September 28, 2015
Welcome to the Dean’s Dispatch! I’ll be using this new format to communicate with the SPH community, monthly or more often as inspiration and events dictate. In the Dean’s Dispatch I’ll share SPH news, reflections about public health and events of the day, and updates on some of what I’ve been doing.
The New School Year
This week, I’m excited to welcome our new students. We have 588 entering students, bringing our total student body to 1,450. These include 345 candidates for graduate degrees (52 PhD, 189 MPH, 39 MS, and 65 MHA), bringing our graduate student total to 892. We also welcome 180 undergraduate majors and 88 undergraduate certificate students, bringing our undergraduate total to 533 (not including 178 minors).
That undergraduate count, by the way, is a phenomenon. The last few years have seen explosive growth in our undergraduate program. Public health is one of the fastest-growing majors at colleges around the country. At UW our program has quickly moved from birth to robust adolescence (and a top-ten national ranking). I couldn’t be more enthusiastic about this program. Public health is an ideal platform for undergraduate learning. It combines biomedical science, social science, and humanities in tackling some of the world’s most pressing problems. It emphasizes the centrality of data, but also the centrality of values such as social justice. It celebrates cultural and other differences (as we celebrate our wonderfully diverse student body). Whatever our graduates go on to do—graduate training in a health profession, employment in public health, or another profession altogether—they’ll be rigorous thinkers, engaged citizens, and creative problem-solvers. A special salute to Sara Mackenzie, our Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Public Health, and the superb staff of the undergraduate Public Health major, whose commitment to their students is limitless. And kudos to our other undergraduate majors—Environmental Health and Health Informatics & Health Information Management.
Pressing Public Health Challenges
Looking outward, the world presents us with countless public health mandates. Three are especially on my mind these days: the plight of refugees; health disparities driven by racism and discrimination; and the health impacts of climate change.
I’ll never forget the image of Aylan Kurdi, the 3-year-old who drowned early this month off a Turkish beach. He and his family had fled Syria and were trying to reach Greece and ultimately a better life in Canada.
Tens of millions of people are now displaced—from Syria, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Nigeria, Somalia, Iraq, Libya, Yemen. This is the worst refugee crisis since the end of World War II. The devastation in people’s lives is unimaginable.
Germany has extended a remarkable welcome to refugees. Citizens in Austria, Iceland, France, and other nations have stepped up with generosity and solidarity.
Our own country—a nation of immigrants—must do much more. And as we do, those of us in public health need to engage. Refugees are a vulnerable population, carrying legacies of physical and mental trauma. We need to help arriving families secure the services they need, reach self-sufficiency, and thrive. I hope our SPH community focuses on this issue during the coming year.
The second public health issue on my mind is racial justice. The deaths over the past year of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Walter Scott, and Freddie Gray—to name only four—are a stark reminder that violence and discrimination afflict far too many of our fellow citizens (and non-citizens). Our common book for this year, Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow, searingly documents the impact of the war on drugs on the black community. Racism, persecution, foreclosed opportunities—these are powerful toxins, which play a large part in the health disparities that persist in our country.
Here in King County profound health disparities exist. While the average life expectancy across King County is 81.6 years, it’s 86.4 for Asian-American residents and 77.1 for black residents. It’s 86.1 on Mercer Island and 78.1 in parts of Federal Way. People living in neighborhoods just a bike ride apart have life expectancies that differ by almost a decade. Racial justice will be at the center of our attention this year, as we continue to discuss the issues raised by The New Jim Crow, and as we redouble our School’s efforts to achieve equity, diversity, and inclusiveness.
The third public health issue on my mind is climate change, which has been called the greatest public health threat of the 21st century. This summer offered sobering reminders, such as the drought and wildfires in our state. But this summer also offered hope. In a short two-week period in June, we saw the Lancet Commission report on health and climate change, the Papal Encyclical, Laudato Sí, which emphasized climate change and sustainability, and significant White House activity, including specific focus on the health impacts of climate change. Last week, President Obama and Chinese President Xi announced cooperative efforts to address climate change. Here in Washington, Governor Inslee just announced an ambitious effort to limit greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, refineries, landfills, and other sources. At SPH, our newly established Center for Health and the Global Environment (CHANGE) is leading the way in teaching, research, and action on the health aspects of climate change.
The Broad Scope of Public Health
My favorite paper this month was published in The Lancet Global Health by investigators at Harvard and Boston University: “Length of secondary schooling and risk of HIV infection in Botswana: evidence from a natural experiment.” Botswana recently expanded access to secondary schooling, and remarkably, each additional year of school led to an 8.1% reduction in the risk of HIV infection! A commentary published in the same issue made a fascinating and provocative claim: “Secondary schooling might be as good an HIV investment as male circumcision.” I love this because it’s a reminder that gains in public health often come through interventions in other sectors—education, environment, housing, energy policy. We always need to think as broadly as we can.
So new students, I urge you to reach out across our School, and across the entire campus. Befriend students in different fields. Explore the links between what they do and what you do. The First Law of Ecology is also true of public health: everything is connected to everything.
A warm welcome to all students, staff, and faculty as our 2015-16 academic year begins. I look forward to a great year together!
Howie
Howard Frumkin, M.D., Dr.P.H.
Dean, School of Public Health