About DACS
The School of Public Healths Dean’s Advisory Council for Students (DACS) is a leadership opportunity open to all SPH undergraduate and graduate students. DACS is open to SPH students from the range of departments and interdisciplinary programs offered in the school. The DACS members serve for three academic quarters.
The DACS offer the Dean insights into the SPH student experience, discuss emergent school issues, policies, and student concerns. They provide feedback for the Dean on key decisions affecting SPH students and serve as the official student consultation body for a number of submissions by the Dean to UW leadership. DACS members practice leadership and group dynamics by initiating and developing projects designed to improve the student experience in the SPH.
DACS members are provided with a leadership curriculum and practice leadership and group dynamics skills. The group meets weekly with Dean Godwin (instructor) and Assistant Dean for Students Juanita Ricks (facilitator).
The application to serve on the DACS is opened each year over the summer term. DACS members are selected from enrolled public health students who submit an application and participate in an interview process. Up to 24 students per year are selected to serve on the DACS.
If you have questions about DACS, please contact Juanita Ricks: jmricks@uw.edu.
Expectations for DACS participation include:
- Approach the DACS experience as a leadership opportunity and leadership learning lab simultaneously. It is important to understand that as a student leader, you are both a leader and a student of leadership.
- Actively participate and complete the leadership curriculum detailed in the Leadership in Public Health syllabus each quarter.
- Work collaboratively on a group project with other members of DACS.
- Jointly host feedback sessions for the SPH students with the Dean.
- Act as a liaison to gather feedback and relay information discussed in DACS with SPH students.
To receive credit in the course, graduate and undergraduate students must additionally:
- Submit an evaluation of teammates of group project.
- Submit a quarterly reflection on course learning and growth.
Access the application for DACS.
You will be asked to provide contact information, affirm your understanding of the commitment to serving as a member of the DACS, provide a current CV or resume and a statement of interest. You will then be linked to schedule a time for a group interview.
Applications are open through the end of August 2025.
The Deans Advisory Council for Students (DACS) was created in the 2014-2015 academic year. It was modeled after a similar student leadership body that supports the UW Provost. The work of bringing a student advisory group to the SPH was initiated by graduate students and helped by the Director of Student Services.
The DACS was envisioned as an independent consultative leadership group, serving as a student voice for the Dean on student issues. DACS was not designed to replace existing student leadership in the school but would ideally have membership that bridged existing student leadership groups and student representative positions on standing committees across the school to be fully realized as consultative and representative of the breadth of the SPH student body.
Over time, shifting interest in DACS, shifting leadership in the Office of the Dean, and other opportunities for student engagement have changed the role of the DACS. It keeps the advisory relationship to the Dean, however there is less emphasis on DACS members having other past or simultaneous leadership roles in SPH. Over time, the DACS has embraced the opportunity to lead the development of projects of interest to the sitting DACS members that enhance the SPH student experience.
In 2019, Dean Godwin proposed a leadership curriculum for the DACS. This curriculum is the only class Dean Godwin teaches each year in SPH. All DACS members are provided access to the leadership curriculum as it formalizes a bi-directional relationship between the efforts that DACS members make to the school and those offered by the Dean exclusively available to the DACS students.
If you have questions about DACS, please contact Juanita Ricks: jmricks@uw.edu.
Projects initiated by DACS groups include:
- 2020-2021: A movie club that offered screenings and discussion sessions of popular and documentary films relevant to public health. Noteworthy that year was a documentary about activist Dolores Huerta
- 2022-2023: A promotional video for the SPH Student Concern Policy: DACS members found the policy to be well constructed and very student centered. However, it is very text heavy. They found that a video production might be more student-centered approach to share this valuable information.
- 2024-2025: Crafted a Universal Design for Learning: preferred practices one-pager that highlights UDL practices that SPH students would like to see faculty adopt in their courses.
- 2024-2025: Crafted promotional materials to highlight and ease access to mental health resources for SPH students. Innovated with QR codes to ease and track students accessing materials on mobile phones.
The 2024-2025 DACS leaders are:
- Four undergraduate students enrolled in the Food Systems, Nutrition, and Health major and the Public Health-Global Health major
- 12 master’s students enrolled in the departments of Epidemiology, Global Health, Health Systems and Population Health and the Health Management and Informatics interdisciplinary programs
- Two doctoral students enrolled in the departments of Biostatistics and Epidemiology
Member profiles can be viewed by current SPH students in the DACS module of the SPH Student and Academic Services Canvas.