance between home and work life but it needs to be done. Over the years, I have learned to acknowledge my own feelings whether it was positive, negative, or even neutral.” She has developed an internal mechanism that makes her manage her own expectations. She knows that it is acceptable that all the stuff cannot be done flawlessly. She even missed out on family holidays so as to strike a good work-life balance.
She has received the Young Investigator Award (YIA) multiple times along with Global Peace Prize a total of 12 times for her contribution to improving women’s health. For her work to enhance rural health in Asia, she was awarded the prestigious Top 100 Asian Women Award. She was also bestowed with the best rural-based women researcher award in 2013 for her exceptional work for rural women’s health in Bangladesh among many other awards.
