ASPPH ANNUAL

Faculty from the School of Public Health: Marian Levy, Debra Bartelli and Vikki Nolan attended the Association of Schools and Programs in Public Health (ASPPH) Annual Meeting in Arlington, Va. from March 15-17 to present the following topics.

TRANSFORMING ACADEMIA FOR EQUITY: A MODEL FOR SCHOOLS OF PUBLIC HEALTH

This initiative is designed to unpack, understand and shape the contextual and intervening conditions necessary for underrepresented scholars to thrive professionally and personally and in turn be better able to contribute to and expand health equity-related research.

Seven Schools Awarded Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Grant: University of Memphis, UCLA, University of Southern California, Drexel, Georgia State, Oregon State and University of Missouri.

As one of the seven schools of public health (SPH) funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to integrate equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) into their culture and operations, the University of Memphis School of Public Health (UofM SPH) implemented an interprofessional model to support strategic change.

Funding from the RWJF’s Transforming Academia for Equity (TAE) initiative allowed UofM SPH to create a 10 person guiding team comprised of SPH administrators; cross-department faculty; graduate students; and EDI champions from three other UofM colleges (Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law, Education and Communication & Fine Arts). This guiding team receives mentorship support from colleagues with EDI expertise at Change Matrix, in partnership with ASPPH.

A key benefit is the opportunity to interact and learn from peers in the other six schools of public health participating in this initiative.

Priority focus areas of the UoM SPH project include: 1) recruitment and retention of underrepresented faculty and staff, 2) examination of tenure and promotion policies that are barriers to equity and 3) recruitment and mentorship of underrepresented doctoral students.

In fall 2022, an initial schoolwide climate survey was conducted to assess faculty, staff, student and alumni perceptions of personal inclusion and equity in SPH policies, practices and culture. Next, a series of eight