April 12, 2021

For the second time since the pandemic began, the Dornsife School of Public Health community celebrated National Public Health Week (NPHW) from home. The 2021 national observation began Monday, April 5 and ended Sunday, April 11, 2021. NPHW is an initiative led by the American Public Health Association (APHA). The theme that was selected for this year was "Building Bridges to Better Health."

Throughout the seven days, students participated in a series of events hosted by Dornsife’s Office of Alumni and Student Affairs, the Peer Health Educators Graduate Student Organization, the Health Management and Policy (HMP) Club, and the Dornsife Student Government Organization (SGO)/Dornsife Undergraduate Student Government Organization (USGO), that explored a wide range of public health topics.

Guest speakers included Tambra Raye Stevenson, MPH, Leader of Women Advancing Nutrition Dietetics and Agriculture (WANDA), who spoke on Tuesday and Adonis Banegas, Executive Director of The Council of Spanish Speaking Organizations of Philadelphia (Concilio), who spoke on Wednesday. Stevenson discussed racial equity in food and nutrition and Banegas shared opportunities to strengthen Hispanic communities.

With COVID restrictions still in effect, students used creative ways to connect with one another. The HMP Club hosted a “Sketch and Chat on Health Equity” on Wednesday. This was an informal discussion about health equity, followed by participants illustrating their ideas through Sketchpad. The Sketchpad platform allows users to create digital artwork to share online and export to popular image formats.

SGO and USGO hosted a Trivia Night on Thursday via Zoom that brought various students together to have fun and unwind. Leaders of SGO also used social media to share NPHW graphics provided by APHA. These graphics raise awareness of varied public health matters: advancing racial equity; strengthening community; galvanizing climate justice; constructing COVID-19 resilience; uplifting mental health and wellness; and elevating the essential and health workforce.

Another highlight of NPHW, Dornsife hosted its Population Health Symposium on Wednesday and Thursday. This inaugural symposium brought together researchers, health practitioners, students, and the public at large to learn about the intersection of racism and health and discuss how to collectively propose sustainable solutions towards health equity.

The symposium included two keynote speakers: Nancy Krieger, PhD, Professor, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Rob Santos, MA, Vice President and Chief Methodologist Director, Statistical Methods Group. In addition to the keynote addresses, three panels on research, interventions, and public engagement were held.

This year, the symposium was organized by the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics.