Columbia Public Health 2023-2024

MAGAZINE OF THE COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY MAILMAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH

2023–2024

Columbia Public Health

FACING THE FUTURE

Climate Scientists A GLOBAL FOCUS

Mental Health IMPACT REPORT

ICAP at 20

REIMAGINING EDUCATION

WORKFORCE KNOWLEDGE EVOLVING ONLINE YEAR-ROUND ACCESSIBLE EMERGING PRO

VERSE FUTURE POLICY COMMUNITY CREDENTIALS SPECIALIZED ACCESSIBLE ROBUST

LIFELONG COLLABORATION PATHWAY ALL AGES FLEXIBLE ROBUST WORKFORCE ONLINE

E YEAR-ROUND ACCESSIBLE XCREDENTIALS COLLABORATION INCLUSIVE LEADERSHIP SP

SPECIALIZED EMERGING PROFESSIONAL KNOWLEDGE DIVERSE MICROCREDENTIALS CO

ALL AGES TEAMWORK COLLABORATION MICROCREDENTIALS FLEXIBLE PROFESSIONAL

2023–2024

View the digital version at publichealth.columbia.edu/ CPHmagazine.

DE AN

Linda P. Fried, MD, MPH ASS OC IAT E DE AN AN D C H I E F COMMU NIC AT IONS O FFI C E R

Vanita Gowda, MPA

E DITOR IN C H IE F

Dana Points ART DIRE C TOR

Diana Reddy E DITORIAL DIRE C TO R

Tim Paul COPY E DITOR

Emmalee C. Torisk

Supporting Our Students

As part of our commitment to environmental stewardship, this issue is printed by The Standard Group on Rolland Enviro™ 100% recycled paper.

© 2023 Columbia University

Scholarship funding is crucial to our students. Roughly 60% of those admitted to Columbia Mailman School have demonstrated financial need, and the burden of student loans can prevent graduates from entering important public service careers. To ensure a world-class public health education is accessible to students from all backgrounds, please consider a gift toward financial aid.

CONNE C T WIT H U S

Make your gift today at publichealth.columbia.edu/give or contact Laura Sobel at ls3875@cumc.columbia.edu to discuss the power of leadership giving.

WORK WIT H U S

Alumni: msphalum@cumc.columbia.edu publichealth.columbia.edu/alumni S U P P ORT U S

Development: msphgive@cumc.columbia.edu publichealth.columbia.edu/give

Career Services: msphocs@cumc.columbia.edu publichealth.columbia.edu/careers L E ARN WIT H U S

Admissions: ph-admit@columbia.edu publichealth.columbia.edu/apply

In This Issue

12

18

24

28

32

36

columns

features

2

Letter From the Dean

3

Momentum Preventing pandemics • Fighting misinformation • The dogs of Chornobyl • Working for clean water • What is health? • Honors, awards, and more

7

Impact Beauty risks • Chronic fatigue and the microbiome • Older driver dangers • Asthma and cannabis Plus: the School’s latest impact stats and more

40 Graduates Inspiring alumni 43 Scholars Campus updates and a landmark visit from nine first ladies

12

Reimagining Public Health Education for the 21st Century

The School once again sets the bar for schools of public health everywhere. BY PAULA DERROW

18

Confronting Climate Change

Students in the pioneering Climate and Health Program tell us what motivates and excites them.

INTERVIEWS BY TIM PAUL

24

The Future Is: Data Science for Health

A new generation of data scientists learns to handle an information explosion. BY CAROLINE HOPKINS

28

This Is What Global Health Looks Like

32

A World of Good for Mental Health

ICAP at Columbia University marks 20 years of confronting public health�s greatest challenges.

A new program is taking an interdisciplinary approach to an increasingly critical issue.

BY CHRISTINA HERNANDEZ SHERWOOD

36

The Party of the Century

Columbia Mailman School celebrated 100 years of leadership in public health with special guest Anthony S. Fauci, MD.

publichealth.columbia.edu

1

Letter From the Dean

Future Focus

T

he COVID-19 pandemic made visible the paramount importance of public health science, policy, and practice. Our School responded quickly, as we have long led in strengthening public health capabilities for pandemic prevention and response. However, even as our world has evergrowing needs for public health knowledge and practice, the challenges to taking action have risen, with increasing misinformation about issues such as vaccines, and heightened politicization surrounding public health’s efforts to protect people from illness and disability.

We must better communicate the critical need for prevention science and develop effective health solutions that achieve the core responsibility of public health: to keep people from becoming ill in the first place. Our School has long been committed to providing cutting-edge education on prevention science, while also building programs for 21st-century challenges, such as climate change and mental health. We work diligently to determine how to increase health itself at every age and stage of our now-longer lifespans.

This year’s cover story (page 12) explores our innovative, interdisciplinary educational programs, which have continually evolved to prepare professionals to succeed in today’s complex public health landscape throughout their careers. A few examples: More than a decade ago, our prescient leadership resulted in the first masters and doctoral degree programs focused on the health impacts of climate change. And in recent years we have built specialized education on food systems and health, health communications, and population mental health.

Our degree and non-degree programs—whether in-person or online, full time or part time—help learners make a transformative difference in population health. We deeply appreciate our partners who provide scholarship aid—in many cases enabling our fabulous students to graduate without debt and pursue meaningful careers in public service. (Read about some of our supporters on page 36.)

Columbia University recently welcomed its new president, distinguished economist Minouche Shafik, PhD, who has served in senior leadership roles across multiple sectors. We share in her belief that “Education is the foundation on which a just society is built and ... the best way to make sure that all of the talents in our society flourish to everyone’s benefit.”

With thanks for your partnership and wishing you good health,

Dean Linda P. Fried, MD, MPH Subscribe to our newsletter Transmission to get the latest news and events from Columbia Mailman School. publichealth.columbia.edu/transmission

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COLUM B I A P U BLI C H E A LT H

2023–2024 EDITION

MOMENTUM

MOVI N G FO RWA RD AT CO LUMB I A MA I LMA N SC HO O L O F P U BLIC HEALTH

Bode Shobayo, PhD, of Liberia practices testing in the GAPP lab at Columbia Mailman School.

Teaching the World to Prevent Pandemics JUST OVER A YEAR INTO ITS TRAINING PROGRAMS, THE GLOBAL ALLIANCE FOR PREVENTING PANDEMICS (GAPP) HAS WELCOMED researchers and clinicians from Bangladesh,

Germany, Mali, Mexico, Nigeria, and Zambia, as well as personnel from the U.S. Department of Defense, to its Columbia Mailman School lab. They are learning how to use VirCapSeq-VERT, a test invented at the School that detects all known viruses that infect people and other vertebrates and discovers new viruses as well. Using it means the global health community can achieve faster, better awareness of emerging infections with fewer samples to analyze.

GAPP aims to ensure equitable, The work will be done by Malians, sustained access to breakthrough diin Mali, for Malians,” says Wickiser, agnostic technology and to promote adding that countries in the global medical independence and excelSouth do not pay for testing materilent healthcare for all. Each training als. “We provide materials; if necestakes about three weeks. “Then they sary, we help secure funds.” can return to their lab confident Next up? GAPP will add trainthey can use the test effectively, and ings for BacCapSeq, another test can train others,” says J. Kenneth created in the School’s Center for Wickiser, PhD, GAPP’s administraInfection and Immunity. It identitive director. A training with Malian fies all bacteria with clinical relpartners is one example of GAPP in evance. Says Wickiser, “The more action: “We have trained their unipeople who adopt these tests and versity scientists and their equivalent realize they save lives, the closer we of the CDC. We are set to supply get to the goal of GAPP, which is them with test materials, so they can eventually to put ourselves out of be up and running, independently. business.”

Photographs: (left) Diane Bondareff; (above) Anne Foulke Toner

HONORS Lipkin Joins Task Force W. Ian Lipkin, MD, the John Snow Professor of Epidemiology and director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia Mailman School, is one of a group of scientists and public health leaders convened by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists to be part of a new international task force to consider trends and oversight of high-risk pathogen research.

Navas-Acien Named to Cancer Advisory Board President Joe Biden appointed Ana NavasAcien, MD, PhD, MPH, to the National Cancer Advisory Board, which plays an important role in guiding the National Cancer Institute. A professor of Environmental Health Sciences and member of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, Navas-Acien has more than 300 peer-reviewed publications and leads multiple National Institutes of Health-funded research projects.

Pei Receives Pilot Grant Sen Pei, PhD, assistant professor of Environmental Health Sciences, is the recipient publichealth.columbia.edu

3

Corporation for Science Advancement

Just the Facts

and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to

THE LERNER CENTER FOR PUBLIC HEALTH PROMOTION HOSTED ITS THIRD NATIONAL

of a $50,000 pilot grant from the Research

study zoonotic threats. Pei will be one of three principal investigators on a project titled “Impact of Climate Variability on Foreign Animal Disease: Forecasting Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza.”

De Pinho Selected as Teaching Scholar Helen de Pinho, MBBCH, MBA, FCCH, associate dean of educational programs and assistant professor in the Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health, has been selected to be a 2023 Provost’s Senior Faculty Teaching Scholar.

As one of eight from across the University, she will create a plan for supporting, changing, and innovating the culture of

CONFERENCE EARLIER THIS YEAR, exploring strategies to debunk misinforma-

tion about climate change, abortion, and global vaccinations. An escalation in misinformation and misunderstanding of scientific evidence during the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of this topic. Turning the Tide: Combatting Misinformation in Public Health drew more than 80 attendees and hosted faculty and staff from Columbia University, City University of New York Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, Johns Hopkins University, New York University, Yale University, and more.

Journalist Renée Loth, an opinion columnist for The Boston Globe, led a workshop on Op-Ed Writing for Professionals.

In her keynote presentation, Wen-Ying Sylvia Chou, PhD, MPH, program director in the Health Communication and Informatics Research Branch at the National Cancer Institute, told attendees that communicating about public health and taking on misinformation “isn’t just a matter of having the right skills and using the right tools; it also means you also have to have courage.”

teaching and learning within her own department or school and across campus.

Fried Awarded French Honor Dean Linda P. Fried, MD, MPH, received the Insignia of the Chevalier of the Légion d’Honneur,

France’s

highest

order

of

merit. The award recognizes her scientific advances on aging and her outstanding public health leadership.

Chowkwanyun Receives Award Donald H. Gemson Assistant Professor of Sociomedical Sciences Merlin Chowkwanyun, PhD, MPH, is the 2022 recipient of the Milbank Quarterly Early Career Award in Population Health from the Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science.

The award recognizes significant contribu-

Secrets of Chornobyl’s Dogs

tions to population health science by an

IN THE FIRST STEP TOWARD UNDERSTANDING HOW DOGS—AND PERHAPS HUMANS—

individual who has received a PhD or MD in

ADAPT TO EXPOSURE TO RADIATION, HEAVY METALS, OR TOXIC CHEMICALS, research-

the past 10 years.

ers have conducted a pioneering investigation into the genetic structure of two groups of stray dogs living within the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone.

The 1986 Chornobyl nuclear power plant disaster released enormous amounts of ionizing radiation and toxins into the air and water. “Somehow, two small populations of dogs survived in that highly toxic environment,” says Norman J. Kleiman, PhD, assistant professor of Environmental Health Sciences and a study co-author. The two groups, which rarely interbreed, showed significant genetic differences between them. The team confirmed that the two populations were genetically distinct and was able to identify 391 regions in the dogs’ genomes that differed between the two locations.

“Some of these markers point to genes associated with genetic repair,” Kleiman says. Understanding the genetic and health impacts on the dogs will strengthen broader understanding of how to mitigate environmental hazards in humans.

Miller Reappointed to Research Advisory Panel Gary W. Miller, PhD, vice dean for research strategy and innovation, has been invited to serve a second term on the National Institutes of Health’s All of Us Research Program advisory panel. All of Us is collecting data from a diverse group of 1 million U.S. participants for a database that will inform thousands of studies for decades to come.

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COLUM B I A P U BLI C H E A LT H

2023–2024 EDITION

MOMENTUM

Welcome, New Team Members COLUMBIA MAILMAN SCHOOL HAS HIRED TWO KEY ADMINISTRATORS WHO WILL HELP SHAPE THE SCHOOL IN ITS SECOND CENTURY. YVONNE ORTIZ, MEd, ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION (DEI), will

Columbia University Northern Plains Superfund Research Program researchers work with the Missouri Breaks staff to sample private wells for arsenic and uranium contamination. From left to right, Rebecca White Bull, Sandy Little, Rae O'Leary, MPH, Randall Hughes, James Ross, Steven Chillirud, PhD, and Anirban Basu, PhD.

Joining Tribal Communities to Fight for Cleaner Water TRIBAL LANDS IN THE NORTHERN PLAINS ARE AFFECTED BY OVER 15,000 HAZARDOUS WASTE SITES AND 7,000 ABANDONED MINES. Now a new interdisciplinary

partnership aims to reduce exposures to hazardous metals such as uranium and arsenic in drinking water, which play a role in the high rates of heart disease and diabetes affecting rural communities. The Columbia University Northern Plains Superfund Research Program (CUNP-SRP) brings together researchers from Columbia Mailman, the Columbia Climate School, and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, along with community partners at Missouri Breaks in North Dakota and South Dakota.

“Our mission is to protect water resources in tribal communities from these hazardous metal exposures through the integration of system science, innovative technology, and traditional Indigenous knowledge,” says principal investigator Ana Navas-Acien, MD, PhD, MPH, professor of Environmental Health Sciences. The researchers are working to identify areas where water needs remediation, to trace sources of contamination and pinpoint biological pathways of exposure, and to develop sustainable technologies to treat contaminated water. Community partners will work with researchers on data collection and analysis, and lead dissemination of findings to residents of three communities in North Dakota and South Dakota.

The program builds on the Strong Heart Study, which linked arsenic and uranium exposures to elevated levels of cardiovascular disease in American Indian communities in the Northern Plains. The study dates to the 1980s, and Navas-Acien has led its environmental work since 2008.

Photographs, from left: iStock; Adelina Rolea; Lucas Hoeffel; courtesy of subject

bring her considerable expertise working with students and educational institutions to deepen and elevate DEI initiatives across the School. Her work will include strengthening the sense of belonging and shared community across the School and supporting the recruitment and retention of students, faculty, and staff from marginalized communities.

A former university dean of student affairs and medical school director of DEI, Ortiz has a strong history of aligning communities to enhance instruction, leadership, systems, and culture to promote equity.

JOHN BEARD, MBBS, PhD, IRENE DIAMOND PROFESSOR AND DIRECTOR OF THE INTERNATIONAL LONGEVITY CENTER-USA, will lead the Cen-

ter’s work to translate knowledge of global trends in healthy longevity and catalyze societal change that can enable people of all ages to reimagine the second half of life. From 2009 to 2019, Beard was director of the Department of Ageing and Life Course with the World Health Organization, where he led major global initiatives. He has worked extensively with the World Economic Forum, including as chair of their Global Agenda Council on Ageing, and was a commissioner with the recent U.S. National Academy of Medicine Commission on Healthy Longevity. publichealth.columbia.edu

5

MOMENTUM SUPPORTING OUR WORK TRANSFORMATIONAL GIFTS AND GRANTS FROM LEADING DONORS CONTRIBUTED TO A TOTAL OF $53 MILLION RAISED FOR THE SCHOOL IN THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 2023.

Susan Lasker Brody, MPH ’97, a dedicated alumna, supporter, and longtime member of the Board of Advisors included provisions in her estate plans of $15 million. The gift will honor her legacy and realize her long-held vision of creating a Center for Population Mental Health at Columbia Mailman School.

Jonathan Lavine and Jeannie Lavine donated $5 million to endow the Lavine Family Directorship of the Climate and Health Program. Their gift is a strong affirmation of the School’s long-standing dedication to studying, educating on, and ultimately mitigating the health effects of climate change. Read more about the pro-

Exploring a Fundamental Question: What Is Health?

According to the World Health Organization, health is more than the absence of disease. But to better define it, Daniel Belsky, PhD, associate professor of Epidemiology in the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center, is working with an interdisciplinary team which received a Centennial Grand Challenges grant.

HOW DOES YOUR PROJECT DEFINE HEALTH? BELSKY: Realized health is the ability of people to do things they want and that

society expects of them. We’re trying to understand the biology that underpins that—this is intrinsic health. We’re not focused just on the cellular or tissue level; we want to broadly describe what is required for organisms to experience health.

YOU PROPOSE HEALTH IS GOVERNED BY THREE MAIN FACTORS. CAN YOU ELABORATE? BELSKY: Energy is crucial to all bodily functions, from movement to healing.

Structure is fundamental to the function of DNA, proteins, cells, tissues, and organs. Communication is key to the coordination of biological processes.

Intrinsic health is a function of these three factors. It’s not dependent on physical attributes. Someone who doesn’t have the use of all their limbs can still have exceptional intrinsic health. Think of a sprinter who runs on blades.

gram on page 18.

WHERE ARE YOU WITH THIS PROJECT NOW?

Jack Rowe, MD, and Valerie Rowe, PhD, gave $5 million to address the

statistical modeling techniques. The goal is to test proof of concept for the network of energy, communication, and structure as a fundamental building block of what people experience as health. Ultimately, we want to develop a simpler way to measure intrinsic health, ideally a blood or saliva test.

School’s highest priorities. Their gift will allow the School much-needed flexibility to seize emerging opportunities, adapt to evolving needs, and invest in key strategic initiatives—including student scholarships; diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives; and strengthening ties with the local community. John W. "Jack" Rowe is the Julius B. Richmond Professor of Health Policy

BELSKY: We’re mapping our theory of intrinsic health onto some exciting new

HOW COULD THIS TEST BE USED? BELSKY: It could provide a metric for health surveillance or an endpoint for

a clinical trial. This is useful when we’re testing complex interventions that affect multiple health states, such as access to primary care, better water quality, or policies that address social determinants of health. It could become a standard test. I think we’d all like to know our own intrinsic health.

and Aging and a professor of Health Policy and Management at the School.

Alan Batkin and Jane Batkin donated $2.5 million to endow the Jane and Alan Batkin Professorship in Child Health and Well-Being, underscoring the School’s commitment to addressing the unique public health needs of children and adolescents and advancing the right of all young people to grow up in healthy, safe, thriving environments and communities.

TO DISCUSS THE POWER OF A LEADERSHIP GIFT TO COLUMBIA MAILMAN SCHOOL, CONTACT LAURA SOBEL, ASSOCIATE DEAN OF DEVELOPMENT, AT LS3875@CUMC.COLUMBIA.EDU.

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COLUM B I A P U BLI C H E A LT H

2023–2024 EDITION

IMPACT

DI SCOVERI ES THAT A RE MA K I N G A DIFFER ENCE

Beauty’s Not-So-Pretty Side Historical and present-day racism continue to shape the use of potentially harmful skin and hair products.

A

new study from Columbia Mailman School and the nonprofit WE ACT for Environmental Justice reveals that women and femme-identifying people continue to use chemical hair straighteners and skin lighteners linked to poor health outcomes, likely due to beauty norms rooted in racism.

Studies have tied hair relaxer use with earlier age of first menstrual period and increased risk of uterine fibroids, uterine cancer, and breast cancer. Skin lighteners can contain corticosteroids, linked to metabolic problems, and mercury, which is tied to nervous system damage. While evidence suggests chemical straightener use has declined among Black women, who are the primary users of these products, skin lightener use by Asian women remains steady. (About 1 in 5 non-Hispanic Black women currently use straightening products, the study found.)

When respondents were asked whether they thought others believe that straight hair or light skin make women look more beautiful or professional, about half agreed. Although fewer than half said that they personally felt that way, those who did were

IMPACT BY THE NUMBERS TH E L AT EST AC H IE V E M E N TS AT COLUM B IA M AIL M A N S C H OOL OF P UB L IC H E A LT H

Photographs, from left: Sirin Samman; iStock

1,700

most likely to use the products. “Beauty norms shaped by historical and present-day racism and sexism continue to determine the use of these products,” says study first author Lariah Edwards, PhD, associate research scientist in Environmental Health Sciences. Adds co-senior author Ami Zota, ScD, associate professor of Environmental Health Sciences, “Programs and policies are needed to counteract natural hair discrimination and colorism.

Educating consumers could motivate them to advocate for the Safer Beauty Bill Package, which ensures safer products for all.”

Concerns around beauty aren’t limited to adults. Other researchers in Environmental Health Sciences have found that 79 percent of parents say their children 12 or younger use makeup and body products marketed to children. These products often contain lead, asbestos, and phthalates. Latino children were especially likely to use the products. “Children’s small size and developing tissues make them susceptible to toxins,” says study senior author Julie Herbstman, PhD, professor of Environmental Health Sciences and director of the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health.

Number of students in the 2022–2023 academic year, the largest group ever

4

Rank among public health schools in NIH Prime grants funding in 2022, with $65 million in support

publichealth.columbia.edu

7

A Health Horror Story in CAR Safety Surprise Installing new doors and windows and cleaning up trash and weeds at abandoned houses in Philadelphia led to a substantial drop in nearby gun violence, according to a new study by researchers at Columbia Mailman School and the University of Pennsylvania. For this study, 258 abandoned houses across Philadelphia were put into one of three groups. The first received new windows and doors, trash cleanup, and weeding; the second received trash cleanup and weeding only; the third received no interventions. When compared to areas around homes that received no intervention, blocks around homes that received the full intervention showed a 13.12 percent reduction in gun assaults and a 6.96 percent reduction in shootings. (Trash cleanup and weeding alone showed no change in gun violence.) “This is powerful scientific evidence showing that place-based interventions can improve health and safety, even for some of our most challenging crises like gun violence,” says Charles Branas, PhD, Gelman Professor and chair of Epidemiology.

$303.5M

Amount of government grants to the School in 2023

8

COLUM B I A P U BLI C H E A LT H

Researchers at Columbia Mailman School, in partnership with a global team of other experts, are sounding the alarm about the health and humanitarian emergency in the Central African Republic (CAR). Their findings, from a nationwide mortality survey of almost 700 households conducted in 2022, suggest that CAR has the world’s highest nationwide mortality rate, a rate that is four times what the United Nations estimated in 2010. The researchers estimate that 5.6 percent of the population is dying each year. (The U.S., in contrast, has a death rate of 1 percent per year.)

This crisis is likely due not only to COVID-19 but also to human rights abuses

by Russian paramilitary organization the Wagner Group, which has been fighting rebel groups in the country. In addition to a high death rate, with malaria and diarrhea rampant, 82.3 percent of households reported eating less than one meal per day, and the country has relatively few children under age 3, a warning sign possibly linked with malnutrition and high risk of pregnancy loss. “The crisis level mortality rate suggests that the needs in CAR are being largely unmet,” note the authors, a group that includes Les Roberts, PhD, professor emeritus of Population and Family Health.

84%

Increase in private grant funding since 2019

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Eligible older adults who participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program had about two fewer years of cognitive aging over a decade compared with those who do not participate, Epidemiology researchers report in Neurology.

70%

Proportion of the School’s research that is interdisciplinary

2023–2024 EDITION

IMPACT

COVID-19’s Continued Challenges

Chronic Fatigue Connection

ICAP at Columbia University has released new results from its SILVER Study revealing that older New Yorkers living at home have encountered a range of issues in the wake of the pandemic. “The pandemic exacerbated social, economic, and structural inequities that have resulted in notable negative consequences,” says Abigail Greenleaf, MPH ’12, PhD, who leads the SILVER research team.

Phone surveys of New Yorkers aged 70 years or older living at home reveal that depression and anxiety remain higher than pre-pandemic levels. Older New Yorkers with limited mobility and/or who did not often leave their homes were particularly vulnerable. Technology was a pain point, with fewer women than men having access to technology and confidence in their tech skills.

This could enhance isolation and make access to health services challenging.

Racial disparities also emerged: The study found that while 70 percent of white elders used video for telehealth conferences, others mainly used phone calls. A substantial proportion of older New Yorkers had also struggled to discern the accuracy of available health information.

The researchers recommend prioritizing the health—and particularly the mental health—needs of older adults, especially those with limited mobility. “The SILVER survey provides insights into how we can better meet the needs of different sectors of our society, so that, when the next health emergency strikes, they will have the support they require to stay healthy,” says Wafaa El-Sadr, MD, MPH ’91, MPA, ICAP’s director and co-lead of the New York City Pandemic Response Institute.

People with myalgic encephalomyelitis/ chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) have a different gut microbiome than healthy people, new research shows. ME/CFS is characterized by debilitating fatigue, cognitive dysfunction, gastrointestinal disturbances, and other symptoms. Although its cause is unknown, it often follows an infection.

Scientists at the School’s Center for Infection and Immunity analyzed fecal samples collected from a geographically diverse cohort of 106 cases and 91 healthy controls from five sites across the United States.

Beneficial gut bacteria Faecalibacterium prausnitzii and Eubacterium rectale were reduced in ME/ CFS participants. Loss of these important bacteria contributed to trouble synthesizing butyrate, a bacterial metabolite with anti-inflammatory properties and the main fuel for the body’s colon cells. Other types of bacteria, which are correlated with fatigue and inflammatory bowel disease, were present in greater amounts. These differences in gut microbes could serve as biomarkers to aid in diagnosis of ME/CFS, which currently relies on clinical criteria and symptoms. Understanding the connection between ME/CFS and disturbances in the gut microbiome may also lead to ways to classify the disease and develop targets for therapeutic trials.

3,000+

33%

Number of journal articles on all topics published by faculty in the past three years

Photographs: iStock

62

Number of new faculty since 2018

Proportion of faculty from traditionally minoritized communities, a 10-year high

publichealth.columbia.edu

9

Older Drivers: Caution Signals A novel and highly accurate algorithm could predict mild cognitive impairment and dementia in older drivers.

Investigators from Columbia Mailman School, Columbia Engineering, and Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons constructed 200 variable modules using naturalistic driving data on the driver, the vehicle, and the environment captured by in-vehicle recording devices for 2,977 drivers.

With artificial intelligence, they processed data measuring driving behavior, performance, and tempospatial pattern in exceptional detail, predicting mild cognitive impairment and dementia with 96 percent accuracy.

“About 85 percent of older adults in the United States are licensed drivers. Our study show that digital markers in routinely collected driving data can be used through machine learning techniques to predict impairment, leading to timely intervention,” says Guohua Li, MD, DrPH, professor of Epidemiology.

97

Number of countries in which the School has partnerships or other activities 10

COLUM B I A P U BLI C H E A LT H

Asthma: A Cannabis Connection

Out of COVID-19 Came Creativity Traditionally, healthcare delivery organizations have been slow to generate and implement new ideas. But throughout the pandemic, they have been hotbeds of innovation, according to an article co-authored by Yuna Lee, PhD, MPH, assistant professor of Health Policy and Management, in Health Affairs. Doctors and nurses repurposed baby monitors, snorkels, and hair dryer hoods for COVID-19 care; supply chain supervisors contacted laundromats and hardware stores for personal protective equipment; environmental services managers experimented with sanitizer placement and clever signage; and public health workers turned closed Sears stores into vaccine centers.

Many innovations are now standardized: Clear surgical masks facilitate lip-reading, and families are included in virtual discussions of palliative care.

Telemedicine, once on a slow track, is now widely available. Says Lee: “While COVID-19 brought much devastation, it also showed the creative potential of the industry to address serious problems.

That lesson should not be lost.”

96%

Likelihood a graduate is employed or continuing their education within one year of graduation

Asthma has increased among teens and among children from some minority racial and ethnic groups in states that legalized cannabis for recreational use. Researchers at Columbia Mailman School and the City University of New York were the first to examine the relationship between cannabis policy changes and youth asthma. “Cannabis use is increasing among adults with children in the home, and secondhand smoke is a key risk factor for asthma among children,” notes Renee D. Goodwin, PhD, MPH ’03 adjunct associate professor of Epidemiology. Asthma is already the nation’s most common chronic condition affecting children. An earlier study by Goodwin observed cannabis use in 12 percent of parents of minor children in states with legal recreational cannabis. “Yet, no education regarding child exposure to secondhand cannabis smoke is routinely offered,” she notes.

17,000+

Number of alumni households who connected with the School during the 2022–2023 academic year

2023–2024 EDITION

IMPACT

Good News on Naloxone

BAD TO THE BONE

Elevated levels of air pollutants, particularly nitrous oxides, are tied to bone damage among women after menopause, and the effects are most evident on the lumbar spine, note researchers from Environmental Health Sciences.

3.9

Number, in millions, of visitors to our website in 2022, a 35% increase from the previous year

Photographs: iStock

Tainted Data About Toxins Researchers at the School continue to examine 1970s documents related to toxicity studies conducted for Monsanto

by Industrial Bio-Test Laboratories (IBT). An examination published in the American Journal of Public Health reveals fraudulent research practices used to thwart government investigations.

“Monsanto contracted with IBT in 1969 to perform chronic toxicity studies, one of which did not turn out to be ‘as favorable as Monsanto had hoped or anticipated,’” says author David Rosner, PhD, professor of Sociomedical Sciences and co-founder of the School’s Center for the History & Ethics of Public Health.

Monsanto then arranged with IBT to repeat some of the studies for better conclusions. This is the first paper to look at the relationship between the corporate funders of research and its fraudulent practices in the 1970s.

In addition to compromised test conditions, IBT employees made up data.

“The influence of industry on laboratory practices made the corruption of science more likely,” notes Rosner. “We need to maintain vigilance over companies whose self-interest has distorted science and may continue to do so.”

$227M

Value of the School’s endowment, up from $81M in 2009

Concerns that access to lifesaving naloxone might inadvertently increase opioid misuse and overdose remain a barrier to distribution efforts. Now, researchers who examined data on adolescent substance use from a national survey of high school students report that adopting laws that make naloxone more easily available does not seem to be associated with changes in adolescent lifetime heroin or injection drug use.

In fact, naloxone access was more consistently associated with decreases rather than increases in use. The findings, which cover 2007 to 2019, are published in the International Journal of Drug Policy. “Efforts to improve naloxone access continue to be an urgent public health priority,” says senior author Silvia Martins, MD, PhD, professor of Epidemiology. “This is important for people of all ages.”

94%

Proportion of School employees who agree that “the work I do is meaningful to me”

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REIMAGINING PUBLIC HEALTH EDUCATION FOR THE 21st st CENTURY A PUBLIC HEALTH EDUCATION THAT MEETS THE WORLD’S GROWING DEMAND FOR TRAINED EXPERTS NO LONGER ONLY MEANS ‘SIT IN A CLASSROOM, GET A DEGREE, AND BE DONE’. COLUMBIA MAILMAN SCHOOL IS EXPANDING OPPORTUNITIES FOR LEARNING WITH MORE FLEXIBLE, ACCESSIBLE OFFERINGS, ACROSS THE PUBLIC HEALTH CAREER SPAN AND BEYOND.

By Paula Derrow

There’s a crisis in the field of public health, one that was brewing long before COVID-19 reared its head. At a time when the nation— and the world—most needs a robust public health workforce, there is a shortage in the number of public health professionals trained to confront 21st century problems like climate change or the epidemic of obesity, not to mention the next pandemic. An analysis from the de Beaumont Foundation and the Public Health National Center for Innovations found that for our nation’s minimum public health requirements to be met, we need an 80 percent increase in people hired in the field.

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Closing the gap starts with education, and Columbia Mailman School is continuing its tradition of leading innovation in public health education. In the fall of 2021, at the behest of Dean Linda P. Fried, MD, MPH, the school convened a Lifelong Learning Taskforce of faculty and staff with a mission to shape the future of public health education. “We went into it saying, ‘The sky’s the limit!’” says Michael A. Joseph, PhD, MPH, vice dean for education and associate professor of Epidemiology. “It was exciting to discuss what comes next and figure out how to bring everything to fruition.”

The first item on the Taskforce’s agenda was to document all the unconventional learning opportunities that the School already offered. When they added everything up, “it was clear that we already had excellent examples of cutting-edge courses in every department,” says Roxanne Russell, PhD, assistant dean of digital learning and Taskforce co-facilitator. The second objective was to continue to reenvision public health education. “As a school, we are constantly imagining new skills people will need, and thinking about how we can get people up to speed,” says Heather Krasna, PhD, Taskforce member and associate dean of career and professional development.

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Students collaborate in a Skills for Health and Research Professionals bootcamp.

Of course, nothing can replace the unique alchemy sparked by face-to-face, in-person degree programs where students and professors connect in the classroom, the laboratory, and the community.

But that doesn’t preclude the urgent need for more flexible, accessible courses and programs that reach different kinds of potential students, whether those seeking to switch careers; those who want to sharpen their skills but can’t afford to take time off work; or learners throughout the life cycle, from high schoolers to retirees.

“With greater longevity, we have an opportunity to learn and contribute into the seventh decade and beyond,” says Fried. “The labor force will increasingly need the contributions of older people, and older people who keep learning and working maintain their cognitive skills and stave off isolation and loneliness.”

Just as important is the School’s commitment to preparing the public health workforce to prevent or respond to the next crisis. The field is changing so quickly that it’s difficult for even experts to keep up. “Talking to people on the ground in public health, I hear they need more skills in areas like statistics, data analysis, and program design and evaluation,” says New kinds of learning Joseph. But that’s not all. opportunities bring They also need hidden, less knowledge and expertise obvious skills. “The comonce limited to graduate plexity of the environment in students to the wider world. which our students work will require them to be flexible in their thinking, and adaptable,” says Helen de Pinho, MBBCH, MBA, FCCH, associate dean of educational programs and assistant professor of Population and Family Health.

The school nurtures these traits as well. “The pandemic has shown us that public health requires a fair amount of humility. We have to go into a community and work alongside the community Photographs: (left) Martin Seck, (right) Steve Myaskovsky

to build trust,” de Pinho adds. Students also need to learn how to communicate, and to navigate environments in which policy makers aren’t always partners of public health.

Increasingly, Columbia Mailman School will be bringing these skills to a core workforce that includes not just epidemiologists with PhDs but also employees of health departments, contact tracers, water inspectors—all the people who keep our world healthy and functioning. “Most of the folks on the ground in health departments or community organizations don’t have public health degrees.

We need to give them more training,” says Russell. The Taskforce agreed: Expanding the vision of who public health education is for was an urgent necessity. And to do that, says Russell, “we need to keep rolling out offerings that are flexible and affordable.”

A SHIFT IN THE CONVERSATION THE VERY NOTION OF WHAT “EDUCATION” SHOULD DO AND LOOK LIKE, how it should be delivered, and what it should cost is already changing. “There’s been a huge shift,” says Russell, who sprinkles her conversations with terms like upskilling (learning new skills) and microcredentials (badges a student might earn for completing a course). These new kinds of learning opportunities are bringing knowledge and expertise once limited to graduate students to the wider world. “We have always been a leading school of public health for our students,” says Joseph. “Now, we have the ability to give the vast public health workforce—and even those outside the field of public health—the opportunity to also learn from us.”

The Advanced MPH Online Program does just that. “For the first time, we are offering working professionals access to our

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Undergrads explore possible future paths in the Biostatistics Epidemiology Summer Training program.

MPH by putting our program fully online,” says Russell. Initiated in 2022, the Advanced MPH Online is open to students with two years of public health-related work under their belt or those with experience in adjacent health fields (think medicine, nursing, or social work). Those with a doctorate or master’s degree in a field outside of public health, such as an MBA or JD, and people with two years of public health research or work experience are also eligible.

With scheduled online classes just two evenings each week and the rest of the material available online 24/7, the program accommodates busy professionals. Case in point: The pilot class of 17 students included clinical researchers, MDs, and folks from the psychology field.

“For the coming year, we’ve enrolled people with a law degree and an MBA,” says Russell. The second class is on track to double, with the goal being to expand to two online classes of 60 students each.

The Advanced MPH Online program will be a model for more fully online learning options at the School. “We are steadily building the technology infrastructure and capacity for more programs,” says Russell. The Advanced MPH Online also fits in well with the continued development of Columbia University’s online portal, Columbia Plus. Launched last spring and initially available only to alumni, this platform will ultimately provide a unified, all-online way for anyone to register for, enroll in, and pay for any course in the university, including nondegree offerings.

Another alternative to the traditional two-year path to a public health degree is the Accelerated MPH Program for students with advanced degrees, which compresses all the coursework into a single year. “It’s especially popular with medical students or residents who have a gap year, or other students who have advanced degrees or who are in public-health-adjacent fields who want an inperson residential experience and the chance to interact with classmates and professors face-to-face,” says Joseph.

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MAKING SUMMERS A TIME FOR PUBLIC HEALTH “IT’S SO IMPORTANT FOR PUBLIC HEALTH PRACTITIONERS TO KEEP UP THEIR METHODS, especially when it comes to things like statistical modeling and AI,” says Thelma J. Mielenz, PT, PhD, MS, OCS, assistant professor of Epidemiology. Enter episummer@Columbia, which offers any student with the right prerequisites the opportunity to build the foundational knowledge or applied skills necessary for doing population research. Directed

by Mielenz and run by the Department of Epidemiology, episummer@Columbia served more than 500 students with 30 online and in-person courses in June 2023. Students include both public health novices and experts: Nearly a third of participants work for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and another 20 percent are public health master’s and doctoral students who come for cutting-edge courses they can’t get at their own institutions. “Whenever a new faculty member comes in, we ask them what they’re teaching that’s brand new,” says Mielenz. “That’s how

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the Department of Environmental Health Sciences. The nearly 30 summer trainings in technical and current environmental health topics are offered both in person and online and include a course on climate change and health and a popular, new two-day course on environmental justice. As with the Advanced MPH Online Program, students tend to be professionals and researchers in the field, though SHARP boot camps are open to anyone. Courses are only two to three days, but pack in up to 24 hours of theory and practice, along with opportunities for networking.

TURNING MEDICAL STAFFERS INTO PUBLIC HEALTH LEADERS

we ended up offering an infectious disease modeling course—which is especially popular after COVID—as well as a new course on machine learning to allow people to stay on top of the latest research methods.” And with prices ranging from $250 for a 4-hour course to $1,800 for a 40-hour one, the offerings are affordable, particularly with 100 scholarships given out in 2023, according to Mielenz. “Any profit we make goes to supporting our students who need to travel to conferences to present their research,” she says.

DEGREE OR NOT DEGREE? ONE WAY THE THINKING IS CHANGING is that not every course—or program—needs to lead to a formal degree to be helpful. “Nondegree credentials allow people to upskill faster and more flexibly so they can get that promotion or change careers more affordably,” says Russell. The short, intensive courses in SHARP (Skills for Health and Research Professionals) are led by Photographs: Martin Seck

“WE KNOW THAT IT’S VITAL FOR PHYSICIANS TO UNDERSTAND not only the biology of what makes someone sick but the factors that might have led to their illness—to also consider social, environmental, and policy determinants of health,” says Joseph.

That’s one of the goals of LEAD (Leadership Education and Development). Run by the Department of Health Policy and Management in collaboration with NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia Business School, the 18-month program also gives physicians the crisis management and business skills they need to ensure their institutions can cope with future challenges. For instance, as part of its health system simulation, Columbia Mailman School offers the first pandemic simulation, designed to help healthcare execs learn to deal with everything from supply chain breakdowns to staff mental health issues.

Another leadership-focused program is REACH (Responding to Epidemics and Crises in Health) Academy, run by ICAP at Columbia University with the Dalio Center for Health Justice at NewYork-Presbyterian. This one-year fellowship offers staffers from NewYork-Presbyterian training in how to predict, manage, and lead responses to complex health crises. The current group of fellows includes a chaplain, a community affairs manager, a nursing informatics officer, and a chief physician assistant, all of whom are taking what they currently do to the next level, whether by learning how to create a more resilient supply chain or how to better reach underserved members of the community.

PATHWAYS FOR THE NEXT GENERATION “AS SCIENTISTS, WE HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO DO CUTTING-EDGE, IMPACTFUL RESEARCH—but part of that responsibility is making sure that we are supporting the next generation of scientists in an equitable and just way,” says Anne Nigra, PhD ’20, assistant professor of Environmental Health Sciences. Over many years, Nigra and other Columbia Mailman School faculty have mentored high school students living in tribal

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communities in South Dakota, Montana, and Nebraska. “Now, we’re taking that further by creating an accessible training opportunity for young people interested in environmental science and public health,” Nigra says. Launched last summer, EARTH (Environmental heAlth sciences Research for Teachers and High school students) enables a small group of high schoolers from Indigenous communities to spend their summer vacation working on an environmentally focused research project where they live. Three teachers are each in charge of three high school students who focus on a relevant, local research project of their choice. Students participate in weekly Zoom seminars and workshops across the groups, meant to expose them to everything research related, from how to write an abstract to ethics in science. “The program is part of a grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to collaborate with Indigenous communities living in the northern Plains, as part of our effort to reduce their exposure to arsenic and uranium in their water supply,” says Nigra, EARTH’s director. “There aren’t many rigorous, paid scientific training experiences available to kids and teachers in remote communities like these. Ultimately, we want people leading research efforts in these communities to be from these communities.”

Another next-generation effort is PrIMER (Program to Inspire Minority and underserved undergraduates in Environmental health science Research). “It gives college students the knowledge and skills to handle the pressing public health issues that are not going away any time soon,” says Joseph.

Aimed specifically at students from marginalized communities or first-generation undergraduates in New York City who might not otherwise pursue a public health degree, PrIMER “initiates young people into the field by allowing them to engage in science and research while working side by side with top experts in the discipline,” says PrIMER director Ana Navas-Acien, MD, PhD, MPH. Students are paired with a faculty member who mentors them throughout two 10-week sessions over two summers, as well as five hours a week during the school year. And each student is paid for their efforts.

Another pathway program, the BEST (Biostatistics Epidemiology Summer Training) Diversity Program, involves undergraduates from racial and ethnic minority groups and from disadvantaged backgrounds, as well as those with disabilities, who participate in an eight-week research project with a faculty member. Students take classes in biostatistics and statistical computing and receive training and mentoring that sets them up for getting into and succeeding in a public health graduate program.

Of course, if young people aren’t aware of the field of public health, they won’t dream of going to school for a public health degree or getting a job in the profession. That’s why an overarching goal of pathway programs like PrIMER, BEST, and the Summer Public Health Scholars Program is to get young people excited about public health as a possible career. The pandemic has put the field in the spotlight like nothing else could, but “most high schoolers or undergraduates are more likely to say, ‘I want

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to be a doctor or a nurse’ than ‘I want to be an epidemiologist or a toxicologist,’” says Joseph. The Summer Public Health Scholars Program immerses college juniors and seniors from historically excluded and socially disadvantaged backgrounds in a 10-week program of classwork, internships, and field trips. (Other faculty members raise awareness of public health careers in different ways. For more than a decade, Robert E. Fullilove, MS, EdD ’84, professor of Sociomedical Sciences and associate dean for community and minority affairs, has been teaching in six New York state prisons as part of the Bard Prison Initiative, which trains incarcerated students for future careers, including in public health.)

Columbia Mailman School’s dual degree 4+1 programs bring interested students into the public health fold by inviting undergraduates at Barnard College, Columbia College, Columbia School of General Studies, Dickinson College, Hostos Community College, and Vassar College to spend the fall semester of their senior year at Columbia Mailman School. After graduating from their respective universities, students then go on to earn an MPH in a one-year accelerated program that includes a summer practicum.

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The School has long offered part-time Executive Masters of Healthcare Management programs. Now there is an Advanced MPH program for working professionals that is entirely online.

FREE FOR ALL “BEFORE COVID-19, IT DIDN’T SEEM LIKE THERE WAS A NEED TO KNOW HOW TO ADVOCATE for something as obviously beneficial as public health,” says Krasna. “Now, we’ve seen the damage that comes from people attacking the public health infrastructure, including withdrawing funding and legal authority from health departments.” Columbia Public Health Advocacy Academy, the School’s newest MOOC (a Massive Open Online Course), aims to change that troubling trend. Launched this fall on the edX platform and developed by Krasna, the free online course is a direct reaction to recent attacks on the field of public health. “My hope is that anyone in public health and health-related fields will take this course, which covers the details of lobbying government, including how to get a bill passed into law, how to persuade a policymaker to take action, and how to build relationships with city councils and local boards of health,” says Krasna.

Given the success of Columbia Mailman School’s past MOOCs, like the School’s 2019 Protecting Children in Humanitarian Settings Photographs: (left) Martin Seck, (right) Leslye Smith

and its 2018 Fighting HIV With Antiretroviral Therapy, the newest addition is bound to make an impact, providing knowledge on how to save public health—and save lives.

Taskforce members and other faculty members continue to have ideas for further innovation. High on the Taskforce’s list of plans for future Columbia Mailman School offerings are stand-alone certificates for people who may already have a degree in public health, but are seeking credentials in another public health specialty, for instance.

(Currently, only students enrolled in a degree program at Columbia Mailman School can get such a certificate.) And the School recently began awarding continuing medical education (CME) credits for its first class, one of the episummer@Columbia courses. “It would be great if we increasingly offer courses that help professionals keep their credentials up,” says Russell. “To keep reaching the audiences we want to reach, the choices are going to have to keep growing.

I think education is going to look different in five years.”

Paula Derrow writes for national media, nonprofits, and academic institutions on health and social justice issues. She lives in New York City.

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CONFRONTING CLIMATE CHANGE Our Climate and Health Program is the first of its kind in a school of public health and the first to offer a PhD. The students are pioneers in an essential new specialty, facing the health risks of a warming planet. Over the past 12 years, almost 100 have graduated with master’s or doctoral degrees. Meet nine who are training to fight this existential threat.

Interviews by Tim Paul | Photographs by John Herr

TANAYA SADANAND AMBADKAR, MPH ’24 FAVORITE THING I’VE DONE SO FAR My favorite thing is that I can attend open lectures and student club events and make new connections. I am currently the vice president of Students for One Health. We raise awareness and promote optimal health for people, animals, and the environment. I have been interested in the link between the three since I started working on wildlife diseases after completing my first master’s in wildlife conservation.

I read about how the threat of infectious diseases and zoonotic diseases has increased with climate change.

We need to study possible interactions with the environment that can increase disease risk. One example is Lyme disease. The ticks’ ranges are expanding and so are the seasons they are active.

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MISBATH DAOUDA, PhD ’23 MY PATH TO PUBLIC HEALTH I was born in Dakar, Senegal, and grew up between Dakar and Cotonou, Benin. I got a BS in chemistry and a BA in Hispanic studies from Washington College and an MPH in environmental health from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. I chose Columbia Mailman because of the Climate and Health Program and for the opportunity to work with my advisor, Dr. Darby Jack. I also really looked forward to living in New York City.

LATEST “WOW!” MOMENT I came across the term solastalgia, which refers to the distress caused by environmental change. As opposed to homesickness, which occurs when people are separated from home, solastalgia comes about as people are still living in the places they call home but see those places being eroded due to environmental change. We need to expand the definition of climate impacts on mental health and quality of life to be able to account for such outcomes.

ACHIEVEMENT I’M PROUDEST OF TO DATE I was invited to speak on the Climate Justice and Health Equity panel of the American Climate Leadership Summit where I discussed the implications of decarbonization policies in U.S. cities for children’s health and health disparities. As scientists, we have a responsibility to communicate with the public, and I am honored to have had the opportunity to do so alongside terrific leaders.

EMMA GORIN, PhD ’25 WHY CLIMATE AND HEALTH? I was interested in researching infectious disease dynamics in Dr. Jeff Shaman’s lab, and I had heard good things about the program—specifically, about the supportive, welcoming faculty and students. The health impacts of climate change are among the most pressing issues that humanity will face in the coming decades, and it’s motivating to be part of an interdisciplinary group of researchers tackling them from different perspectives and using different methods.

WHY COLUMBIA MAILMAN SCHOOL? New York City is my hometown, and the Columbia Mailman School’s reputation precedes it.

DANIELA CORTES, MPH ’23

VIVIAN DO, PhD ’25

WHY CLIMATE AND HEALTH?

WHY CLIMATE AND HEALTH?

The more you understand climate science, the harder it can be to remain optimistic. I remember Professor Jeff Shaman acknowledging this sentiment but concluding that, with the understanding of how fragile our atmospheric systems are, we have no other option than to do something about it through climate mitigation and adaptation efforts.

ACHIEVEMENT I’M PROUDEST OF TO DATE I worked with three organizations as part of my summer practicum experience: an air quality sensor startup, an environmental nonprofit, and an academic research center affiliated with Columbia’s Climate School.

FAVORITE THING I’VE DONE SO FAR By far, my favorite thing about Columbia Mailman has been the people I’ve met, especially my peers in Environmental Health Sciences. We’ve created a close-knit community of colleagues and friends.

My family is in San Francisco, and we live in an old house next to a freeway and several gas stations, so we are already breathing in air pollution that I now know is terrible for our health. It was difficult for me to see the orange skies from the wildfires and the related air pollution coating everything. Having my loved ones experience the very real impacts of climate change was hard. Knowing that these will continue to disproportionately affect my family, my community, and others like mine is even harder. That drives my dedication to the field. I hope to make a difference.

LATEST “WOW!” MOMENT My PhD research work is largely on electrical power outages. Recently, my academic world and my personal world collided when I got to talk with my dad about solar panels and electrification. We chatted about government incentives, the technology available, concerns, costs, climate change, and more. I could easily see how I connect the change I want to make with the people I want to help.

FAVORITE THING I’VE DONE SO FAR I absolutely love going everywhere during spring when flowers are blooming, from walking through residential streets to visiting the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. And using my student discount!

IN FIVE YEARS I WILL …

I 100 percent know that I want to be a mentor. As a child of immigrants and the first in my family to graduate middle school, I would not be where I am academically today without excellent mentors.

I plan to pay this forward, especially for those coming from similar underrepresented backgrounds.

The School as Climate Convenor Launched in 2017, the Columbia Mailman School-based Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education (GCCHE) was born from a meeting at the 2015 COP-21 conference in Paris. GCCHE now has more than 300 members on six continents. Its mission is to make climate and health a key part of health sciences curricula. The newest members include the Association of American Medical Colleges and the American Dental Education Association.

GCCHE also recently partnered with the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health to develop a toolkit for integrating climate and health competencies into public health degree programs.

Earlier this year, the consortium led a course on resilience for 2,000 health professionals across the Americas, with classes in three languages.

A separate capacity-building project brought together transdisciplinary teams of scientists, policymakers, and community stakeholders. Last summer, the first training was held in Asia; trainings are planned for Europe and Africa. This fall, GCCHE debuted a course focused on El Niño in the Americas.

“We’re thinking not just about climate impacts on health, but also about how we bolster the resilience of the entire health sector—how we educate, how do we engage and build capacity among health decision-makers at all levels,” says GCCHE Director Cecilia Sorensen, MD, associate professor of Environmental Health Sciences.

NICO HAMACHER, MPH ’23 WHY CLIMATE AND HEALTH?

Essential Reads Children’s Health and the Peril of Climate Change (Oxford University Press) Frederica Perera, MPH ’76, DrPH ’82, PhD ’12, professor of Environmental Health Sciences and founder of the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health, makes a case that children are particularly vulnerable to air pollution and climate stressors.

Greenhouse Planet (Columbia University Press) Lewis Ziska, PhD, associate professor of Environmental Health Sciences, is a plant biologist who served for nearly 25 years as a scientist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He discusses the implications of increased CO2 for plants, people, and ecosystems—from crop yields to seasonal allergies and from wildfires to biodiversity.

I grew up in a farming community in rural Oregon with an interest in medicine. Studying climate and health allows me to combine my interests. I love how I’m able to interact with a wide variety of people through this work and be united by a common goal. I was originally interested in vertical farming—a term coined at Columbia Mailman School—but ended up being drawn to climate and health through my interactions with Dr. Cecilia Sorensen.

LATEST “WOW!” MOMENT I’m a fellow at the Global Consortium for Climate and Health Education here, and I’ve been blown away by the thousands of participants from around the world who register for our workshops. It demonstrates a massive thirst for climate and health knowledge in the medical sphere. I helped organize and moderate several events, including the Caribbean Climate and Health Responders Course. I also co-authored a paper about the course, which was published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health.

FAVORITE THING I’VE DONE SO FAR I love getting to engage with my professors and work alongside them. The Environmental Health Sciences Department has become like my second family here in New York City.

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Exciting Climate Research Two of the eight Columbia Mailman Centennial Grand Challenges grants convene an interdisciplinary team to address climate-related issues.

We all know a burger isn’t the best choice for our health.

But did you know the livestock sector alone constitutes nearly 15 percent of human greenhouse gas emissions? In an ongoing research project, Lewis Ziska, PhD, associate professor of Environmental Health Sciences; Donald Edmondson, PhD, MPH, associate professor of Behavioral Medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center; and Sining Zhou, MPH ’20, associate research scientist at Columbia Mailman School, are developing a mobile app so people can see their carbon “foodprint.” They hope it will guide users’ grocery shopping and eating choices. “If I change my source of meat from beef to chicken, I save 1,000 pounds of CO2. In addition to that, I lower my cholesterol.

What’s not to like about that?” says Ziska.

A separate project, led by Samantha Garbers, PhD ’12, associate professor of Population and Family Health, is exploring factors that limit federal funding for research on the role of climate and environmental exposures in high rates of Black maternal mortality and preterm birth. The team of environmental health scientists and legal and regulatory experts reviewed some 300 peer-reviewed papers funded through the National Institutes of Health. Next, they will interview various stakeholders to tease out specific factors involved.

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ETHAN QUAYE, MPH ’24 LATEST “WOW” MOMENT I learned that aerosols actually have a mitigating impact on global warming, which really highlighted the Catch-22 nature of our current global system.

ACHIEVEMENT I’M PROUDEST OF TO DATE I’ve been working on the Climate Vulnerability Assessment for Public Health. You choose a town or city to analyze potential adverse health exposures. Based on geospatial data and climate forecasts, you construct and present a policy memo. My focus was New York City. My biggest takeaway was that there has been no consideration given to increased pollen prevalence caused by global warming, and that future planted trees should be hypoallergenic to prevent asthma development.

IN FIVE YEARS I WILL …

Be working in environmental health policy at an international nongovernmental organization, hopefully living somewhere interesting.

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SARAH TAN, MPH ’24 LATEST “WOW!” MOMENT Recently I learned about climate-related disaster risk reduction and community resilience in the Philippines following hurricanes and other climate events.

Hearing directly from professionals from the Philippines was inspiring.

ACHIEVEMENT I’M PROUDEST OF TO DATE I just wrote a paper on regenerative agriculture as an effective climate mitigation strategy. In other words, practices focused on restoring soil health—water retention, fertility, nutrient content—support increased food production while producing less greenhouse gas emissions by increasing soil carbon content.

This topic lies at the intersection of many of my interests, and I was excited to find evidence of the multifaceted benefits of regenerative agriculture.

MUHAMMAD KHAN, MPH ’24 WHY CLIMATE AND HEALTH? I was born in Pakistan and raised in Anchorage. The two places I call home are severely affected by climate change. Having witnessed how climate change impacts vulnerable populations, I want to be a part of the solution.

WHY COLUMBIA MAILMAN SCHOOL? New York City is a global hub at the forefront of public health efforts. The School offers a comprehensive environmental health program and opportunities to partner with Columbia’s Earth Institute and Climate School. My favorite part is learning from my peers. Everyone is passionate about public health.

ACHIEVEMENT I’M PROUDEST OF TO DATE I taught a class in the Climate and Health Seminar about climate-resilient infrastructure. Climate change is causing a rise in extreme weather conditions. For example, Pakistan recently experienced its worst flooding in years. Installing flood barriers can protect low-lying areas and vital infrastructure from flooding.

IN FIVE YEARS I WILL …

Lead climate-resilient infrastructure development projects in low- and middleincome countries.

Tim Paul is editorial director in the Columbia Mailman School Office of Communications.

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The Future is:

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An unprecedented volume of health data demands a new generation of scientists equipped to translate data into improved health outcomes—and do so ethically.

By Caroline Hopkins

Long before the advent of machine learning, interactive data visualizations, or the flurry of concern and wonder surrounding ChatGPT, there were public health officials manually collecting and cataloging health data, then analyzing those data by hand with the aim of improving the health of their communities. “Public health has always been a very data-oriented discipline,” says Jeff Goldsmith, PhD, associate dean of data science and associate professor of Biostatistics. “Today, we are seeing a natural progression and growing sophistication of analytic techniques that public health researchers are using to address the same fundamental questions that we always have.”

Goldsmith sees the arrival of artificial intelligence (AI), augmented intelligence, and machine learning as a natural evolution in public health.

(Augmented intelligence itself evolved out of AI; it involves applying AI to enhance, rather than replace, human tasks and decision-making.) These tools are becoming increasingly essential to translate an unprecedented volume of data into population-wide health improvements. “We’ve moved from a world with a paucity of data to one with an overabundance of it,” says Moise Desvarieux, MD, PhD, MPH ’91, associate professor of Epidemiology. According to Nature Genetics, there were an estimated 2,314 exabytes of health data produced worldwide in 2020, up from 153 exabytes in 2013. (Five exabytes is thought to be equal to all the words ever spoken by humanity.)

With this explosion of data comes tremendous potential to improve public health, but also the dangerous possibility that technology—or those who wield it—will exacerbate disparities.

Big Data, Getting Bigger Health data now extend far beyond information that has traditionally been collected—demographics, environmental exposures, medical history, family history—to new sources such as continuously collected activity levels. Desvarieux offers the example of renting a Citi Bike in New York. “We know when and where the person got on and off the bike, the distance they rode, whether there was a hill, and the amount of time

they spent riding.” Data from sources such as Citi Bikes, smartphones, and wearable devices present a rich opportunity for public health. “We have not only personal data, but also data on our environment, the quality of the air we breathe, the soil quality,” Desvarieux says.

In research at Columbia Mailman School, Desvarieux and colleagues are using personal and environmental data, as well as genetic sequencing data, to pinpoint personalized risk estimates for someone’s likelihood of developing a given chronic condition. Genetic sequencing technology can now paint deep and comprehensive pictures of individual genomes, too. Taken together, the data on behaviors, biology, risks, environment, genomics, and more can help public health researchers determine who may be at a greater risk for adverse health outcomes, and the best ways to mitigate those risks. This quantity and diversity of information mark what Desvarieux calls “the new world” in public health data science. However it’s characterized, this abundance of data requires new skills from public health professionals.

Equipping a New Generation The School recognizes this demand, and just graduated its first cohort of students from the MS Public Health Data Science track. Introduced three years ago, it has quickly become the most popular MS degree program track, with 54 new students this fall. “I don’t see demand slowing down any time soon,” says Kiros Berhane, PhD, the chair of Biostatistics. “All signs point to the need for more computationally heavy techniques.”

Berhane describes data science as an umbrella term encompassing a fusion of rigorous statistical principles (vitally important where health is concerned) and quickly evolving computer science–driven machine learning and AI techniques. “The discipline is about the ability to arrive at conclusions based on evidence you get from the data, coupled with machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques able to handle huge quantities of data,” he says. Students in the MS Public Health Data Science track learn skills including data reproducibility, manage-

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ment, and manipulation; how to use graphics effectively; dissemination and visualization of data; and web scraping, which involves gathering data from many different web sources when those data aren’t formatted or structured the same way. These students also focus on data science methods, including supervised learning (machine learning on labeled data) and unsupervised learning (machine learning on unlabeled data).

With unsupervised methods, students learn how machines can identify hidden patterns in data that humans may not have observed.

Although required courses in the Public Health Data Science track are designed to give students a strong grasp of the theories, tools, methods, and terms that make up the vast world of AI, the practical application of these meth-

A New Associate Dean for Data Science To continue leading in data science research and education, the School has created a new position: Jeff Goldsmith, PhD, was named associate dean for data science in June. He will partner with the Office of Research Strategy and Innovation to develop a data science research strategy, expand educational programs in data science, and serve as a liaison between the School and the Data Science Institute at Columbia University.

Goldsmith will also guide the School’s strategy for research computing.

ods can’t be taught in a classroom alone.

To that end, each student is required to complete a practicum. Students work on designing and proposing their practicum projects with their faculty advisors, then submit a report and give an oral presentation.

These practical applications tap into a range of tools and methods that are inherently broad— just as AI itself is broad. Goldsmith acknowledges how this breadth can make defining terms challenging. “It’s hard to pin down exactly what we mean by AI,” he says. “Artificial intelligence encompasses traditional statistical approaches but also convolutional neural networks,” which are used to identify patterns, including in images, as is the case with facial recognition.

When defining AI in a public health context, Goldsmith says, “We’re trying to take relatively big, complicated information on individuals and understand how that changes their health outcomes.” In the case of cancer, for instance, a researcher might utilize AI to pull from an in-

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dividual’s biological and genomic sequencing information but would also explore vast troves of data from the broader population. Then the insights could be coupled with environmental or exposure data to calculate an individual’s risk.

Beyond graduate program curricula, the School is also building a pipeline for undergraduates to enter the public health data science field.

Several years ago, it received funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to launch the Summer Institute in Biostatistics and Data Science at Columbia. Undergraduate students spend seven weeks learning about data science software, analytic tools, and responsible research conduct. They also tackle data analysis projects using data from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The data come from clinical studies of chronic disease and infectious disease treatment and prevention.

In working with practicing biostatisticians and the investigators actively engaged in these studies, students have a chance to see and experience firsthand how the principles of data science shape public health—and to contribute to the field. Students enrolled in this summer program have applied data science to projects ranging from analyses of dementia biomarkers to comparisons of schizophrenia treatments to the effect of expanded access to HIV treatment in Lesotho.

The school welcomed its second cohort into the free program last summer.

Columbia Mailman School is also focused on partnering with scientists in the international community to share knowledge, including through a program with the Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia and the University of Nairobi in Kenya. “Data science is a global phenomenon,” Berhane says. This program, born out of a $1.7 million award from the NIH, is meant to create new training opportunities in health data science in Eastern Africa. It’s part of a five-year, $74.5 million NIH initiative, and its goal is to support research projects focused on the ethical, legal, and social implications of data science research.

Through this grant, faculty members abroad are paired with Columbia faculty mentors who work with them through research, coursework, boot camps, and training. Then, for a week in the fall, these faculty members visit Columbia Mailman School for a week, after which they bring their knowledge back to their own institutions and serve as peer mentors to subsequent scholars.

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AI Tools for Better Health As Columbia Mailman School researchers mentor and train the next generation of public health data scientists both on Columbia’s campus and abroad, they themselves continue to pave the way for data science’s role in improved public health outcomes.

Desvarieux, for instance, is part of a team using AI to develop tools to personalize prevention for chronic conditions including asthma, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, respiratory diseases, and cancer. The project was one of eight projects to receive a Centennial Grand Challenge research grant from the School in 2022, a signal of its critical importance to the field of public health.

“We’re hoping to develop a semi-automatic algorithm that we could translate into tools that are impactful for any person or health professional at the user level,” Desvarieux says. The algorithm behind the tools learns from clinical research and real-world information spanning medical data, environmental exposure data, behavioral data, and biological data, among other categories.

To date, the health applications for these sophisticated data science tools have mostly involved personalizing treatment decisions for patients who already have a disease or condition. In contrast, Desvarieux’s tools would help determine when to intervene with certain prevention strategies depending on an individual’s risk factors.

Another data science research project underway is the Interstitial Lung Disease Diagnostics Tool, through which Qixuan Chen, PhD, associate professor of Biostatistics, and her colleagues aim to help radiologists more accurately and quickly determine diagnoses. The tool, which is meant to help radiologists distinguish between chronic hypersensitivity pneumonitis, usual interstitial pneumonia, and nonspecific interstitial pneumonia, is designed to be accessed through a free, user-friendly app. It asks radiologists to specify the presence or absence of four CT scan features that Chen and her team identified as the most important in differentiating between diagnoses. Although the list of potential features could have been longer, Chen and her Biostatistics colleagues used a statistical method called a Bayesian additive regression tree to pinpoint four.

“The radiologists don’t need to answer 20 questions,” Chen says, explaining how they are already spread thin. “When we only talk about four important features, it makes their life easier, and they are more likely to adopt it.”

Chen and her team are still fine-tuning the tool, but the algorithm has already demonstrated

Photograph: Diana Reddy

a strong predictive ability she believes could help minimize errors and ensure patients get the right intervention at the right time.

Acknowledging and Ending Bias Becoming a public health data scientist in 2023 means building and applying new algorithms, tools, code, and techniques to vast troves of data to improve health outcomes. Increasingly, it also means learning to recognize biases, and to understand these tools have a dangerous capacity to deepen health disparities. “Public health must take the lead in protecting health while leveraging new technologies to improve human health,” says Gary Miller, PhD, vice dean for research strategy and innovation.

“There is extraordinary potential for AI and data science to improve human health, but there is also extraordinary potential for these systems to exacerbate disparities and create new health problems.”

Berhane notes that we have seen this risk already in many settings (for example, criminal profiling, in which AI has fueled dangerous biases). During the COVID-19 pandemic, it came to light that the pulse oximeters used to measure blood oxygen levels were more often inaccurate when used on Black patients versus white patients. If complex algorithms meant to predict disease risk are trained using data that don’t adequately represent certain subgroups, those tools cannot be expected to work in those populations.The same is true of drugs and treatments clinically tested on homogenous patient populations.

“Big data can give you a false sense of comfort if misused,” Berhane says. “If the millions or billions of data points you have are not coming from the entire population that is being targeted for subsequent actions, then it’s actually dangerous.”

Safeguarding the next generation of public health data scientists against these biases and disparities involves continuous learning, ethical discussions, and open discourse. It also involves ensuring that the researchers, faculty, and students engaging in this discourse themselves represent the diverse populations. Diversity in the public health data science field, to that end, is crucial both in the U.S. and globally, Berhane says. “There are many sections of the world that don’t have the capacity to collect data, but decisions are being made for them based on data from elsewhere,” he adds. “A seat at the table in data science is powerful.”

Health and science reporter Caroline Hopkins is a 2019 graduate of Columbia Journalism School.

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THIS IS WHAT GLOBAL HEALTH LOOKS LIKE Twenty years after it was founded, ICAP at Columbia University keeps reaching for more impact.

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In 2003, the world was in despair over

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HIV/AIDS. At the time, the crisis in sub-Saharan Africa was devastating individuals, families, and communities—as it had been for years. Many were skeptical that anything could be done to save the millions of people living with HIV in some of the world’s poorest countries. But Wafaa El-Sadr, MD, MPH ’91, MPA, had cared for patients with HIV in New York City’s Harlem community, and she firmly believed that not only could a lot be done, but also that it must be done.

This simple but world-changing conviction led to the birth of ICAP, a global health center—situated at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health—that would go on to help change the face of the HIV crisis across the globe. “When ICAP came into the country, we really needed to scale up treatment,” recalls Rejoice Nkambule, MPH, deputy director of health services at the Ministry of Health of Eswatini, one of the African countries most affected by HIV/AIDS. With funding from the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (founded the same year as ICAP), ICAP worked shoulder-to-shoulder with ministries of health and partners from government, academia, and civil society to strengthen health systems and train nurses, midwives, doctors, laboratory workers, and data managers in countries across the region—including Eswatini.

At left, in Angola, a mother living with HIV and her child receive care. Above (1) ICAP's founder and director, Wafaa El-Sadr, visits a clinic in Kenya.

(2) Outside a hospital in Ethiopia, a doctor tests people for COVID-19 to help control the spread of the virus. (3) The Population-Based HIV Impact Assessment (PHIA) Project, led by ICAP, is the gold standard in capturing the state of HIV epidemic response in 15 countries and counting.

Photographs, from left: Artur Francisco for ICAP; all others courtesy ICAP

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“ICAP has been a very effective partner that has helped us grow our response to the epidemic,” says Nkambule, who has seen her country make dramatic strides toward ending its epidemic in the past 20 years.

Today, ICAP works in 40 countries, designing and implementing some 180 innovative projects designed to strengthen health systems, increase access to health services, and enhance the capacity to respond to a range of health threats. From its roots in global HIV response, ICAP has grown to focus on an expanding list of other health challenges—from tuberculosis and malaria to COVID-19 and mpox—while advancing maternal and child health and setting its sights on increasingly urgent new health challenges, such as antimicrobial resistance and the health effects of climate change and forced migration.

“Two decades after we first got off the ground, ICAP finds itself more needed than ever,” says ElSadr.“While much has been accomplished, so much more is yet to be done.”

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(1) In Lesotho, nurses trained by ICAP bring care to isolated residents by riding horseback over rough terrain. (2) An ICAP-trained healthcare worker in Tajikistan talks with a person living with HIV about how to stay well. (3) In New York City, ICAP conducts critical public health research, such as a study on the impact of the mpox virus. (4) A transgender sex worker in Panama gets information on PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis), an important HIV-prevention method. (5) A technician in a molecular lab extracts blood samples for testing in Burundi. (6) An ICAP analyst in South Sudan reviews data to guide effective health interventions.

(7) The HIV Coverage, Quality, and Impact Network (CQUIN) fosters knowledge-sharing among 22 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

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51,000,000 People tested for HIV

9,200,000 HIV patients screened for tuberculosis

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2,400,000 People treated for HIV

12,000,000 Pregnant women tested for HIV

790,000 Women given antiretrovirals to prevent HIV transmission to their fetus

400,000 Health workers trained

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218,000 People given PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis)

7,965 Health facilities supported

7,025 Laboratories provided with technical assistance

Photographs: (above, top) Artur Francisco for ICAP; all others courtesy of ICAP.

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A WORLD OF GOOD FOR MENTAL HEALTH

By Christina Hernandez Sherwood Illustration by Alex Nabaum

A South African woman, who is HIV positive and a survivor of sexual trauma, clutches a cloth bag heavy with orange and purple painted pebbles. As the woman removes one pebble after another—each, depending on the color, represents a changeable or unchangeable stressor—the bag lightens, as does her metaphorical burden. She divides her “coping pebbles” into two piles, then works with a counselor to develop strategies to help her handle each stressor.

Researchers from the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, in partnership with colleagues at the University of Cape Town, are studying whether the women who receive this therapy will better adhere to their HIV medication regimen. Kathleen Sikkema, PhD, Stephen Smith Professor and chair of Sociomedical Sciences, developed this therapeutic intervention two decades ago for a population of American HIV patients and adapted it specifically for women in South Africa. Her theory is that addressing social determinants of mental health—in this case, the stress resulting from violence—will help the women stay engaged in their care and wellbeing, improving their clinical outcomes.

This type of global mental health work is more urgent than ever. Worldwide mental health disparities were brought into sharp focus by the COVID-19 pandemic. Climate change both poses an existential crisis and threatens livelihoods and health. It is likely to displace even more populations, a situation that brings with it a host of mental health effects. More than 75 percent of people with mental health disorders living in low- and middle-income countries do not

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receive the care they need, according to the World Health Organization.

Sikkema’s research is designed with these challenges in mind. It employs an increasingly popular approach to public health called task sharing, in which some work is transferred from trained specialists—who are in short supply in lowresource countries—to lay counselors.

“There’s so much greater need than there is access to providers,” says Sikkema, a clinical psychologist who has led pioneering scholarship in global mental health for 30 years. “We must learn how to prevent, diagnose, and treat mental health issues where resources are limited.”

To that end, the Columbia Mailman School last year announced the establishment of its new Global and Population Mental Health program. Under Sikkema’s direction, the program formalizes the School’s long-standing commitment to global mental health and builds on the work done by Professor of Epidemiology and Psychiatry Ezra Susser, MD ’82, DrPH ’92, who helped formalize the approach to improving the mental health of populations worldwide.

With projects underway in sub-Saharan Africa, South America, and migrant settlements in the United States, researchers in

every corner of the School—psychologists, epidemiologists, sociologists, global health experts, and more—are working to expand the field from one that primarily studies mental health challenges to one that promotes evidence-based prevention and treatment techniques. “With a growing focus on mental health across the School, it should not be the domain of one department,” Sikkema says. “The interdisciplinary approach is only going to make us stronger.”

And, as they grapple with their own pressing research questions, School faculty are also considering how to ensure that their field treats the populations they study—and the researchers they collaborate with outside the United States—more equitably.

Among the Century’s Grand Challenges Two of the School’s interdisciplinary global mental health projects received Columbia Mailman School Centennial Grand Challenges Awards—grants ranging from $100,000 to $200,000 for projects addressing significant emerging challenges. In one project, led by Claire Greene, PhD, MPH, an assistant professor of Population and

Family Health, researchers are developing and testing strategies to increase access to mental health support in tandem with economic support programs for displaced people in Ecuador. Greene is co-leading with Jeremy Kane, PhD, MPH, assistant professor of Epidemiology, and Kathryn Lovero, PhD, assistant professor of Sociomedical Sciences. The project is a collaboration with HIAS, a leading provider of services for refugees globally.

Epidemiology Professor Katherine Keyes, PhD ’10, MPH ’06, received a Grand Challenge award for her work with Ajmal Sabawoon, MD, MPH, an epidemiologist and biostatistician previously affiliated with Afghanistan’s Kabul University.

Sabawoon is among the more than 75,000 Afghans who have resettled in the United States in the past several years, navigating the stressors of immigration after decades of exposure to political violence. Keyes and Sabawoon will be surveying some 500 people recently resettled in the U.S. from Afghanistan, as well as their healthcare providers, to determine the mental health needs of displaced people. With an eye toward preventing the mental illnesses prevalent among displaced people, such as anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder, their goal is to establish a

NEW FACULTY, NEW APPROACHES With the hiring of key new faculty members, including Sabrina Hermosilla, MIA/MPH ’08, PhD ’15 (see page 35) the School has expanded its bench in global mental health to reflect its commitment to the field: Multidisciplinary community-partnered health equity researcher Paris “AJ” Adkins-Jackson, PhD, MPH, is an assistant professor of both Epidemiology and Sociomedical Sciences. Adkins-Jackson, who studies the effects of structural racism on healthy aging in historically marginalized populations, is leading research into how exposure to adverse community-level policing affects psychological well-being, cognitive function, and biological aging in older adults.

Melissa DuPont-Reyes, PhD ’17, MPH, an assistant professor of Sociomedical Sciences and Epidemiology, uses her psychiatric and social epidemiology training to study health equity in population mental

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From left: Hermosilla, Adkins-Jackson, DuPont-Reyes, and Gloria

health among young and diverse populations in the United States.

She is working to understand how early prevention of mental illness stigma may help reduce lifelong disparities in access to care.

Christian Gloria, PhD, vice chair and associate professor of Sociomedical Sciences, studies the protective and resilience factors that enable people to adapt, grow, and thrive against chronic stress and adversity. His current research focuses on the health and well-being of Filipino communities in New York and across the United States.

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research program that prioritizes mental health needs and tracks long-term outcomes for resettled migrants. “The number of people who are displaced is growing— for political reasons, climate reasons, and other reasons,” Keyes says.

Even as they work on the Ecuador project, Kane and Greene are also co-leading a randomized controlled trial at three refugee camps outside the Democratic Republic of Congo, where conflicts have created a massive humanitarian crisis. The trial focuses on using task sharing to treat alcohol and substance use disorder among the refugees, a problem Kane says has been “almost completely unaddressed.” Congolese refugees trained as lay counselors will administer cognitive behavioral therapy over the course of a year. Perhaps the trickiest part, he says, is accurately measuring alcohol consumption. “Every single piece of the trial is built on data and measuring outcomes accurately,” he says.

Moving the larger research community toward a more equitable approach means making long-term commitments to addressing mental health needs in the areas the School’s researchers study and decolonizing the field. “The model has shifted significantly,” Kane says. “Now it is a priority that our partners in the countries we are working in are the ones who initiate ideas and invite us to partner, as opposed to us saying, ‘We want to come in because we think you need the study to be done.’ It’s a flipping of the paradigm that has existed for a long, long time.”

A Sense of Urgency In the Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health, faculty are working to speed the process of adapting global mental health interventions so that they can get results immediately. Assistant Professor Sabrina Hermosilla, MIA/MPH ’08, PhD ’15, joined the faculty in the fall of 2022 and is spearheading an ongoing project incountry with the nongovernmental organization TPO Uganda. Her work seeks to understand how best to adapt and implement a program supporting healthy parenting tech-

Photographs: courtesy of subjects

There is a humanitarian imperative for researchers to deliver effective solutions in real time. “If we wait for ‘perfect,’ then we have failed to serve these people,’’ says Hermosilla.

niques and incorporating mental health-related topics, such as how stress can influence parenting decisions. In settings like these, Hermosilla says, there is a humanitarian imperative for researchers to deliver effective solutions in real time. “If we wait for ‘perfect,’ then we have failed to serve these people and haven’t actually helped our partners on the ground who are acting right now,” she says. At Columbia Mailman School, “we are firmly based in the methodological, but we also have an eye to action that is always informed by the most vulnerable.”

Hermosilla is championing a movement known as “nothing about me without me,” which aims to ensure that research participants’ voices are heard without putting undue stress on them. “Imagine trying to go to high school in a refugee camp and somebody from the United Nations wants you to join a conference call,” she says.

“That’s the reality of what we’re asking. It’s well intentioned, but how do we make sure it’s done appropriately? How do we remain accountable to these children?”

Climate change is another increasingly urgent threat to mental health, as experiencing extreme weather events can cause a host of psychological burdens and damages, notes Gary Belkin, MD, PhD, MPH, a professor of Sociomedical Sciences. While serving as executive deputy commissioner of New York City’s Division of Mental Hygiene from 2014 to 2019, Belkin worked to implement a task-sharing approach by training teachers, police, clergy, and other public-facing workers in mental health, with the goal of bolstering community psychological strength and resilience. Later, he realized the need for resilient communities

reached beyond the five boroughs. “During the pandemic, we got to see what happens when people are not trusting each other and are not emotionally confident to face shared threats,” Belkin says.

Belkin founded and leads the Billion Minds Institute project at Columbia Mailman School. It is a hub for what he defined in a New England Journal of Medicine article as “investment and leadership supporting the ‘social climate’—that is, community-level emotional resilience and mental health and their mutually reinforcing connection to social ties and collective efficacy.” Its initiatives include Race to Resilience, a United Nations-backed effort to strengthen infrastructure and communities in the face of climate change. Race to Resilience partners include Slum Dwellers International, a global network of community-based organizations.

Geography also plays a role in other climate-focused research Keyes is doing, considering how lack of access to shade is associated with increased mental health problems in youth. With co-principal investigator Andrew Rundle, MPH ’94, DrPH ’00, an Epidemiology professor who codirects the Built Environment and Health Research Group at Columbia, Keyes is studying adolescents in Los Angeles County to understand how tree canopy, shade cover, and the surface temperature of their environment affect their mental well-being.

“There’s a lot of evidence to suggest that constant exposure to heat can have an adverse effect on mental health,” Keyes says.

Taking a comprehensive approach to mental health more accurately considers how people interact with their wider world, including cultural views on mental health, support available in certain geographic areas, and more, Belkin says. “You’re thinking about other sectors, other institutions, as partners in the work of promoting and sustaining mental health,” he says. “We have really never approached mental health in that way before.”

Christina Hernandez Sherwood lives in the Philadelphia area. Read more from her at christinahernandezsherwood.com.

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THE PARTY OF THE CENTURY

Columbia Mailman School celebrated 100 years of public health leadership and kicked off its next wave of innovation and achievement with a record-breaking April 2023 fundraising gala, welcoming 450 attendees, including Anthony S. Fauci, MD.

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Dean Linda P. Fried, MD, MPH (above), gave attendees something to celebrate: “We have extended human life expectancy in this country and world by 30 years, and 25 of those 30 years are due to public health advances,” she told the assembled supporters, faculty, staff, students, and honored guests. “The second century needs public health to lead in adding health to those years—for all.”

The gala, chaired by Jeannie and Jonathan Lavine (above) and supported by 11 vice chairs, raised $3 million for Columbia Mailman School, more than any gala in the School’s history. Dean Fried also announced a series of transformative gifts that night totaling $35 million, part of the landmark centennial fundraising that will help the School fulfill its vision for a second century of public health leadership.

Board of Advisors members, from left: Lila Preston, Jonathan Smidt, Chelsea Clinton, MPH ’10, PhD, Peggy Shepard, Dean Fried, Dina Dublon, Alan Batkin, Cora Neuman, PhD, MPH ’03, and Frank R. Jimenez, PhD.

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Kenneth Frazier, retired executive chairman of Merck & Co. (left) introduced honoree P. Roy Vagelos, MD (right), calling him the “father of modern corporate responsibility” and saluting his compassion and generosity in a career that spanned medicine, academia, research, and the development of medical interventions for global health crises. “Whether he was in academia or business, he never stopped being a physician … bent on ending human suffering,” Frazier said.

MPH students Antony Nguyen (left) and Jordan Williams (far right) interviewed Dr. Fauci for a video. They joined Alumni Board member Dorcas Adedoja, MPH ’20, and Michael A. Joseph, PhD, MPH, vice dean for education.

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Guests gathered to support a future where public health’s goals are achieved. They enjoyed a seasonal, locally sourced, environmentally conscious meal designed to minimize the emissions of greenhouse gases harmful to the planet.

Advisory Board member and gala Vice-Chair Elizabeth “Betsy” Williams, MPH ’03, introduced Wafaa El-Sadr, MD, MPH ’91, MPA (left), co-founder and director of ICAP, which is celebrating its own 20th anniversary this year.

El-Sadr was honored for her transformative work across the globe and exemplary public health leadership. “You know you have reached a rare level of fame when you are known by only one name … Bono … Oprah … Madonna … and Wafaa,” Williams said, calling El-Sadr “a model for how all of us in global health should conduct ourselves, whether making policy or making rounds.”

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THE 2023 FRANK A. CALDERONE PRIZE: ANTHONY S. FAUCI

Anthony S. Fauci was an honored guest at the gala.

The following day, he received the 2023 Frank A. Calderone Prize in Public Health, the highest prize in public health globally. Given by Columbia Mailman School, it recognizes individuals who have made a transformational contribution to the field. Recipients are selected by an international committee of public health leaders. Fauci spoke at the gala, calling Columbia Mailman School a “spectacular school of public health.” He highlighted outstanding issues raised by the pandemic: “If anything is the enemy of public health, it’s misinformation and disinformation,” he said, going on to call attention to the divisiveness we saw in the face of the crisis. “We can’t let diversity be divisiveness,” he said.

Clockwise from left, scenes from the Calderone event: Commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Ashwin Vasan, MD, PhD (center), with Gisselle Pardo and Astrid Cordero of Nido de Esperanza, the 2023 Calderone City Health Award winner; Fauci; Fauci with, from left, Ariana Calderone Stahmer, Dean Fried, Dean Katrina Armstrong, MD, CEO of the Columbia University Irving Medical Center, and Francesca Calderone-Steichen, MPH.

Photographs: (left) Bruce Gilbert, (right) Michael DeVito

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Graduates

BY N A N CY AVER ETT

A Splendid Second Act

The Power of Three Degrees

Chiyo Moriuchi, MBA ’86, MPH ’15

Nimish Shah, MBA/MPH ’06

The Great Recession propelled Chiyo Moriuchi toward a second career in public health. She had already spent decades working in business, finance, and real estate investment, including a nineyear stint in Tokyo with LaSalle Investment Management. When the financial crisis prompted the firm to offer buyouts, Moriuchi took one. “I thought, ‘Maybe it’s time for me to do something else,’” she says.

While pondering her next move, she served on the boards of several Quaker organizations (Moriuchi herself is a Quaker). “While I was on the board of Medford Leas, a Quaker continuing care retirement community, I became much more aware of the issues” with an aging population, she recalls. Then Moriuchi came across a 2012 New York Times profile of Dean Linda P. Fried, MD, MPH, in which Fried discussed how she helped start a volunteer tutoring program to help both senior citizens and children flourish.

“I thought, ‘That is the stuff we need to be thinking about and talking about,’” Moriuchi recalls.

Soon, she was enrolled in Columbia Mailman School’s Accelerated MPH program. She studied her town, Newtown, Pennsylvania, and found that it had many assets for older people but that elders were separated from the wider community. It also had bumpy, nard-to-navigate sidewalks.

After getting her degree, Moriuchi worked as a program manager in the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center. But she had made connections that led to her becoming, in 2019, the CEO of Friends Village, an independent living and personal care community for older adults in Newtown. The role has allowed her to put her knowledge about healthy aging into practice. For instance, while at Columbia Mailman School, she learned about Senior Planet, a digital and in-person learning community for older adults. So Moriuchi signed up Friends Village, and now she offers free Senior Planet digital literacy classes quarterly to both Friends Village residents and other senior citizens in the area—making the retirement home a hub for senior learning. “I want Friends Village to be part of the wider community, not separated from it,” she says. “Residents can continue to be contributing members, benefiting themselves and the community, and countering society’s ageist attitudes.”

Biostatistics expertise built at Columbia Mailman School has helped Nimish Shah in his work as a partner at the venture capital firm Venrock.

He evaluates companies, in part, by examining their clinical trial design. “A company’s value could go down if clinical trials weren’t done right,” he says.

At Columbia Mailman School, Shah chose the Health Policy and Management track and remembers vividly the lectures by department Chair Michael S. Sparer, JD, PhD, who detailed the complex process of changing a nation’s laws around drug pricing and health insurance. “It was really eyeopening to me how difficult that can be,” he says.

After graduating, Shah worked for Credit Suisse, where he analyzed medical therapeutic companies to help clients make investment decisions. “Then I decided I wanted to do more investing,” he says, so he moved to Citadel and eventually to Venrock. “We take a long-term view on a potential startup,” he says. “We pick a select number of companies to back whose potential we have analyzed carefully.”

A finance career wasn’t what Shah envisioned when he got his Bachelor of Science in pharmacy from Rutgers or when he pursued two master’s degrees at Columbia University. But the degrees have helped him. “My pharmacy degree helps me understand if the biology of a new drug makes sense,” he says. “My public health background helps me understand if they designed the right clinical trial, and my MBA helps me think through how big a drug could be.” Shah was an early investor in Biohaven, which created Nurtec, a revolutionary type of drug that blocks a protein that causes some migraines. “I take some pride in the fact that I played a small part in getting this drug to patients,” he says. Biohaven became a wholly owned subsidiary of Pfizer last year in a transaction valued at $11.6 billion.

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A LUMN I C HA N GI N G THE WO RLD O F P U BLIC HEALTH

Changing Healthcare From the Inside Cheryl Pegus, MD, MPH ’89

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hen Cheryl Pegus was a child, her grandfather got sick and she soon realized that her family’s socioeconomic situation was affecting his healthcare. “We couldn’t afford care,” she says. “As a kid, I was changing wound dressings and helping make doctors’ appointments.” Pegus, raised by a single mom, immigrated to New York City from Trinidad and wanted to become a doctor.

Eager to change the world, Pegus, at just 16, enrolled as an undergraduate studying premed at Brandeis University.

She soon learned that becoming a doctor wouldn’t be enough to change a system that had failed to meet her grandfather’s needs. Between her residency and a cardiology fellowship, she enrolled at Columbia Mailman School, where she was impressed that the students had such varied backgrounds—there were former Peace Corps workers, social workers, and budding epidemiologists. Her epidemiology and biostatistics training presented a very rational way to fight for healthcare access and improved equity. “It’s just, ‘Trust the data, and use it to improve outcomes,’” she says. We will see gains as a healthcare community and country if we trust the data.”

After getting her master’s, Pegus came across a report in the New England Journal of Medicine showing that Black men in Harlem were less likely to reach age 65 than men in Bangladesh. “It was 1992, but it rings true today,” she says. The research made her realize that better health didn’t just “happen” when you got to the doctor’s office, but much earlier, in your community, and that there were bigger issues to solve and other stakeholders needed to cause change. So Pegus went to work Photographs: Courtesy of subjects

for large corporations that could have a big impact: Pfizer, Aetna, Walgreens, and Walmart. At Pfizer, the company performed, along with the National Institutes of Health, one of the first and largest clinical trials looking at hypertension in African Americans. “This type of partnership is critical to fund the trials we need in science,” Pegus says.

Later at Aetna, the company became the first to collect race and ethnicity information on its 30 million members.

“We did our analysis by women, by race,

by ZIP code, and by using data began offering personalized solutions while measuring results. Jack Rowe, MD, the CEO, championed these efforts,” Pegus says. (Rowe is now Julius B. Richmond Professor of Health Policy and Aging at Columbia Mailman School.) At Walmart, she helped oversee its COVID-19 vaccine rollout, finding innovative partnerships

to push back against vaccine hesitancy.

“Housing communities, pastors, hair salons and barbers, NASCAR, NBA … we worked tirelessly with whoever was the most trusted,” Pegus says.

Pegus’ most recent job is as managing director with Morgan Health, created

by JP Morgan Chase in 2021. The startup aims to bring value-based healthcare to employer-sponsored plans, where physicians are compensated based on the quality of the services they render rather than the quantity. “Value-based care has stretched into Medicare Advantage, but not employer health insurance,” she says.

“So how do we get that to 16- to 64-yearolds? How do we improve the quality of their care in an equitable way?”

Thirty years into her career, Pegus still relishes searching for those solutions. “I am optimistic,” she says. “Change is occurring and I want to go faster.”

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Graduates

Global Reach, Local Leadership

Ensuring Equity for Veterans

Margaret Crotty, MPH ’14

Ernest Moy, MD, MPH ’91

Margaret Crotty launched her career at Save the Children in Indonesia after getting her undergraduate degree at Princeton.

It was the start of a successful career that included a decade as CEO of Partnership With Children, which provides community health and schoolbased behavioral health across New York City. It was during that time that she enrolled in the Health Policy and Management executive program.

In 2022, Crotty became president and CEO of JSI, an international nongovernmental organization that oversees $750 million of programs that strengthen the capacity of local systems in 42 countries to deliver high-quality services and ensure equity in access to healthcare, education, and socioeconomic opportunity. “We work with governments, the private sector, and civil society to identify and implement solutions to the biggest public health and education challenges,” she says.

Crotty sees a change underway in global public health in response to the pandemic, the effects of climate change, and the increasing commitment to programs being locally designed and implemented.

She notes that many countries that managed their own pandemic response, making decisions on the ground, have had strong outcomes. “Zambia reached an 85 percent vaccination rate among its vaccineeligible population,” she says.

Her leadership spans multicountry programs and community projects. The common thread is listening to the community, building trust, leveraging local resources, and adapting to change, all approaches taught at the School. “We think hard about our role,” Crotty says. “What’s the best way to measure impact and sustainability? How do we build a global system where resources shift to local stewards? We want local experts to set the agenda.”

Ernest Moy came to Columbia more than 30 years ago for an internal medicine fellowship program for physicians interested in public health. He quickly dug into how socioeconomic factors— education, job stability, neighborhood—could affect patients’ health, something that he is still immersed in today as executive director of the Office of Health Equity of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA).

While earning his MPH, Moy focused on healthcare equity and disparities of care. He found a mentor in Oliver Fein, MD, at what was then called ColumbiaPresbyterian, who had opened five satellite health centers to assist the largely Dominican population in Washington Heights. “He recognized that the social needs they had, especially if they were unmet, were more impactful on their health than anything we could possibly do,” Moy says.

Moy also saw firsthand how bifurcated the U.S. healthcare system can be between those with money and those without. When the hospital decided to take fewer indigent and Medicaid patients, he and the other fellows conducted a study. They found that some were able to pay a new fee, and others found new providers. But some slipped through the cracks. Of this group Moy says, “Their high blood pressure and diabetes were often under poor control.”

Moy went on to work at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where, among other things, he studied rural health disparities.

Finally, in 2018, he moved to the VHA. Moy analyzes standard quality metrics—such as safety, effectiveness, and equity—for veterans groups defined by sex, age, race, ethnicity, and other factors.

He shares the results with Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers and clinics around the country. One recent analysis revealed that minority veterans and white female veterans were not receiving newer, more effective diabetes medications at the same rate as white males. “We take that information and tweak our programs,” Moy says. “We might need to customize communication for those groups or connect them to social services.” Making these targeted adjustments to the healthcare program at a VA center, he says, can really move equity forward.

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Nancy Averett is a science writer in Cincinnati, Ohio.

2023–2024 EDITION

Scholars

STUDENTS AND FACULTY LEADING THE WAY

Assessing the State of Public Health The American Rescue Plan included $7.7 billion for 100,000 new public health jobs, and much of the money went to individual states. To learn how the funds were being used and what progress was made, Michael S. Sparer, JD, PhD, professor and chair of Health Policy and Management, and Lawrence D. Brown, PhD, professor of Health Policy and Management, spoke with leaders from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and traveled to Kentucky, Indiana, Mississippi, New York, and Washington. They published their findings in The Milbank Quarterly: States were not spending the money expeditiously. There are limits to what funding can do without cooperation from local governments. (Kentucky was the only state where there was a “truly collaborative process” between local and state officials.)

Public health needs support from mayors, and local commissioners, and these leaders need to be persuaded that improving the public health system will benefit citizens.

Student Startup Ideas What’s your elevator pitch? How will your startup be both a financial success and a boon to public health? This was the assignment of Fast Pitch, a Columbia Mailman School-hosted competition open to budding student entrepreneurs across the university.

Organized by the Department of Health Policy and Management, the most recent competition saw 10 teams face off for the $5,000 Asha Saxena Prize for Entrepreneurship. Each team was allotted seven minutes to explain their startup’s value proposition and walk judges through the steps necessary to bring it to fruition. The winner was Chris Chin, an Executive MPH student at Columbia Mailman School. His nonprofit, Crosstalk Connections, seeks to ease the burden of support phone calls that are a core part of recovery in Alcoholics Anonymous by automatically connecting someone in recovery with a supportive member of their recovery team.

Photographs: (left) courtesy of subjects; (above) Anne Foulke Toner; (right) iStock

A Major Grant for a Significant Problem Daniel Giovenco, PhD, MPH, assistant professor of Sociomedical Sciences, was awarded a five-year, $2.9 million National Institutes of Health Research Project Grant (R01). His research will explore the impact of local interventions to establish caps on the number of tobacco retail licenses permitted in San Francisco, Philadelphia, and New York City. Tobacco retailer density is disproportionately high in lowincome communities and certain racial and ethnic enclaves, contributing to severe socioeconomic and social disparities in smoking and its resultant health harms. His results will inform equitable policy formation and help to reduce persistent health disparities.

Faculty Book .....

The Social Epidemiology of the COVID-19 Pandemic Dustin Duncan, ScD, associate professor of Epidemiology, Stephen S. Morse, PhD, professor of Epidemiology, and Harvard’s Ichiro Kawachi, MB, ChB, PhD, are coeditors of The Social Epidemiology of the COVID-19 Pandemic (Oxford University Press). The book covers topics such as racism and stigmatization of COVID-19; gender and sexuality as they relate to COVID-19; disability and ableism during the pandemic; and the links between neighborhoods, neighborhood factors, and COVID-19 outcomes.

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Scholars

Top left: U.S. first lady Dr. Jill Biden meets with the group. Right: First ladies at the four-day conference. Bottom: From left, Her Excellency (H.E.) Mrs. Neo Jane Masisi, first lady of Botswana; H.E. Mrs. Angeline Ndayishimiye, first lady of Burundi; H.E. Mrs. Fatoumatta Bah-Barrow, first lady of Gambia; H.E. Mrs. Rachel Ruto, first lady of Kenya; Cora Neumann,

Columbia Mailman School Hosts Historic Visit by Nine First Ladies First ladies from eight African countries and experts from the Columbia Mailman School met in July for an executive education program to discuss current trends, critical research, and sustainable, evidence-based approaches to promote population health and well-being. They were joined for a roundtable discussion by U.S. first lady Dr. Jill Biden, who told her fellow leaders, 44

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PhD, MPH ’03, founder of the Global First Ladies Alliance; Dean Linda P. Fried, MD, MPH; H.E. Mrs. Monica Geingos, first lady of Namibia; H.E. Mrs. Monica Chakwera, first lady of Malawi; H.E. Mrs. Isaura Gonçalo Ferrão Nyusi, first lady of Mozambique; and H.E. Dr. Auxillia Mnangagwa, first lady of Zimbabwe.

“Together, with the strength of the sisterhood that surrounds us, we can build a better future for all of us.”

The program was the inaugural Global First Ladies Academy, which works to catalyze positive impact and social transformation in communities around the world. It was launched by the Global First Ladies Alliance, whose president and founder is Columbia Mailman School Board of Advisors member Dr. Cora Neumann.

First lady of Namibia Mrs. Monica Geingos said the meeting was perfectly timed: “First ladies aren’t elected, [but] we come with social capital. People listen to first ladies.” Hear more in the video: publichealth.columbia.edu/GFLA Photographs: (top) Eileen Barroso; (bottom) Anne Foulke Toner

“Having stipend support allowed me to focus on my long-term goals without having to worry about finances. I got to apply what I learned in my coursework and further my commitment to making a difference in marginalized communities.”

Suraya Mohidul, MPH ’23

“I’m so grateful for the financial support I received for my field practicum in New York City.

My experience helped me feel that my work was part of a larger, community-driven movement—which is the kind of work that drew me into public health.”

Gabby Khawly, MPH ’23

The Power of Philanthropy Giving to Columbia Mailman School means giving to the future of public health—strengthening the research and innovation that’s advancing the field today and educating the leaders who will transform public health tomorrow and for generations to come.

Your generosity supports our faculty, students, and graduates to improve the health and lives of people around the world, from the largest nations to the smallest communities.

Make your gift today at publichealth.columbia.edu/give.

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