February 26, 2025

The sixth annual Public Health Case Competition at the Dornsife School of Public Health (DSPH) was held in February 2025. This year's topic was micromobility in Philadelphia.

Transportation and health are inextricably linked via related physical activity (e.g., walking or biking for transport), air quality (e.g., from vehicle emissions), and infrastructure (e.g., road safety). Philadelphia in recent years has implemented many policies and infrastructure changes to address transportation issues that have health and sustainability impacts, but there remains much the city can do to further improve and address the effects of transportation on health. The purpose of this case competition is to develop an intervention and plan to improve transportation that will result in positive effects on health.

In six interdisciplinary teams, DSPH undergraduate and master’s students were tasked with creating a micromobility policy memo for city officials and a 1-page flyer to promote their plan to the public.

Over two weeks, teams met to discuss possible interventions to improve the state of micromobility and explore the feasibility of policies for the city. Teams were able to meet with faculty mentors twice throughout the competition. This two week period culminated with virtual presentations to a panel of judges and audience members consisting of faculty, professional staff, fellow students, and competitor's loved ones. After presenting, teams answered questions from the judge's panel which aided in the selection process. After 15 minutes of judge's panel deliberation, winners — first place, honorable mention, and people's choice — were revealed and students were applauded for their efforts (listed below).

The flyers (pictured below) were open to viewing and voting by the public and the DSPH community. The one with the most votes received the People’s Choice Award.

Thank you teams, judges, mentors, and organizers for another successful competition.

Congratulations to the Winners

First Place: Team 5 ($1,000 awarded to the team)

Honorable Mention: Team 3 ($500 awarded to the team)

People’s Choice: Team 3 ($500 awarded to the team)

Case Competition Teams

Team 1: Aanchal Totwani, Tara Polackal, and Asha Criner

Team 2: Jessica Lim, Manya Mittal, and Pearl Diabene

Team 3: Shailly Verma, Madeline Plummer, Miliani Smith, and Victoria Rodríguez Villarreal

Team 4: Disha S, Bharath Gowda, and Rashmika Jutty Ganesh Babu

Team 5: Filza Zuberi, Radwa Nahla, Haolong Yu, Morgan Matthews, and Jayla Norman

Team 7: Marissa McCormick, Lexi Haws, Daniel Palma, and Grace Frasso

Lead Event Organizer

Tariem Burroughs, PhD, MSEd, MSODL, Executive Director for External Partnerships, Office of Education

Judges Panel

• Xinke Cui, PhD Student, Drexel College of Engineering, Department of Civil, Environmental, & Architectural Engineering - Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Amy Auchincloss, PhD, MPH, Associate Professor, Epidemiology and Biostatistics Department, DSPH
• Anna Simpson, MPH, PhD Student, Epidemiology and Biostatistics Department, DSPH
• Marco Gorini, MA, Vision Zero Program Manager, Office of Multimodal Planning, Managing Director’s Office of Transportation & Infrastructure City of Philadelphia

DSPH Faculty Team Mentors

• Neal Goldstein, PhD, MBI, Associate Research Professor, Epidemiology and Biostatistics Department
• Ed Gracely, PhD, Associate Professor, Epidemiology and Biostatistics Department
• Esther Chernak, MD, MPH, FACP, Clinical Professor, Environmental and Occupational Health Department
• Michael LeVasseur, PhD, MOH, Assistant Teaching Professor, Epidemiology and Biostatistics Department
• Tariem Burroughs, PhD, MSEd, MSODL, Executive Director for External Partnerships, Office of Education
• Jennifer Kolker, MPH, Clinical Professor, Health Management and Policy Department
• Jerry Fagliano, MPH, PhD, Clinical Professor, Environmental and Occupational Health Department

DSPH Faculty Case Authors

• Alex Quistberg, PhD, MPH, Associate Research Professor, Environmental and Occupational Health Department
• Mark Stehr, BS, PhD, Professor, Health Management and Policy Department

Check out the team's flyers:

View team posters

*Team flyers are listed in order by team (one - seven).

Learn more about Dornsife's annual Public Health Case Competition