Meet Barret Fabris: A Q&A on community, culture and continuity

What role should a school of public health play in ensuring that its research, teaching and service reflect the communities it serves?

One of the things that really excited me about coming to the School of Public Health at Brown was the opportunity to build on the community engagement work I had already been doing in Providence. Finding ways to connect that work with the Office of Community Engagement here, with Sarah Bouchard and my office, was really compelling.

In public health, communities shouldn't just be research subjects. They should be partners in the work. That transactional approach is something I want to move away from. The question is: How do we engage communities in a way that truly honors them as collaborators?

Because ultimately, if your research doesn’t reflect the community it’s meant to serve, then your science is incomplete. That’s part of what grounds this work for me, especially in the context of how politicized these conversations can become. This isn’t abstract or symbolic; there’s strong evidence showing the real, short- and long-term impact of this work on communities.

So if we, as a school, aren’t representative of, or meaningfully engaged with, the communities that most need support then the research and science we’re producing are fundamentally limited. That’s why meeting communities where they are, building genuine partnerships and avoiding a purely transactional model is so important and something I’m really excited to continue here.

What is your vision for diversity and inclusion at the school? And how will you know your work has made a meaningful impact?

It’s a tough question, especially in week three. But I was actually thinking about this last night.

One thing I keep coming back to is that, in many places, D&I work ends up living with one person. And when that happens, that individual carries a huge amount of responsibility and pressure, which can lead to burnout and limit the work’s long-term impact. What’s been really encouraging here, is that there’s already a strong team, and a real sense of shared commitment.

So my goal is to build on the work of my predecessor, Jai-Me Potter-Rutledge, who did incredible work building this program into the fabric of the school, and continue embedding this work across the institution, so that it doesn’t depend on any one person, the direction stays consistent and the work continues to move forward in a sustained, intentional way.

When I think about impact, I tend to group it into three areas: students, research and culture.

For students, I want to help create an environment where they feel seen, heard, and empowered to do the work that brought them here. But just as importantly, I want them to leave with the confidence to engage across differences, to work with a wide range of communities, including those who may not immediately see D&I as central to public health. If they’re going to drive meaningful change, they need to be able to navigate those conversations thoughtfully and effectively.

For research, I’m really interested in supporting and strengthening community partnerships. Even though my background isn’t in public health, I see strong alignment there. Working closely with the Office of Community Engagement, I’d like to help elevate research that truly reflects and responds to the communities most affected by health disparities and ensures those partnerships are meaningful and sustained.

And then there’s culture. For me, success looks like this work being fully integrated into how the school operates. Every member of the community—faculty, staff, students—feels a sense of responsibility and ownership. It’s not something people have to stop and ask how to do; it’s just part of how decisions are made, how classes are taught and how partnerships are built.

At the Lincoln School, one thing I often said was that we weren’t just there to break the glass ceiling; we were there to change the systems that created the ceiling in the first place. That’s the mindset I bring here as well. Short-term wins matter, but lasting impact comes from rethinking and reshaping the underlying structures.

Ultimately, I’d love for this to be a place that models what’s possible, where D&I is so embedded that it strengthens everything: the research, the student experience and the school’s relationship with the community.