School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine Annual Report

On the

Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine 2020 YEAR IN REVIEW

Letter from the Dean As public health practitioners and supporters, we’ve always understood the importance of communitylevel measures to protect the health of populations. In the wake of COVID-19, the importance of public health is now broadly recognized and understood. The pandemic has demonstrated the vital need for the epidemiologists, biostatisticians, health policy experts, infectious disease experts and social scientists that do the vital work of protecting the health of the public.

Your support has helped this school make a real, tangible difference in this state’s response to COVID-19. Over the past twelve months, we were able to quickly develop funding mechanisms to help both faculty and students develop programs that addressed real, pressing needs in the community.

Projects like Pass Dat Joy, a collaboration between Tulane students and the Homer Plessy School to alleviate the stress of parents in those early months of the shut-down; SSAINTS, another student response effort this time focused on older Vietnamese-Americans; Dr. Katherine Mills’ assessment of the impacts of the pandemic on low-income patients with hypertension; and the incredible expansion of The Skin You’re In, combatting myths and raising awareness about COVID-19 in the Black community.

Our work is far from done. As vaccines roll out, our researchers will continue to be at the forefront, gathering data, developing outreach to marginalized communities, and taking a wide view of the response to this crisis so that we’ll all be better informed and better prepared the next time.

Sincerely,

Thomas A. LaVeist, PhD Dean, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine Weatherhead Presidential Chair in Health Equity

By the Numbers

95%

39%

24%

SPHTM annual giving increased by 95% during the year 2020

The number of SPHTM annual fund donors increased by 39% in 2020

The total number of donors who supported SPHTM in 2020 increased by 24%

173.9%

$3,146,653

Enrollment in the Online MPH in Community Health Sciences degree program has nearly tripled since its start in Fall 2019

SPHTM total commitments in 2020

$106,304,387 supported SPHTM during the Only the Audacious campaign, through 12/31/2020

TULANE EXPERTS IN THE NEWS: A YEAR IN REVIEW From doctors on the front lines to researchers working to find a vaccine, the efforts of Tulane University experts throughout 2020 are highlighted by major news organizations across the globe.

Find some stories from the past year about our COVID-19 response on YouTube.

ON THE COVER »

Student interns with the Tulane University Translational Sciences Institute (TUTSI) practice their skills.

This photo was taken before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Making a Difference

Six Tulane student groups awarded grants from Sprinting to the Front Lines Sprinting to the Front Lines is a rapid funding mechanism for Tulane students to impact the health and wellbeing of the New Orleans community during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Projects were selected from 50 applications by a panel of three School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine faculty members.

Funding for Sprinting to the Front Lines was made possible by a generous donation from Celia Weatherhead (a Newcomb College graduate and member of the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine Dean’s Advisory Council) and the Weatherhead Foundation.

The six winning projects are varied: helping meet the needs of the New Orleans birthing population; delivering fresh produce directly from local farms to families in need; implementing walk-up COVID-19 testing; alleviating parents’ stress early in the shutdown; focusing on the health of the Vietnamese American population and promoting sexual health in vulnerable populations during the pandemic.

Public Health in Action

Wastewater surveillance researchers wading through COVID-19 clues

Tulane Public Health Dean Leads Health Equity Task Force Dean Thomas LaVeist is serving as head of the Louisiana COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force, created

by Gov. John Bel Edwards in April 2020.

“We know that right now 70 percent of our deaths in

Since it’s known that viral RNA is shed through feces, even in asymptomatic individuals, the best place to head off COVID-19 outbreaks in New Orleans and elsewhere might just prove to be its wastewater.

Or, as Samendra Sherchan, PhD, assistant professor in the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine’s Department of Environmental Health Sciences puts it: “Poop never lies!”

Environmental surveillance, the monitoring of wastewater and sewage to reveal information about a community’s health is a powerful tool that has been used to track emerging viruses, vaccine adherence, antibiotic-resistant genes, illicit drug use, and pathogens that might signal a bioterrorism attack. But the current pandemic is the first time it’s being used as an advance warning system.

“It’s taking another step, utilizing it for public health officials to make better decisions in controlling and mitigating COVID-19,” says Dr. Sherchan. Together with Tiong Gim Aw, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of EHS, and six colleagues, Dr. Sherchan published a paper on what they believe was the first detection of coronavirus-2 RNA in wastewater in the United States. The resulting information is “at least four to seven days ahead of COVID-19 infection because with clinical testing you have lags, and people might not have symptoms. Before the clinical cases start to appear in the community, you already have positive detection in wastewater,” says Dr. Sherchan.

Louisiana from coronavirus are African Americans,” said Edwards. “This is a disturbing trend and one that deserves our attention.”

LaVeist is a nationally recognized expert in health equity.

“I’m happy the governor has demonstrated bold leadership in the midst of the pandemic to recognize and address the hard truth that COVID-19 is hitting Black communities much harder and with more deadly consequences,” said LaVeist. “By addressing this disparity while the crisis is ongoing, I hope we have an opportunity to make a significant difference.”

“I’m hopeful that the work of the Health Equity Task Force will have lasting impact well beyond COVID-19,” the dean said.

TULANE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH AND TROPICAL MEDICINE 1440 CANAL STREET · NEW ORLEANS, LA 70112 · SPH.TULANE.EDU For more information about giving to the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, contact Verna Aucoin, Senior Director of Development at (504) 314-7631 or vaucoin1@tulane.edu