Read about SPH people, research and impact.
SPH Blog
Devastating floods had just hit Mozambique when Kenny Sherr first arrived in March 2000. Rivers had overflown from heavy rains, killing hundreds and destroying cattle and crops.
“A woman gave birth in a tree,” says Sherr, now an associate professor of global health at the University of Washington School of Public Health. “Rosita, the baby, made international news. Everybody knew about it.”
Jennifer Otten is part of a UW team studying the impact of the minimum-wage increase in Seattle. She's also an expert on food systems, and one of her greatest passions is food waste – we throw out roughly 25 percent of the food we buy, she says. Otten teaches the popular "Food Studies: Harvest to Health" class, which has no textbook and no tests, but lots of videos.
It was Irene Njuguna’s dream to save children from the agonies of childhood disease. But as a pediatric resident in Nairobi, she felt powerless standing by the bedside. She saw gaps in the health care system, from a critical shortage of hospital beds and intravenous lines to low testing rates for HIV.
Each year, the School honors two outstanding graduate students – one doctoral and one master's – for their academic excellence and commitment to public health. This year's winners of the Gilbert S. Omenn Award for Academic Excellence are Miriam Calkins, who received a PhD in environmental and occupational hygiene, and Katrin Fabian, an MPH graduate in global health.
Eric Larson is driven to find ways to prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia, and to delay cognitive decline in old age.
Heather Fowler grew up with dogs, reptiles, hedgehogs and a guinea pig named Mr. Guinea. She worked with exotic birds in Hawaii during college and trained to treat small pets in vet school. After meeting an officer from the Epidemic Intelligence Service of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Fowler, then a veterinary student, started to think seriously about how public health and animal health converge.
After more than 30 years working on legal issues related to the delivery of health care services, Jeff Sconyers is now using his vast experience and knowledge to make policy and ethics come to life for students at the University of Washington School of Public Health.
Unable to find work in the male-dominated field of chemical engineering in her home country of Thailand, Nuttada Panpradist changed course and, in the process, discovered a passion for global health and innovation.
Abandoned by her mother at age four and emotionally starved until 18, Anne McTiernan overcame adversity and obesity to earn a PhD in epidemiology and an MD in internal medicine. Today, she is a pioneer in women’s health research designing studies that aim to reduce the 25 percent of cancers caused by excess weight and sedentary lifestyles.
Anne-Marie Gloster grew up eating fish sticks that came frozen in a box, and it wasn’t until she was 20 that she was exposed to good food. Now, Gloster is designing food and nutrition classes and teaching the first cooking course at the UW since home economics was removed from the curriculum 30 years ago. Hear more about her love of food and cooking.
How did you find your place in public health?
My aunt, Dr. Ruth Nduati, got her MPH in epidemiology from the UW School of Public Health and is now an affiliate associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology. She is my role model—a physician and trained epidemiologist who works in HIV/AIDS research in Kenya. She played a significant role in my decision to pursue a career in HIV research.
Wendy Barrington is passionate about promoting health equity and credits her social justice orientation to her African-American and white background. Her experience living in different places -- from suburban Oregon and California to rural New Mexico -- has also spurred her interest in neighborhoods and health.
Promoting health at the workplace makes sense – after all, more than half of the adults in the U.S. go to a job every day. Peggy Hannon, new director of the School’s Health Promotion Research Center, helps companies adopt wellness programs that improve employee health while also reaching out to those workers most likely to suffer from health inequities. Stress, she says, is another hot workplace topic.
Thomas Fleming was bound for the priesthood, but changed his career pathway when he was inspired by a gifted math teacher and then by a fellow math student who later became his wife. Fleming went on to become a leading biostatistician and a prominent advocate for rigorous evaluation of the benefits and risks of new drugs, biological products and devices.
Why is the Public Health Major so popular?
So many students are interested in health and want to make a difference. We’re giving them broader options to think about how they might be involved in the wellness of their families and their communities beyond traditional ideas of being a physician or clinician.