Story by Dwain Hebda
Frustrated by what she saw in hospital wards and institutionalized medicine, Dr. Teresa Bau (’24) has long looked for ways to improve how the nation’s medical system works, especially among its most vulnerable patients.
“As we all know, back in 2020 COVID-19 happened, and it just seemed like our country’s health care didn’t work,” she said. “It didn’t work for patients; it didn’t work for providers. I was working in the system and I couldn’t do my job within that system. Patients weren’t really getting the care that they needed. [As physicians] we were all just kind of running around like chickens without heads.
“I’d spent all these years in medical training to do something that I couldn’t really even do. At my core, I just want to help people. I want to fix systems and address systemic issues.”
It was at her most frustrated that Bau saw an advertisement for the Clinton School of Public Service. The more she learned about the curriculum, the more convinced she was that the school held the keys to the change she wanted to bring about.
“After interviewing with the Clinton School, I felt that this was maybe an alternative way in which I could help people,” she said.
Bau’s desire to serve others in part came from what she saw all around her growing up. A first-generation American, she watched her Taiwanese parents struggle in their new country. Those experiences developed an instinct to stick up for the little guy, which she has done throughout her medical career.
“Growing up, it was definitely this survival journey,” she said. “My parents didn’t speak English very well. I was kind of that go-between to help them navigate the world, from my education and going through the schooling system to their own health care and being that translator at doctors’ appointments for them.
“As an adult, I realized that it’s not just immigrant parents; Americans have a hard time navigating their own health care system if they’re not in the know of what to say and what to do. You have to be an advocate for yourself with the way our system is set up.”
With that orientation, Bau entered the Clinton School eager to learn ways to translate her vision of a more user-friendly health care system into actual practice.
“Prior to this program I didn’t really have a lot of experience in putting together teams to make community projects with measurable outcomes,” she said. “I wasn’t accustomed to leading teams on this scale to build longitudinal community projects. Those have always been projects that social workers and public health people have been able to lead.
“After graduating from the Clinton School, I feel like I have more of the tools to be able to do that. I feel I’m able to be in these board meetings with other arms of health care, not just physicians, and be able to speak their language when previously I feel like I was just this physician chiming in from the background. I feel like I can actually contribute and talk about the different sorts of outcomes that they’re measuring and the significance of that and how it can tie to other branches of health care as well.”
Bau, who received her bachelor’s degree in neuroscience from the University of California, San Diego and medical training at the American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine, completed her family medicine residency training at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Pine Bluff. After serving as a hospitalist and medical director of the Weight and Nutrition Center at Baptist Health Medical Center-Conway, she recently took a new role at UNC Health in Chapel Hill, N.C.
“The decision to move to North Carolina had many reasons,” she said. “I’ve essentially got a role as a medical director here through the UNC health network where I manage a couple of clinics. I am able to be involved at a more systemic level of change. I feel like I’ve actually gathered a lot of the tools that I learned through the courses at the Clinton School to be able to help me succeed in this role.”
Bau’s Capstone project directly fed into her role and responsibilities overseeing clinics in rural, underserved areas of the state. It addressed better ways to encourage patients dismissed from the hospital to make and keep follow-up appointments with primary care physicians, something achieved through a strategic partnership with an outside agency.
“I’ve always had a passion for medically underserved areas; I think that actually came from being a child of an immigrant. I just have a soft spot in my heart for the people that one, do need some help with that medical literacy piece, and two, have some issues navigating the whole health care system,” she said.
“Going into the Clinton School, however, I didn’t exactly know for sure what public service was. Initially, I thought I was getting into this program and would maybe learn how nonprofits get started, but public service encompasses a whole lot more than that. I was pleasantly surprised by the vastness of what public service entails and just how incredibly brilliant the Clinton professors are in translating it for students.”
Dr. Teresa Bau, a 2024 graduate of the Clinton School of Public Service, is a family medicine doctor in Smithfield, N.C., and is affiliated with UNC Health. In addition to her Master of Public Service, she received her M.D. from American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine.