State of the School Opens the Academic Year, Highlighting Voices from SPH Community

The recent growth and expansion of the school makes clear that this movement is fully underway. Today, graduate student enrollment is at an all-time high, more than doubling over the past four years. The school has expanded into 155 South Main Street, which now houses its Mindfulness Center, Survey Research Center and Hassenfeld Child Health Innovation Institute. Additionally, this year the school opened an office in Washington, D.C., at the National Press Building. Located between the White House and the U.S. Capitol, this space adds to the national impact of the Pandemic Center and other research units dedicated to driving policy changes.

Further, the school is expanding on its tradition of research excellence by leaning into some of the most pressing public health issues we face today, including climate change and public health, health policy reform, overdose prevention, biosecurity and pandemic preparedness.

Dean Jha welcomed faculty, student and staff speakers, who discussed their contributions to address these challenges:

Climate Change and Health

As we just lived through the hottest summer in human history, including the hottest days ever recorded on the planet (on July 21 of this year), Corwin Zigler, professor of biostatistics at Brown, explained how he is developing statistical methods to highlight the combined impacts of climate change, air pollution and environmental health policy on population health and to quantify the effects of emissions from coal power plants on U.S. mortality. 

Biosecurity and Pandemic Preparedness 

The devastating impact of diseases like H5N1, mpox and COVID-19 signal our entry into a new era of biological threats. Wilmot James, senior adviser to the Pandemic Center and professor of the practice of health services, policy and practice, discussed the importance of getting ahead of these epidemics through the development of robust public health infrastructure and international policy collaboration. Game Changers, tha Pandemic Center’s groundbreaking new program, is training the next generation of public health leaders to meet pandemic and biosecurity threats in the U.S. and across the African continent.

Harm Reduction and Overdose Prevention

More than 100,000 Americans died last year from drug overdose. Julia Noguchi, research scientist at Brown’s People, Place & Health Collective (PPHC) and assistant professor of medical science, discussed how the PPHC team is taking a harm reduction approach to treat and support the drug-using community in Providence. The PPHC is collaborating with the nation’s first state-authorized overdose prevention center in Rhode Island, which opens this fall.

Health Care Spending and Policy Reform

The health care sector has been undergoing a massive transformation over the last decade as private equity (PE) firms have invested more than a trillion dollars in every setting where health care is delivered, from the cradle to the grave. This trend reflects a broader shift within the industry: corporate investors acquiring health care practices, driven by the allure of short-term profitability and efficiency gains. It also raises questions about the implications for health care quality, accessibility and cost, as well as the overall impact on providers and patients. Yashaswini Singh, assistant professor of health services, policy, and practice and a member of Brown’s Center for Advancing Health Policy Through Research, discussed how her research addresses these issues, and how her discussions with federal and state policymakers are shaping the policy proposals that may determine the future of regulation in the health care industry.

Educating the Next Generation of Public Health Researchers

“The most important driver for the school’s enrollment growth is that students know that no one does public health education better than we do,” Jha said, before asking Will Goedel, Ph.D. ’20, assistant professor of epidemiology, to speak about his work in the classroom. Goedel not only graduated from the school with a doctoral degree in epidemiology, but was awarded a Dean’s Award for Excellence in Classroom Teaching this past spring. Goedel described his collaborative approach to all aspects of teaching, in particular his development of skill-based assessments that are more conducive to student learning and growth.

Community-Engaged Approach

The school collaborates with more than 60 local organizations to promote a wide range of public health initiatives and programs. Petranea Smith, a Brown MPH candidate and Health Equity Scholar, spent this past summer as a project manager for Cliníca Esperanza’s mobile vaccine clinic project. She described her community-engaged approach to her work, going to libraries and block parties, and even door-to-door, to deliver free vaccinations—including those against hepatitis B, HPV, measles, mumps, rubella and COVID-19—to residents in Providence’s neighborhoods.

“How is our School making such strides on so many fronts?” Dean Jha asked during his address. “The formula for academic impact is straightforward: You get talented people, you give them the tools they need and you get out of the way. This is what I have learned. And that has been the formula we have tried to implement. We are in a place where this school feels very differently now than four years ago.”