SPOTLIGHT ON SPH STRATEGIC DIRECTIONS

Our School’s strategy map identifies five strategic directions—cities and health; climate, the planet, and health; health inequities; infectious diseases; and mental and behavioral health—that are of critical importance to the public’s health and are areas of strength and potential for growth for the School. These strategic directions emerged from broad consultation both internal and external to the School.

Cities and Health

SPH has long placed research into urban life and health at the fore of its agenda, with reason: by 2050, 68 percent of the world’s population is expected to live in cities. Our experts study employment opportunities, housing structures, food access, discrimination and segregation, climate change, and many other complex realities of urban life that come to bear on health. Below are some examples of this work in action.

Health is a powerful reason for people to do things. Maybe they don't see the link between health and housing, solar panels, or land use changes. It is our job to elevate and connect all these different interventions we're doing to health.

M. Patricia Fabian

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH, CITIES AND HEALTH FACULTY LEAD

Think.

Racial Disparities in Child Exposure to Gun Violence Worsened during COVID

“It’s telling that the regions with the highest racial segregation show the biggest disparities in child exposure to gun violence, even when overall gun violence rates are lower.”

Jonathan Jay

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF COMMUNITY HEALTH SCIENCES

Professor Receives $6 Million from NIH to Study Air Pollution, Noise, and Dementia Risk

“We remain in early stages in researching noise and dementia, but the signals so far, including those from our study, suggest we should pay more attention to the possibility that noise affects cognitive risk as we age.”

Jennifer Weuve

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF EPIDEMIOLOGY

Program Connecting Students with Local Health Depts Shows Promise Beyond COVID-19

“The APHVC and our evaluation of it is an effort that we feel strongly will strengthen the ties between academic public health and local public health.”

Jacey Greece

CLINICAL ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF COMMUNITY HEALTH SCIENCES

Teach.

BU URBAN Prepares Students to Tackle Environmental and Climate Challenges

The Boston University Graduate Program in Urban Biogeoscience and Environmental Health (BU URBAN) provides PhD students interdisciplinary training that includes how to collaborate with government agencies, non-government organizations, and the private sector. Watch Video.

Do.

Bringing Health Equity to the World’s Largest Health Survey

This past summer, a team of School of Public Health students assisted the Boston Public Health Commission with a novel, community-engaged research project called “Unhoused and Uncounted: The Health of Boston Survey of People Experiencing Homelessness.” Read more about current MPH student, Megan Long’s practicum experience.

What the Orange Line Shutdown Means for Our Health & the Environment

SPH researchers Jonathan Buonocore, Christopher Rick, and Chad Milando are studying links between public transportation and traffic congestion, air quality, and poor health outcomes, and the unequal exposure to these environmental harms.