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An innovative online summer course empowers budding environmentalists nationwide to tackle local public health challenges, fostering informed and engaged community leaders.

Originally launched to track major pandemic outbreaks in the US and around the world, Brown University School of Public Health’s Pandemic Tracker now helps with a wide range of public health efforts. Led by Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center and professor of epidemiology at SPH, the tracker helps public and policy makers stay on top of disease outbreaks during a time of economic strain and political polarization.

A bill signed by Gov. Dan McKee to ban cell phones in schools will start in August 2026. Dr. Caroline Kistin from Brown University’s Hassenfeld Child Health Innovation Institute has researched the topic of school cell phone bans. Kistin joined 12 News at 4 Friday to discuss what her research has shown and the legislation lawmakers approved last session.

If you’ve been outside on a smoggy day, you’ve probably noticed that your body reacts poorly to bad air quality. Maybe you coughed, or got a headache. But what actually happens to your body when you breathe in polluted air?

Through a pioneering fellowship with Brown’s Pandemic Center, genomic epidemiologist Edyth Parker is working to prevent man-made biological threats and foster responsible innovation by mapping DNA synthesis practices and helping to shape biosecurity policies across Africa.

Since the 1980s, the U.S. has experimented with various forms of managed health care. But none of them has managed to control costs or improve health outcomes, argues Senior Fellow Hayden Rooke-Ley. The radical new idea from CAHPR researchers for delivering lower health care costs is actually quite old-fashioned: a return to fee-for-service.

Craig Spencer, an associate professor of public health and emergency medicine at Brown penned this guest essay on the moral imperative of global health care. 

Dean of the School of Public Health Dr. Ashish Jha penned this column on the potential impacts of the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act."

Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at Brown, provides commentary on measles vaccination and travel concerns.

As Americans approach Independence Day, we should reflect on the foundational ideals of our country. A central ideal, laid out nearly 250 years ago in the Declaration of Independence, is our unalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It’s a core promise of America, but one that cannot be fully realized without one of its key enablers.

Professor of Epidemiology Marianthi Kioumourtzoglou discusses the limitations of and current models for assessing wildfire-smoke exposure and its health impacts.

Ellen McCreedy, associate professor of health services, policy, and practice at the Brown University School of Public Health, is studying a toe-tapping alternative that could reduce reliance on antipsychotic medications. The university’s ongoing study, “Music and Memory,” looks at how music can be used as a non-pharmacological intervention for people with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a budget bill that promises a sweeping dismantling of critical public programs that millions of people rely on, including food stamps, Medicaid, and federal education loans. Buried inside the bill’s thousand-plus pages are provisions that specifically target healthcare for transgender people, including an outright ban on Medicaid coverage for transgender people of all ages.

The United States maintains more than 750 military bases around the world—not just to fight wars, but to prevent them. That same principle has guided U.S. investment in the global footprint of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—the agency tasked with protecting the health and security of Americans—to build and “forward deploy” critical defenses against biological threats worldwide.

Balancing the demands of a Ph.D. program in public health is hard enough—try doing it while starring in "Into the Woods." This Brown University doctoral student proves you don’t have to choose between data and drama.

When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was appointed secretary of Health and Human Services, some hoped that the responsibility of public office would temper his long-standing hostility toward vaccines. Instead, he is doing exactly what many of us feared: dismantling the systems that protect Americans from preventable infectious diseases.

Brown public health and medical students team up to provide culturally attuned care to Rhode Island’s South Asian, Middle Eastern and African communities.

A special live Commencement & Reunion Weekend episode of our podcast, Humans in Public Health, brings Brown University experts from epidemiology and urban studies for a discussion on cities: How they collect public health problems and the ways they might help us to address those same issues.

Dr. Ashish Jha, Dean of Brown University's School of Public Health, tells CNN's Wolf Blitzer why he calls HHS Secretary Kennedy's reasoning for firing all members of the CDC's vaccine advisory committee "nonsense."

For the first time since the COVID vaccines became available in pharmacies in 2021, the average person in the U.S. can’t count on getting a free annual shot against a disease that has been the main or a contributing cause of death for more than 1.2 million people around the country, including nearly 12,000 to date this year. “COVID’s not done with us,” says Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at Brown University. “We have to keep using the tools that we have. It’s not like we get to forget about COVID.”

This is the fourth article in a series by undergraduate student Chris Walsh. His last essay explored the new self-advocacy possibilities that openness can offer autistic people interested in autism research and advocacy. Now, he examines the relationship between greater autism openness and mental health for people on the spectrum.

Developed by researchers in Brown University’s School of Public Health, the MediCode tool shows how coding practices in Medicare Advantage lead to billions in overspending.

Sometimes it can feel like whatever is stressing you out — that deadline, a big meeting, the news cycle — is showing up first thing in the morning. You may wake up with a pit already forming in your stomach and your anxiety high before you even get out of bed.

What to do if you have morning anxiety? Anxiety can also turn into a habit that you may unconsciously foster over time, said Judson Brewer, a professor at Brown University’s School of Public Health and the author of the book “Unwinding Anxiety.”

Of all the misguided decisions Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has made as secretary of Health and Human Services, canceling Moderna’s contract to develop a bird flu vaccine may be the most dangerous yet. Dr. Ashish K. Jha is dean of Brown University School of Public Health and a contributing Globe Opinion writer.

For her policy-shaping research, Professor Yashaswini Singh will join health leaders from around the world in Colorado for the 2025 Aspen Ideas health conference.

Medicaid, the largest payer for long-term care facilities, covers around 2 in 3 nursing home residents, and reducing dollars to the massive, yet already resource-limited, program could have disastrous effects on older adults’ health, safety and quality of life. Vincent Mor, professor of health services, policy and practice at the Brown University School of Public Health, comments.

Professor Alyssa Bilinski has found that systematically including pregnant participants in trials would speed up the detection of adverse effects and increase uptake of beneficial medications.

The federal government announced Wednesday that it is canceling a contract to develop a vaccine to protect people against flu viruses that could cause pandemics, including the bird flu virus that's been spreading among dairy cows in the U.S., citing concerns about the safety of the mRNA technology being used. Ashish Jha and Jennifer Nuzzo comment.

Explore highlights from this year’s Commencement & Reunion Weekend at Brown University.

How does exposure to “forever chemicals” impact pregnancy? Is there a connection between firearm ownership and elevated lead levels in children? These are the kinds of studies Brown University carried out through its Center for Children’s Environmental Health in recent years, placing an emphasis on solutions-oriented research, said environmental epidemiologist Joseph Braun, the center’s director.

A new study about affordability standards for hospitals in Rhode Island was recently released by Brown University. The study looks into how these standards enacted by the state resulted in lower prices in hospitals and insurance premiums. Andrew Ryan, director of Brown’s Center for Advancing Health Policy Through Research, joined 12 News at 4 Friday to talk about the findings.

Biomedical and public health research in the United States now finds itself in an existential moment. The government’s proposed changes, if allowed to take place, will absolutely decimate not just the nation’s but the world’s ability to study disease, therapeutics, and health outcomes.

With private equity firms gobbling up health care facilities at a skyrocketing pace, researchers in the School of Public Health are working to uncover how rapid health care consolidation impacts patients, prices and physician practices.

In 2010, Rhode Island attempted a lively experiment in health care costs by limiting how much hospitals could increase the prices they charge. Fifteen years later, a new study led by a team of Brown University researchers suggests the hospital price growth mandate worked, not only cutting hospital prices directly, but also flowing downstream to lower consumer spending on health plan premiums.

Next week at the World Health Assembly in Geneva, 193 member countries of the World Health Organization (with the U.S. notably absent) are expected to adopt the Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response Agreement, also known as the Pandemic Treaty. In anticipation of its adoption, the final agreement has been celebrated as a triumph of multilateralism. The co-chairs of the negotiations described the agreement as a plan to “protect future generations from the suffering and losses [experienced] during the COVID-19 pandemic” and to ensure that in the next pandemic, “the response will be faster, more effective and more equitable.”

The number of people who died of drug overdoses in the U.S. dropped dramatically in 2024, a promising sign amid a national fentanyl crisis that has fueled a surge in drug-related deaths in recent years. “This progress is encouraging, but it’s fragile,” said Alexandria Macmadu, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Brown University’s School of Public Health. “We can’t mistake this progress for victory. Sustained investment is essential if we want to build on this momentum instead of backsliding.”

Professor Ronald Aubert's course aims to help students understand the complexities of the insurance and pharmaceutical industries, identifying the factors that result in such high prescription drug prices.

Professor Alex Macmadu, an epidemiologist who has spent her career studying the opioid and overdose crisis, shares insights on Rhode Island’s bold step in opening the first state-approved overdose prevention center in the U.S. and what her research reveals about community attitudes toward harm reduction.

Nyameyo puts her online MPH training into action through Lulu-Afrika, the nonprofit organization she founded to address food insecurity, women’s health and safety and the well-being of orphans and prisoners throughout Kenya, Tanzania and South Sudan.

In Rhode Island, the terminations have come in steadily since February, officials at both Brown University and the University of Rhode Island said, and it’s not clear when they will stop. The Trump administration is also seeking to slash overhead costs for research across the board, and has threatened to freeze an unspecified $510 million from Brown, roughly double the Ivy League institution’s annual federal funding.

A new study by researchers from Brown University School of Public Health reveals that a simple writing exercise could be used as a harm reduction tool for heavy-drinking college students.

Professor Jason D. Buxbaum explains how billions in federal relief improved hospitals' financial stability during the pandemic but did not result in increased spending on patient care or staffing.

Five years after the start of the global COVID-19 pandemic, School of Public Health experts look to Washington as they weigh in on where our biosurveillance tools and preparedness systems stand now: What’s changed, what hasn’t and what must be built to make us ready for the next pandemic?

Founder and CEO of SaveLIFE Foundation, Tewari has dedicated his career to making roads safer in India and across the world.

The health equity advocate and mentor has been honored with the School of Public Health’s 2025 Alumni Impact Award for his service to Rhode Island’s communities.

At the 26th annual Barnes Lecture, environmental law expert and former U.S. Special Envoy Monica Medina issued a stark warning about the urgent health and safety risks posed by climate change, urging sustained public attention and investment in science-driven systems like NOAA to safeguard lives and the planet.