March 16, 2023

By Emily Gallagher

The Dornsife School of Public Health’s 2022-23 Population Health Spotlight Series spanned from November to March and featured four speakers with unique public health perspectives and careers. This academic year's series was titled "Public Health at a Crossroads: Is it time for a new direction?"

The series explored challenges in addressing both emerging and ongoing threats to population health, rethinking public health approaches to address many pervasive threats to health and health equity that are built into the fabric of our society, and important lessons of the past few years and what are the next steps for public health research, practice and policy.

This year's speakers included:

• Gregg Gonsalves, PhD, Associate Professor of Epidemiology at Yale School of Public Health
• Cheryl Bettigole, MD, MPH, Philadelphia Health Commissioner
• Laura Magaña, MS, PhD, President and CEO of Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH)
• Julie Morita, MD, Executive Vice President of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF)

The February session featuring Theresa D. Chapple-McGruder, PhD, Public Health Director at the Village of Oak Park, was unfortunately cancelled, but Dr. Chapple-McGruder will be welcomed to speak at Dornsife in the 2023-24 academic year.   

Below are videos of the speaker presentations, complete with Q+As with attendees, who included members of the Drexel community, professionals from community-based organizations and government agencies, media professionals, and individuals interested in the topic more broadly.

Talk Title: Outbreaks, Overdoses and the Failure of Political Will in the United States.

Date: Wednesday, October 12, 2022
Speaker: Dr. Gonsalves

Talk Title: Emerging From a Pandemic: What’s Next for Public Health in Philadelphia?

Date: Wednesday, November 30, 2022
Speaker: Dr. Bettigole

Please note this video recording is not available.

Talk Title: Challenges and Opportunities for Education in Public Health after the COVID-19 Pandemic

Date: Wednesday, January 25, 2023
Speaker: Dr. Magaña

Talk Title: A ‘Fireside’ Chat on Policy, Public Health and Philanthropy

Date: Wednesday, March 15, 2023
Speaker: Dr. Morita

Special thanks to all Population Health Spotlight Series speakers and participants. The next series will focus on another timely topic in the field of public health and begin in early fall 2023.

Check out the Population Health video archive