Event Marks Launch of New Center for Public Health Systems
A December 12 event officially launched a new Center for Public Health Systems within the Columbia Mailman School’s Department of Health Policy and Management (HPM). The event underlined the importance of research, education, communications, and community engagement to forge connections across a fragmented public health system in the U.S.
Michael Sparer, longtime chair of HPM and director of the new center, emceed the event at the Columbia University Forum on 125th Street, speaking in conversation with author and philanthropist Chelsea Clinton, ‘10 MPH, an instructor in HPM and member of the School’s board of advisors, and Umair A. Shah, secretary of health for Washington State.
The Center for Public Health Systems will conduct research, facilitate public discussion, develop policy proposals, and provide educational programs, all with the goal of encouraging a better, more efficient, and more equitable public health system.
The idea for the Center crystallized during a research project that took Sparer and collaborator Larry Brown, a professor in HPM, across the country to study how various locales were allocating federal resources to fight the spread of COVID-19. What they found was “eye-opening”—a patchwork system of health agencies widely disparate in how they were organized, administered, and financed. Yet a common thread emerged: everywhere, the public health workforce was understaffed, underpaid, and undervalued.
At the same time, Sparer observed that a growing number of societal challenges—obesity, opioid addiction, loneliness, gun violence, misuse of social media— were being newly understood as public health crises. His observation raised questions like whose responsibility within the country’s fragmented public health system is it to respond to these crises, and how can its practitioners be equipped to do so?
He realized that HPM and Columbia Mailman “have the ability to contribute to the conversation,” and doing so is ever more important as the country enters a new political environment in 2025. Along with research and education, he said the Center is uniquely positioned to convene stakeholders from across the U.S. health system. “We can’t do it alone. We have to do it in connection, in collaboration, and in partnership with many of the groups that have been in this field and working on the ground.”
Already, HPM researchers beyond Sparer and Brown are leading consequential work into public health systems in the U.S. Examples include Heather Krasna, assistant professor of HPM and Associate Dean of Career & Professional Development, who studies efforts to define and to expand the public health workforce; Kai Ruggeri, professor of HPM, who is developing a novel survey of local public health departments; Magda Schaler-Haynes, a public health lawyer and professor in HPM and Population and Family Health, who’s leading a CDC-funded effort to embed public health law courses in every school of public health; and Nuannuan Xiang, assistant professor of HPM, who examines the intersection of public health and social welfare systems in a historic framework.
On the education front, HPM and the new Center will partner with professional organizations to develop non-degree offerings for public health managers and local elected officials, as well as trainings through the Health System Simulation led by HPM instructor John Winkleman.
Toward its goal of convening stakeholders, the Center will be hosting a conference jointly with the NewYork-Presbyterian Dalio Center for Health Justice on April 25 to focus on the role of the public health sector in responding to the emerging list of public health crises. Speakers will represent broad swaths of the public health system, from public health, hospitals, insurance, community-based organizations, and beyond.
Chelsea Clinton said the new Center provides a unique opportunity to forge connections and stimulate learning. “There is tremendous value in providing space to people from local and state health departments,” she said, adding that the work it does will be ever more important in the new national political environment.
Later in the day, Umair A. Shah spoke with Sparer about his experience as Secretary of Health for Washington and his previous role as Executive Director for Harris County Public Health, an area that encompasses Houston. Even in the conservative political climate in Harris County, Shah said he was able to double his budget within a year and a half. Part of his strategy was to avoid fights over hot-button terms like “equity” and “social determinants.” Instead, he made a case for how his agency aligned with community values like protecting neighbors during emergencies. He also demonstrated the ROI of their work.
“We have to do a better job of communicating the value proposition of the work we do because it is valuable work,” Shah said. Sparer concurred, saying, “public health should be viewed like the fire department. We’re not there. Demonstrating the value of public health is hard to do but needs to be done.” In Shah’s view, one impediment is that public health programs targeting a specific crisis like TB are often defunded as soon as they achieve success. On top of that, these days, many people associate public health with what they viewed as overly restrictive COVID guidance on masking, social distancing, and vaccination.
Shah concluded, saying, public health is about service for all Americans no matter their political stripe. “This center can be at the forefront of communicating and being part of that conversation and doing it in a nonpartisan way.”