2016: A Year to Celebrate.
Before I start what is intended as a celebratory Dean’s Note, I want to pause for a moment to comment on the absolute horror of the recent terror attack on Garissa University in Northeastern Kenya. I have previously commented on the consequences of hate and the importance of this for public health. This attack resounds in my mind for so many reasons. The number of those killed keeps rising, being almost 150 as of this writing. It is an echo of a previous, and all too recent, attack on civilians inside a Kenyan shopping mall. And most of all, it is an attack on a university. Universities should be where ideas are raised, voiced, discussed, and debated freely, without fear of repercussion or reprisal, with the full expectation of respectful, frank, and engaged debate and discussion. An attack such as this, motivated by orthodoxy and hate, challenges the very foundations of a pluralistic world and represents an affront to the ideals of inclusiveness that should animate our academic communities. My heart breaks thinking about the victims and their families; there is indeed nothing that one can do that can make up for their loss. But surely this attack sharpens our focus on the urgency of our mission—the creation of conditions that promote the health of populations. As a school of public health, we have a unique responsibility to bring to bear the power of our scholarship in casting a harsh light on the health consequences of hatred, discrimination, bigotry, and segregation; to make sure that his understanding infuses our education; and to embrace a full throated engagement with articulating the health consequences of hate for the global community as part of an assertive activist academic public health.
On the topic of visibility of public health concerns locally and globally, tomorrow marks the beginning of National Public Health Week, a yearly effort to recognize the work of public health professionals while highlighting our nation’s most pressing public health issues. This year’s theme is “Healthiest Nation 2030,” which addresses the impact of chronic disease in the US and asks how we can become “the healthiest nation” in one generation’s time. One can stay abreast of the week’s events via social media (@NPHW) and the hashtag #NPHW. A Twitter chat will also take place on Wednesday at 2 p.m.
Tuesday is also World Health Day, the focus of which is food safety. More than 2 million people die annually from exposure to contaminated food and water, yet food safety is infrequently a governmental public health priority. Tuesday’s social media dialogue on the topic is mediated via the hashtag #SafeFood.
Now, turning to today’s topic—in 2016, the School of Public Health will turn 40 years old. The school was established in 1976 as a program in the School of Medicine under the leadership of Douglas Decker, and the eventual first dean, Norman Scotch. Under Dean Scotch’s and then Dean Robert Meenan’s leadership, the school became what it is today—a top 10 school of public health that has more than 6500 alumni, 270 faculty, 250 staff, and nearly 1,000 students from more than 30 countries. More importantly, the school has made substantial contributions to the health of populations. To name but a few of these achievements, SPH faculty have developed the research base for drunk driving laws and regulations that have been adopted nationwide and saved tens of thousands of lives; have demonstrated the efficacy of community-based antibiotic therapy for childhood pneumonia in resource-poor settings and provoked a major change in the WHO treatment guidelines; laid the intellectual foundation for patients’ rights and applied bioethics in America and around the world; brought attention to physical disability as a public health issue for both high- and low-income countries; played key roles in developing the seminal Framingham Heart Study cardiovascular risk profiles; made important contributions to our understanding of the health impacts of environmental toxins in conditions such as Gulf War syndrome and renal failure in Nicaraguan sugar cane workers; and stimulated national and international reconsiderations of the value and ethics of placebo-controlled clinical trials. Our graduates are addressing real-world public health issues across a wide range of sectors, including local health departments, federal and state government, healthcare delivery systems, nonprofits and NGOs, academic institutions, and healthcare consulting firms. SPH alumni are also employed at pharmaceutical and medical device companies improving global access to treatment, and are making meaningful contributions on the payer side by developing evidence-based strategies and programs. Their influence is far-reaching: Alumni work in more than 70 countries, all 50 states, and thousands of diverse communities.
The School, then, has much to celebrate, and a milestone like the 40th anniversary presents us with an opportunity to do just that. Importantly, milestones afford us opportunity to define why our School and its mission matters to us—faculty, students, and staff—and also to our stakeholders, including alumni, parents, friends, board members, volunteers, current and former donors, emeritus members of the SPH community, key University colleagues, and external community leaders, partners, and employers.
To achieve this, we must ask ourselves as a community why it matters that SPH was founded 40 years ago and is now one of the leading schools of public health in the US. What is the evidence of SPH’s permanence, relevance, and impact? And, importantly, how can our stakeholders share a sense of pride and connection to our mission and its reach? How do we structure our 40th anniversary year so that we can connect our past, present, and future in order to forge stronger relationships with our entire community?
I think this presents us with an opportunity to reflect, renew, and reinvigorate. Allow me the alliterative pleasure of elaborating on each.
First, we will reflect on our School’s history and accomplishments. SPH exists to the end of producing knowledge, educating students, and translating that knowledge towards improving the health of the communities and populations we serve and with whom we engage. What are the most lasting achievements in each of these areas that we have accomplished as a school? What faculty research and scholarship has stood the test of time? What alumni achievement and leadership illustrate how an SPH education has prepared the future generation of leaders tackling the public health challenges?
Second, we have an opportunity to renew our relationship with stakeholders to engage or re-engage them with the life of the School. To do this, we will develop a dynamic and active communication strategy that will broaden connections of our constituents with the School and amongst each other and will also deepen those connections that currently prevail and thrive. As I communicated in my message a few weeks ago, we will be launching several new forums to highlight our scholarship, including symposia and Dean’s Seminars, as well as strengthening others like our Public Health Forum. We will also work to include stakeholders in a range of other events, including hands-on opportunities for service, mentorship, sponsorship, or other forms of engagement among alumni, students, faculty, and staff, as well as celebratory events such as an all-constituent gala to forge a collective sense of connection and pride. In concert with these activities, we will develop key messaging and design communication vehicles, such as videos and publications, and forge a signature aesthetic to inform our constituents about SPH’s past, present, and future.
Third, we will reinvigorate our stakeholder relations by involving them with our School’s future goals and aspirations. Most important to celebrating the 40th anniversary is the articulation of a vision for the School’s future. The case must be made for which opportunities can best realize our greatest aspirations and that can help forward our School’s mission. The School’s strategic thinking exercise, led by Professors Wendy Mariner and Vicky Parker, will inform, inspire and help identify SPH directions and goals for which support is needed.
Additionally, we will seek to identify key support needs for attracting and nurturing the most talented students and faculty and message these to our stakeholders to align with the 40th anniversary and future plans and milestones. While identifying these funding needs may boost our efforts during our current Building a Healthier World Campaign (this will be discussed more fully at the May school assembly), it will more importantly set the stage for what we aspire to be celebrating in 2026 during our School’s 50th anniversary. This will help us imagine, contemplate, and plan for what we seek to achieve over the next decade.
Therefore, SPH’s 40th anniversary celebration provides us with an opportunity to reflect, renew, and reinvigorate our stakeholder relationship and to catalyze our efforts to become an outwardly facing, ideas-first community.
To move forward on how we will strategize and roll out our 40th anniversary year, I have begun discussions with the Governing Council, have started an operational conversation with our Associate Deans group, and have included the involvement of Kara Peterson, Leslie Kolterman, and their teams to propose a structure for what our 2016 celebration schedule might look like. We welcome input, recommendations, and information from students, faculty, and staff on how to make the 40th anniversary inclusive, meaningful, and fun for our entire SPH community. Please do send along ideas to myself, Kara, or Leslie at any time, and do stay tuned for more information on the 40th anniversary celebration as our planning evolves.
I hope everyone has a terrific week. Until next week.
Warm regards,
Sandro
Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH
Dean and Professor, Boston University School of Public Health
@sandrogalea
Acknowledgement: I would like to acknowledge the help of Leslie Kolterman with the writing of this Dean’s Note, and of Dean Robert Meenan and many members of the Governing Council who provided input.
Previous Dean’s Notes are archived at: https://www.bu.edu/sph/category/news/deans-notes/