A Legacy of Global Health with Dr. Randy Page

In this episode of the Y Health Podcast, host Cougar Hall sits down with Dr. Randy Page, a recently retired professor from BYU’s Department of Public Health, to reflect on his 40-year career in academia and global health. From his early days as a researcher to pioneering BYU’s Global Health Internship Program, Dr. Page shares insights on professional pivots, the impact of international experiences, and the power of letting the world change you. He also offers advice for students and mid-career professionals navigating their own paths. Plus, hear about his exciting new adventures in retirement, including his passion for the Mediterranean diet and upcoming global experiences. Tune in for an inspiring conversation filled with wisdom, humor, and a lifetime of public health leadership. 

Recorded, Edited & Produced by Christy Gonzalez, Harper Xinyu Zhang, Kailey Hopkins, and Tanya Gale

Transcript

Cougar: [00:00:00] Dr. Randy Page, welcome to the Y Health podcast. 

Randy: Well, thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. 

Cougar: Well, we've been waiting for this, and I think I tried to get you in a couple years ago, and you're a very busy man with your travel, as I'm sure we'll get to that. 

Randy: More about the fact that I don't like to have a microphone in my face. 

Cougar: What it was? Now the truth comes out. Well, you have just recently retired. You're about two months into your, a month and a half into your retirement. So now feels like a really good time to get you here and kind of get a full sketch of your time at BYU, your time in public health and some perspective that's probably only gained as you step away. 

Cougar: I'm wondering if you wouldn't mind, Randy, just taking a moment, introducing yourself for our audience. 

Randy: Yeah, so Randy Page, I just retired from the faculty in the Department of Public Health in December, December 31st, I think was my last day. So I was at BYU since 2003. [00:01:00] It was a culmination of about a 40 year academic career where I taught at five different universities. 

Randy: And also spent two years in public health practice right at the beginning. When I finished my doctorate, actually, I had too much education and no experience. 

Cougar: Oh boy. 

Randy: I wanted to go right into academia. But, you know, it was the 1980s. Jobs were few. We were in a recession. I applied to over 200. teaching positions and got turned down for all 200. 

Cougar: Wow. 

Randy: I was lucky enough to be hired at the Bear River District Health Department, but I was still itching during that entire two years to get into teaching. And so in 1984, I had my first teaching position at State University of New York at Cortland. And then, as I mentioned, that culminated [00:02:00] at BYU on December 31st, 2024. 

Cougar: Wow. So, right at about 40 years there. Amazing. I'm wondering, it's just such a unique perspective. You've seen public health really change. We have made tremendous advancements in, promoting health amongst diverse populations around the world insights that you've gained now that you've had a chance to kind of step away and maybe even spend time with family and talk about career and your achievements are insights or takeaways from public health as a profession in 40 years. 

Randy: Oh, that was a little hard for me because I think I evolved so much and oftentimes I think I evolved even away from public health a little bit. I think I let lot of my personal interests in my career that I think I wasn't as aligned with public health as maybe many other in our faculty were. And I kind of went off into Other directions and, and [00:03:00] didn't align as much with the profession of public health. 

Cougar: Well, tell us about those directions. And I have to just add for our listeners because my background is in school health education, that the majority of the textbooks that I've used starting at the beginning of my career have your name on them. So you are a legend in the discipline of school health education and health education in general. 

Cougar: So Tell us how you feel, where your career took you and kind of that path, which certainly does ebb and flow for most of us, right? 

Randy: Yeah, when I first started off in academia, I was a very strict researcher. Despite the fact I was at teaching universities, where I was oftentimes teaching four or five preparations a semester, but I was very riveted on a research career and in doing research. 

Randy: That was my love. And so my teaching at that time was in research methods, epidemiology, biostatistics, and then, over time, I eventually got involved [00:04:00] also in school health. As you mentioned, I started to write some textbooks in that area, and then I had some other career changes basically where I developed a real international focus, and that pretty much took me towards the end of my career. 

Randy: So guess you could kind of say a very solid public health research orientation at first and kind of into the School health arena, and then more into like a global health, international health. 

Cougar: Yeah, that's, that's really helpful. Cause when I met you, I met you before I came here as a full time faculty member. 

Cougar: I had worked as an adjunct faculty member and had some interaction with you then. And then when I was working in the local high schools. You were coming with students periodically and doing programs and so, so I knew your name certainly from the textbooks, but then we also had a little bit of an opportunity to interact. 

Cougar: But when I came here full time in [00:05:00] 2008, I think you had at that point been here about six years. And receive what we call, and we don't have tenure at BYU, but we call it continuing faculty status. I think that may have been like right at the beginning of my time at BYU. And then if I fast forward just one or two years, Randy, we had a meeting in the department where we recognized, hey, we need to do more on the global front. 

Cougar: And, you know, I think to be for full disclosure, we had some recruiting materials for our new masters of public health program that made it look like we were really doing a lot of global health and we realized, well, we are, but we're not, we're not providing opportunities for our students to travel, to do international internships and to interact with populations on different continents. 

Cougar: And what came out of that meeting was Randy, will you take this and run? So really the last 15 years of your career at BYU really was [00:06:00] building this global internship program. And maybe we could talk about that because I think as you travel, you have, just gained a lot of perspective, a lot of insights, but you weren't just traveling. 

Cougar: You were traveling and building programs and mentoring students and making connections. We have so many connections now in our department that are because of you and your tireless efforts. So tell us about building that from the ground up and how that changed your career here at the end. 

Randy: Yeah, that was kind of a interesting time. 

Randy: That was 2014 and I think it was around September 2014. Maybe it was 2013 when I was approached by Dr. Hansen, Dr. Barnes, they asked me to start something up. And so I had to kind of pull something out of my hat because I wanted something in place in about eight months. And so I worked with an anthropology professor here at BYU and we created a program in [00:07:00] India. 

Randy: And then maybe, you know, Ralph Brown from sociology. Ah. So I contacted him and got involved in Cambodia. So we were able to unveil the Global Health Internship Program in 2014 with a program in India and a program in Cambodia. And then over the next 10 or so years, we ended up going to about 20 different countries. 

Randy: So, there was a lot of build up and it was, you know, gradual over time and we had to kind of leave our original model, which was where I would go and set up individual internships for students in countries to where we had to start building partners in areas and then work with third party partners or vendors so that we could take groups of students and bigger reach. 

Cougar: Yeah. Do you have any idea how many students have participated say in the last 10 [00:08:00] years or so? Because it feels like so many of our students have taken advantage of those opportunities. 

Randy: Yeah. So we did accounting the other day and it was about 900. Students that went on one of those programs. 

Cougar: Amazing. And do you have any idea how many trips you've taken? Because you've spent a lot of time being jet lagged. 

Randy: I need to do that counting. 

Cougar: Yeah. 

Randy: There were some years where it was pretty crazy. You know, like 2017, 2018, 2019, where I was making between, let's say, May and August, maybe seven or eight international trips where I was visiting pretty much every continent. 

Randy: Wow. You know, there was a point where I was able to. Do a site visit to each of our programs later on that became impossible. So there are sometimes where we sent students out and I wasn't able to actually get to where they were during their global health internship. 

Cougar: Yeah, well, it just has grown so big.[00:09:00] 

Cougar: And you've really left it in good hands. I have to say, like, it's just, it's remarkable. I've traveled a little bit compared to you, but every time I go somewhere, maybe I've mentioned this before on the podcast, so our listeners are bored, but every time I go to a new location it changes me. It just changes the way I see the world. And it's a very frequent experience where I'm on the airplane on the way home and I take out the notes app on my phone and I set some goals and I make some statements, some I can, some I will statements about how I want to live differently. And I just, I don't know that I've ever traveled. 

Cougar: Internationally and not come home, a slightly different person, and hopefully a slightly better person with more compassion, more understanding, more gratitude. So I'm wondering, cause you've, you've done this now for 10, 15 years at An amazing clip insights. You've gained. How did it change you? 

Cougar: And so many of those trips, your dear wife, [00:10:00] Tana, who is also running programs and also writing textbooks. And I mean, it feels like you two are inseparable for so much of your time at BYU. How did it change your lives? 

Randy: Yeah, that's a good question. One of the things we had a model for the global health internship program, and that was, was let the world change you. 

Randy: Yeah. And because we realized early on that even though our students went out and felt like they were going to change the world and make some kind of difference, that in reality they usually didn't. But they came back changed. Yeah. And one of the best things I think I ever did was I came up with an idea of a final reflection paper. 

Randy: for every student that went on the programs. And whenever I want to have a really good experience, I pull those out and read some of the different experiences that students have had. And [00:11:00] I can really see how their lives were changed. For many students, it was kind of like a mini mission if they maybe hadn't had a full time 

Randy: mission before, but you could see those kind of changes that were occurring within them, how they were becoming better people, they were being able to appreciate others better and maybe have a better sense of their selves and what they want to do professionally and spiritually and in their families as they go forward. 

Cougar: Yeah, I love that. Those are the things I have felt personally, and I've also seen that as I travel with students as well. 

Randy: Oh, 

Cougar: no, go ahead, please, Randy. Sorry, 

Randy: sorry for interrupting you. 

Cougar: No. 

Randy: And one of the things, you know, you just brought forth the idea of how TANF has accompanied me pretty much along every step of my career, and has even been involved in writing books, a couple of research articles. 

Randy: It's interesting because, you know, in [00:12:00] the point in our lives where we got involved with the Global Health Internships, we were about empty nesters. So we didn't have children at home that we had to worry about. And so she was able to go with me all the time. And also because of her status at the university as an adjunct faculty member, she was able to be an assistant. 

Randy: And so she really did bear a lot of the weight of all that was accomplished. And many of our programs consisted of only female students. And so it would have been impossible for us to do that kind of travel without her there. 

Cougar: Now, you guys have really been partners. I mean, more than any other couple I know, as far as, you know, your professional efforts, just connected at the hip. 

Cougar: And I think the skills that you and Tana both have are really complementary to each other. She's just remarkable. I had the opportunity to work with her for several years in the school health program. And so. You mentioned the [00:13:00] spiritual growth that students experienced when they traveled. 

Cougar: Some of that is attending church services, maybe in an outdoor chapel. There might be between a half a dozen to a dozen members in different places of the world and you realize, oh wow. Okay. So what I'm hearing and what I'm seeing is just like back home, but at the same time, it's completely different. 

Cougar: The church looks different and the people look different, but they have the same love for our savior and they have the same joy of coming together and worshiping together. So some of those experiences are just absolutely incredible. And I'm glad you mentioned that because we have a new class on campus. 

Cougar: It's called the university of one Oh one. It's part student success. We want to help every freshman come to BYU and connect them to the vast, just the incredible resources that the university has to help them succeed during their time here. But part of this course is to help them understand how we combine the spiritual. 

Cougar: And the secular, [00:14:00] how a BYU professor really needs to be bilingual. You need to be able to speak to your science and speak to your, your profession as well as anyone in the country. But you need to also be able to speak a language that is likely not heard at other universities, which is a faith and a belief and a commitment to it's believing, right in our savior, Jesus Christ, and letting him change us. 

Cougar: So a BYU professor needs to do both. And I'm wondering, and sometimes we use the term disciple scholar. You were able to. Be part of a faculty at four other institutions before you came to BYU. Would you mind contrasting for us the difference when you come to BYU, being bilingual, being able to to be a rock star in your science, but also be a person of faith and to try to instill that faith and to help the testimony of your students grow and be strengthened as well. 

Randy: Yeah. Well, it's amazing when you've had that contrasting experience [00:15:00] at other institutions where. You meet fabulous people but there is such a difference when you come to BYU. What you feel from the students and what you learn from the students, what you gain from the students is incredible. One of the things that always amazes me is the Global Health Internships that we were talking about. 

Randy: How often times some of our students would mingle with students from other universities. Or be on co projects with them. And how our partners would always want BYU students to come back because they could see something different about the students. And so that's just something that really picked up in a difference from some of the other institutions. 

Randy: And BYU is how incredible these students are. I think everybody who teaches at BYU [00:16:00] has a sense of that. Yeah, 

Cougar: yeah, that's funny you mention that. We were planning a study abroad program, and one of our locations was a little college town in Sweden. There weren't very many hotels in this small college town, so our lodging options were very limited. 

Cougar: Randy, and I'm sure this is something you have struggled with this and all these different efforts and programs you've created. So there were probably a half dozen hotels that looked like they would be options for our group and I was with the other two co directors and we had 48 hours to make all the arrangements in this town before needing to move on. 

Cougar: And I remember we prayed together. Before leaving our hotel room, heading out, just asking for the spirit to direct us, we got out onto the street, we walked around a corner. Here's a hotel that wasn't on Google Maps that was not on our list to visit. Turns out it had just opened and we just, well, let's just poke our head in it. 

Cougar: It was a much nicer hotel than what we could afford. And we walked in and he [00:17:00] said, well, we've just opened, you just tell us if you can pay. And so we stayed in this beautiful hotel. Well, so that was in December planning for the next summer, right? So the next summer we arrive, we come to check into the hotel. 

Cougar: The students are still on the bus and we're like, you know, we'll go get the keys and get checked in. And we walk into the hotel and here's a faculty member from another institution in this region. And, he could tell, you know, we had our BYU shirts on. He's like, Hey, you guys just want to turn and run. 

Cougar: Excuse me? He goes, you don't want to be here. He goes, we've been here for a week and I cannot get my kids out of the pub. I said, this is going to be a waste of your time because all they're going to do is drink here. And I didn't know what to say. I was like, Oh, I'm sorry. You've had that experience. I think we're going to be okay. 

Cougar: No, you're not. But I'm telling you, I'm just doing you a favor, bud. You don't want to be. We had the most incredible four days in this little town. And so I don't know, take that for what it's worth. It was just, it's been an absolute pleasure to travel with BYU [00:18:00] students and to have spiritual experiences with them, to pull them together on a Sunday evening for a devotional or to have them hike up on a hill overlooking a beautiful valley. 

Cougar: Filled with cathedrals and have our own little devotional up there and prayer and sing a song So and you've had so many of those experiences. I'm envious in so many ways But 

Randy: we've you know had many locations where there wasn't a unit of the church And so we've had opportunities where we would have come follow me in lieu of church. 

Randy: Yeah. And the students would be responsible for that. The lessons that they provided and they taught have been so outstanding. And we could just kind of sit back and bask in that. It was really incredible. 

Cougar: Really cool, huh? Oh, amazing. Okay, so I have two questions left for you, Randy. I'm taking too much of your time. 

Cougar: But the first is, as you are now six to eight weeks into retirement [00:19:00] here, insights you've gained that maybe could help two groups of people. One would be our students, who are at the other end of their careers. They're still preparing for it. Some are still choosing and deciding, is this the career for me? 

Cougar: And then maybe someone who's mid career. They don't have to be mid career in academia, they could just, just mid career in general. Insights that you have now from where you're sitting that might be helpful for those two groups of people. 

Randy: Yeah, it's kind of interesting for me because I was a business major when I first came to BYU. 

Randy: And It just wasn't for me, and I, you know, I did a lot of soul searching, what should I do? A lot of prayer, you know, I sought out people, I talked to people, I did everything that I could. And I was blessed with the Lord telling me to choose something that I would love to do. And beyond that, He also said that He [00:20:00] would Make it possible for me to provide for a family. 

Randy: And I just think back, what a blessing. I'm not sure everybody has that same blessing. And so I kind of took a course to find out what kind of lined up with my interests. And that's how I found what was called community health back then and public health today. And I've been so blessed with that. As I mentioned to you earlier, there's been all these pivot points for me, and I think that might not just be unique, but I think, I think oftentimes in careers we have these points where we end up going in different directions, and it's kind of like a painting that's being created rather than something more scientific where you pick point A and you're going to point Z. 

Randy: And so I guess my advice for. people is that I think the Lord has a plan for everyone, and it might be different [00:21:00] for everyone, but he certainly has your best interests at heart, and if you have faith and rely on him, then he will lead you where you need to go, and I just feel so blessed after a 40 plus year career that the Lord led me by his hand, and I have a testimony that He will do that to everyone who seeks Him, that He will guide you in a path that when you look back on it, you'll just weep because it'll be so incredible the manner in which He will bless you and so I really have a testimony of that and I've really gained that in the last couple of days as I've had an opportunity to reflect on how He has done that for me and has been so kind. 

Randy: And so I guess if I was talking to a student today, I would kind of share that and just say, you know, be patient and be humble, but let the Lord guide you. And sometimes he's going to guide you in [00:22:00] ways that you wouldn't ever imagine. And, so it's just incredible that, you know, the whole plan that he has for us. 

Cougar: Oh, that's really tender. And I appreciate you sharing that as you're talking. I'm thinking there's, there's a phrase at least that I've used before, which is the Lord will make more out of your life, you know, than you will. And so, but there is this kind of a surrender. There needs to be a willingness to, to follow those promptings, which sometimes are really scary. 

Cougar: It's really scary to make a, you know, you might. You, you said pivot. It's scary to make a big pivot, not know for sure that things are going to be okay. It's tough to leave what you have in some time, you know, in many cases and just move forward into the darkness a little bit. Really appreciate your testimony. 

Cougar: I think there's implications there for someone who's mid career as well. Not just for the students who are just starting, starting to explore what their major is and putting trust in the Lord that way. I'm [00:23:00] wondering as a followup, Randy, if for the individual who's mid career and it's just frustrated on a, on a Tuesday morning or a Thursday afternoon at work related, you know, dynamics in the office or, um, are there insights that you've gained even just a month or so into retirement about those kinda day in and day out frustrations? 

Cougar: And I don't know what the, I don't know what that might be. I'm just springing this on you, but perspective on, on the, the minor irritants that occur in every profession. 

Randy: Yeah, there's certainly, there's negatives to everything. I mean, even though you love what you're doing, there are a lot of irritants. 

Randy: And there's some ways in which your skills match up very nicely, but there's other things that really take you away and make it difficult for you. So maybe there isn't a perfect career. 

Cougar: [00:24:00] Yeah. 

Randy: And I know, like with my kids, some of them are struggling, I think, vocationally right now where they're not enjoying what they're doing, and it's kind of tough. 

Randy: I don't know whether to tell them to just gut it out or maybe look around and change. 

Cougar: Yeah. 

Randy: You know, do something drastic. I think it's so individual. I can't think of any real general things to tell people. Sometimes you just have to have fortitude to get up every day and keep coming in, and maybe it gets better, but sometimes maybe those things add up and maybe you need a big change. 

Randy: Sometimes that's good. Sometimes it's just. Go off in a different direction. 

Cougar: Yeah, it seems to me, you know, there's a difference between, well, you know, I don't like my job, it's not fun. Oh, I don't know that many jobs are fun but are they satisfying, and you find what you're doing to be meaningful and purposeful.[00:25:00] 

Cougar: If you can tap into those things, which sometimes is not a career change. It's just backing up and hitting the reset button. I feel like in academia and in my prior career as a high school teacher, I was so fortunate to have a summer vacation. Because as frustrated as you are in May, when August hits, you are just ready to go back to the classroom, like, ring the bell, let's do this. 

Cougar: And that's been a nice, you know, two month reset. But I have friends in their careers, they don't have a two month reset. And so it just starts to pile up, but if there's something we can do, maybe it's a three day weekend, or maybe it is a three week vacation, but to kind of hit that reset to focus on things that you're grateful for and express that gratitude and then refocus and find the purpose and the meaning. 

Cougar: Why did I want to do this? Why did I choose this? And I'm not just going to work every day. I'm not just, you know, filing reports. [00:26:00] I'm not just, you know, having sales calls or meetings or like, no, there's a bigger objective here. I think that's really important for restoring that. 

Randy: And I think I just was really fortunate. 

Randy: So I probably am not a good person to give career advice. Like, you know, I had a, kind of a midlife crisis, I guess, like everyone else. I was just doing the same thing I'd been doing, doing research, teaching the same classes, just on that trajectory. Things were going well and everything, but I just one day had this feeling that I needed to do something different. 

Randy: And it led to me creating my own sabbatical. And I found myself in Southeast Asia, lecturing and setting up research collaborations at three different Southeast Asian universities, and that changed my life to where everything became kind of an international focus. And that's [00:27:00] why I largely came to BYU, is because I would have that opportunity To do that, I actually did a lot of internationally focused things before the Global Health Internship Program. 

Randy: In which I don't know if you remember we were in the College of Health and Human Services, and we had the Mary Lou Fulton funding. We could do MEG environmental grant or what they call mentoring environmental grants. I just went on a terror with those and went all over the world with students doing projects, research projects and other projects in order to expose students to global health, public health. 

Randy: And that's a whole chapter that I probably need to write a book about some of the things that I did before the global health. So the 

Cougar: sabbatical just really infused at this mid career point, like there's this whole other direction I can go and [00:28:00] what I'm hearing you say is you found meaning and you found purpose and it didn't become about you and your research as much, although you continue to be very productive with your research, but you're mentoring students and you're fostering collaborations With institutions on the other side of the globe, and so I think that's a great example of probably what most of us need at halftime of our career is like we really do need like, hey, here's another direction to go. 

Cougar: I don't have to burn the whole thing down, but can I pivot a little bit and continue to experience personal growth and career growth? 

Randy: So, yeah, I apologize that I can't give you that advice, which I wish I could. 

Cougar: It's great, Randy. Thank you. Okay, so in retirement, what, what are you doing to kind of, you know, refire as well? 

Cougar: What's exciting to you right now? Are you reading a book or are you listening to a podcast? Are you planning another effort working with a nonprofit? What are you doing right now to stay fired up, so to speak? 

Randy: So one of my later [00:29:00] passions in my career was I became very enthused and interested in the Mediterranean diet. 

Cougar: Ah, good. 

Randy: And in fact, the last two or three years, we did some study abroad programs where we, one was called Eating, Cooking, and Living in a Mediterranean Way. And that was a Greece program. And we did a Taste of Italy, which focused on the Mediterranean diet in South Italy. And then more recently, we did an olive oil. 

Randy: In fact, just last semester, I took two groups of students, one group to Greece, one to Italy, to study all about the cultivation, production, and consumption of olive oil. So anyway, that's become a real passion for me. And Tana and I are kind of starting an enterprise that we call Pages Abroad. Cool. And we're going to be taking adults on kind [00:30:00] of study abroad experiences in the Mediterranean region. 

Randy: I love it. And so one of our first trips next fall will be called Eat Like a Greek. And we'll be going to Athens and to Crete. And then in November, we hope to do some olive experiences for adults who want to go and pick olives and see how olive oil is produced. Yeah. And just learn all about the health benefits of olives and olive oil. 

Randy: So we're excited about that. I'm planning a trip to Italy right now. It's going to be probably a six week trip. We're going to stay with a family for two weeks. I have four kids, and so I'm really interested in learning Italian, so I'm going to probably take a week of Italian, and then we'll live with that family. 

Randy: We're doing another week of volunteering at a villa just on the border of Tuscany and Umbria. And we're probably also going to go [00:31:00] to Puglia and Sicily. So we're going to make that a real big trip, and then we're going to kind of get involved with some of these trips that I go on. 

Cougar: Yeah, I had a feeling you weren't just, you know, sitting in the lazy boy watching Netflix like the rest of us, Randy, that just is not what I was expecting. 

Cougar: But I want to do that. That is an ambitious 12 month plan. That's really exciting. Well, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for a couple of things. Obviously, thank you for your time coming in. And being a part of the Y Health podcast. But thanks for your mentorship. You might not even remember, but when I first arrived here with zero research experience, you pulled me under your wing. 

Cougar: I did very little. I think I helped with some tables and a little bit of writing on a paper, but that was my first publication. And now some 85 publications later, it's still the top on my CV. I think you're being modest. No, about 300. No, no. I wish that would be [00:32:00] you, but I just want to say thank you for that mentorship for sure. 

Cougar: And for all that you've done for our department, the department looks completely different now in 2025 than it did in 2003 when you showed up. And a lot of that is because of your efforts. So thank you. And, yeah. Thanks for being a friend too. 

Randy: You bet. Well, I hope I made a small difference. 

Cougar: You did. I can assure you. And I hope that all your good efforts continue for years to come as long as I'm here for sure. So, but thank you again for joining the Y Health Podcast and for your example of public health. 

Randy: Thanks for inviting me here today.