Dear Colleagues:

Welcome back. I hope that everyone has had the opportunity for rest during the Intersession, with moments of joy and warmth.

As we start 2024, a brief thought on the year ahead, towards paving the way for conversations to come as the year unfolds.

This year has the potential to bring with it challenges that test us all. Populism is on the rise, wars rage, the federal election in the US looms with its promise of deeper division and, potentially, the return to power of policies which threaten health. Then there is the uncertainty created by technology that could rival or even eclipse the birth of the internet in its implications for how we live. All this will pose challenges for our work and create plenty of room for anxious reckoning in the year ahead.

How, then, are we to think about the coming year? How should we engage with the challenge of the moment when this challenge can seem overwhelming? How can this engagement inform actions that make a difference at such a tumultuous time?

It is at times like this, when we face such questions, that I am most glad to be in a mission-oriented field, at a school that holds this mission central to what we do. Our pursuit of this mission can help guide our engagement with the challenges and uncertainties we face. In these moments it is more important than ever to have the discipline to pursue a radical vision of a healthier future pragmatically, aspiring always to what could be without losing sight of what is. This will take patience and thoughtful engagement with the work of public health. It will also require us to be ready for the year to come, mindful that, yes, 2024 may be difficult, but it is a challenge we are prepared for.

And preparation does not mean fear. With challenge comes opportunity. With uncertainty comes the possibility for transformative change. A new year encourages us to hope. A favorite aphorism is from Maya Angelou who wrote “Hope and fear cannot occupy the same space. Invite one to stay.” This therefore challenges us to do just that—to invite hope in the coming year. Because the world needs public health more than ever. It needs to hear what we have to say. It is on us to ensure our voices are compassionate, that they reflect the humility that should inform all we do, and that they are guided by a core commitment to a vision of a better world that we can contribute to through our scholarship, teaching, and practice.

Thank you, all, for making it so.

I look forward to our work together, to realizing the hope brought by a new year, and to continuing all our conversations in 2024.

Warmly,

Sandro

Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH
Dean, Robert A Knox Professor

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