In It Together

Nearly 700 incoming students began their public health journey today as classes started at the Mailman School. Included among their ranks is a Deputy Chief in the New York City Fire Department, an Argentine physician, a former professional rock climber, and a New Jersey native with a head start on a Mailman education. 

Among them are 400 Master’s of Public Health, 90 Master’s of Science, 80 Master’s of Health Administration, and 25 doctoral students. They come from 35 states and 37 countries. The youngest is 19, the most senior, 68. Many of them are familiar with the public health landscape from prior professional experience, and a few already know they want to make their mark on issues coming straight out of the headlines.

In welcoming remarks, Dean Linda P. Fried explained how a field rooted in science could be a force for collective action. “Public health shows that only when we come together that we can solve certain problems,” she said. She offered the example of lead poisoning in Flint, Michigan, saying it is “an issue of all of us coming together to demand solutions.”

As he pursues an Executive Master’s of Public Health, Deputy Chief Edward Bobb, wants to find ways to ensure that the approximately 200 EMS employees under his command in Brooklyn—and the EMS community more broadly—are prepared to deal with natural and human-induced disasters and infectious outbreaks like Zika. “I’ve spent my life dealing with public health,” he says. “My desire is to do more.”

Working to de-stigmatize mental illness is a priority for Jenine Ampudia, a graduate of the School’s Biostatistics Enrichment Summer Training Diversity program (BEST) and now, an Epidemiology MPH student. “It seems that whenever mental illness is brought up in the news as a public health issue, it is in the wake of a mass shooting,” says Ampudia, who hails from Passaic, New Jersey. “This is problematic because most mentally ill people are not violent.”

Argentine physician Catalina Linares, who is embarking on an Accelerated MPH in General Public Health, has her eye on the relationship between immigration and demographic change and health in the context of increasingly anti-immigrant political currents in countries like the United States and Great Britain. “I think it would be interesting to have a deeper look at how the demographic shift affected peoples’ lives.”

Tyler Landman, a former professional rock climber knows how to find a grip on the world’s most challenging boulders—including a granite overhang in Central Park that he alone has conquered. Ascending to new heights as an MPH student in Sociomedical Sciences, Landman is eager to learn about how public spaces, both indoors and out, shape health-related behaviors and physical activity—a timely subject given the city's new commitment to improving neglected green spaces.

He is just as keen to soak in the learning environment more generally. “I am really looking forward to becoming a student again, being surrounded by driven and interesting people, and exposed to new ideas and challenges in and out of the classroom.”

Curricular Activity

Throughout the fall, MPH students will get a broad introduction to foundational public health concepts and skills as part of the Core curriculum. Based on feedback from students and faculty, several components of the Core were reconfigured this year, including a reorganized studio, Determinants of Health, designed to draw connections between biological, social, and environmental factors that shape health. A new Facebook Group will extend dialogue around public health issues raised in the Core and how they relate to current events.

Notable among departmental curricular offerings, new MPH students will be the first who can select a new certificate in Health Communication. Students will learn to design, implement, and evaluate strategies from targeted social media campaigns to culture-specific storytelling, puppet shows, and songs. (Watch a video about all of Mailman’s certificate programs.)

A New Address for Learning

Up the block, the brand new Roy and Diana Vagelos Education Center brings cutting-edge architecture to the Medical Center. Designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the 14-story glass tower at 104 Haven features a “Study Cascade”—a network of social and casual learning spaces distributed along a staircase on the south side of the building. The building promises to be a perfect venue for students, incoming and continuing, to talk through public health concepts and consider how they matter for the world today.