Message from the Director

​​​​H​appy Autumn Greetings!

It has been a busy and fulfilling start to the year.

As we welcomed back our returning students and secured practicum placements with our amazing community partners, we also welcomed a robust new cohort of students focusing on either Community Health Practice or Social Epidemiology. Each year, my own enthusiasm for public health is renewed by the energy and passion I see in the classroom, and I remain excited about the future of our field.

We also welcomed a new Assistant Professor, Dr. Jessica Polos, in our Social Epidemiology concentration. Dr. Polos brings a wealth of experience in social determinants of health, with a particular focus on structural racism. Along with Dr. Polos, we welcomed Dr. John Mazzeo as a permanent faculty member in our program, in the Community Health Practice concentration. While many of you know Dr. Mazzeo as our long-term Director, you may not know about his expertise in global health initiatives, and his passion for health equity. We are incredibly lucky to have both Dr. Polos and Dr. Mazzeo on our team!

At DePaul, we are immersed in the Vincentian mission that centers us in social justice for all persons, and a calling to address the vast inequities we witness. The DePaul mantra “here we do" is particularly appropriate in public health, where we prepare students to address inequities with thoughtful, community-driven public health practice, and by using data to prompt action. Our strength is in our collective commitment to service, collaboration, advocacy, and transformation. However, we can only create significant change as a collective network that builds on the strengths of all the parts.

In the past few years, our collective approach has been affected by disconnection. While we all understood the public health necessity of separation, vaccination and treatment advances have allowed many of us to navigate toward in-person engagement again – and our need for belonging has never been greater. To heed that call, we planned and convened our annual Health Equity and Social Justice Conference in person this year. We were thrilled to welcome almost 200 public health practitioners, researchers, care providers, DePaul MPH Alumni, and students to Malcolm X College for a one day conference, centered in our theme of belonging. You can read more from our planning committee about our theme here: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/crains-forum-equitable-health/belonging-basic-human-need-can-be-counter-complex-problems

Reflecting on the conference, it was evident that those of you who attended were inspired and amazed at the range of expertise, but more significantly – invigorated by the opportunity to convene, share ideas, and plan collective action. I am including some highlights below:

First, we were so pleased to welcome back Dr. Derek Griffith (DePaul Alum!) to open our conference and provide a foundation for us to discuss health equity and structural racism. You can see a recording of Dr. Griffith's talk here: HESJ 2022 Conference Dr. Griffith's Keynote Presentation.​

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In addition to the opening keynote, we incorporated a rapid oral presentation format this year, opening the door to additional speakers in our oral sessions. Feedback from our evaluation included positive comments about this new format and the capacity to hear more presentations in a single session, while also allowing time for question & answers.