Weekly news from the School of Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis
Dear colleagues,
I hope the week starts well.
The past week, in the world
It has been a momentous week for the country, as we went through the quadrennial presidential inauguration. The moment brings to a close, at least for the time being, an enormously rancorous national election with competing visions for the state of — and the future of — the country. There is no question that this moment is freighted, and at times it feels as though the whole country, and much of the world, is waiting with bated breath to see what emerges from this presidential transition.
While, as I have written before, the moment calls for patience, optimism, the past week has had much occasion for alarm, characterized as it has been by the othering of many groups; divisiveness that in and of itself threatens health; and challenges that can be posed by particular administrative appointments. It also has been concerning to see President Trump’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement and the World Health Organization. The Paris Agreement is an important framework for addressing the public health challenge of climate change, and U.S. participation in the WHO has been a central pillar that has allowed the organization to pursue its critical work of supporting global health. Withdrawal from both reflects a turning away from the internationalism that allows us to address global challenges, creating further divides in a time when we should be building bridges toward a better future for all. And, close to home, news of challenges to communication and gatherings of federal agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) can have profound implications for the work we do and how we do it. There is little question that this is all extraordinarily worrisome, and that it is hard to separate “the signal from the noise,” about what is and is not going to be consequential.
This calls, in my assessment, on us to redouble our effort on the critical mission of our work, our responsibility to bear witness, and to keep doing what we are doing: building a school that can elevate excellent population health science and scholarship, teach the next generation, and serve to improve health locally and globally, and to do so in partnership with all — regardless of partisan stripe — who similarly share this mission. We shall need to identify together how we navigate the moment, and that we shall do in due course. Now, onto the week.
The past week, at the School of Public Health
We hosted our first Talking Public Health seminar this week, featuring Dr. Daniel Zhao. A recording of this seminar, and all others, will be hosted here.
Looking ahead
We have a full, and I think interesting, week ahead.
On Tuesday, Jan. 28, from 9 to 10 a.m, we have our first Thinking Public Health gathering, at Kuehner Court in Weil Hall. This will be in person only, open to all staff, faculty and students; registration is here. There is a set of pre-reads here that might help inform the discussion. The topic is “Changing the conversation: On the utility of symbols and statements.”
On Wednesday, Jan. 29, at 4 p.m., I will be speaking as part of the University Assembly Series, on “Why health? Reimagining What We Think About When We Think About Health.” This will be in Graham Chapel on the Danforth Campus. Registration is here.
At noon Thursday, Jan. 30, we will have a Talking Public Health seminar. Massy Mutumba, PhD, will speak on “Promoting Mental Health and Resilience Among Adolescents: School-Based Strategies and Innovations.” She is an assistant professor in the Department of Health Behavior and Biological Sciences at the University of Michigan School of Nursing. To attend in person or over Zoom, register here. I look forward to seeing members of our community at these seminars as you are able to attend.
Also Thursday, Jan. 30, at 4 p.m., I will deliver an Installation talk, “Toward a healthier world: Leading in Public Health in the Coming Decade.”
I am looking forward to these events, and am grateful to the university for hosting the Assembly Series and Installation talks. I will, in these presentations, try to outline a vision for the scope of questions in which we should be engaging in health, and how we, together, can lead this engagement both at WashU, and globally.
Public Health Ideas
A video of my conversation with Brown School Assistant Professor Proscovia Nabunya, PhD, on a paper she co-authored, “Preliminary Impact of Group-Based Interventions on Stigma and the Mental Health of Caregivers of Adolescents Living with HIV in Uganda,” is here. Thank you to Professor Nabunya for being a part of this.
Also this week
If interested, this week a blog in The Healthiest Goldfish, “On cruelty, liberalism, and the moment.”
Warmest wishes for the week ahead,
Sandro
Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH
Margaret C. Ryan Dean of the School of Public Health
Eugene S. and Constance Kahn Distinguished Professor in Public Health
Washington University in St. Louis
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