A woman in New York City is showing others that they too can have it all.
The young mother of three is a nationally recognized leader in public health, and she stars in a Netflix docuseries.
Dr. Syra Madad is the senior director of NYC Health + Hospitals Systemwide Special Pathogens Program.
“I have the privilege of essentially overseeing the entire system’s response to highly infectious diseases,” says Dr. Madad.
A woman who's made such a name for herself that even Netflix reached out for her to be in the series Pandemic: How to Prevent an Outbreak, to show the role she plays.
"Preparedness, response, mitigation, planning, kind of the whole nine yards,” says Dr. Madad.
At 33 years old, she not only got a doctorate in health science and a master’s in biotechnology, but also trained around the country, did work for the FBI and has three children. Her youngest is just 6 weeks old.
"It was a very long delivery for me, 17 hours. I was not expecting that long of a delivery and they wouldn't give me my epidural, they were saying it was going to slow my progression so I had to distract myself, so I told my husband can you give me my laptop I’m going to push out some emails,” says Dr. Madad.
Madad says her love for this work all started in the 10th grade when her science teacher recommended a book about Ebola.
"That was phenomenal to me. I was super interested and then I started watching and reading more about it; I watch[ed] the movie “Outbreak” very early on; I remember as a little girl that was like, ‘oh my gosh this is exactly what I want to do,’" says Dr. Madad.
Dr. Madad says she has an incredible support system and a husband who steps in when she needs it.
"He has been my de facto nanny at times,” she says.
Her advice for other women out there who also want to rise to the top is to keep pursuing their dreams.
“Pursue your dreams. People think that you can't have it all well, you can have it all as long as you work hard for it,” says Dr. Madad.