Bringing the outside in

Thursday: In creating Carolina Public Health Solutions (CPHS) to actualize the gift from Dennis and Joan Gillings, we wanted to create an advisory group comprising diverse individuals from different worlds — business, foundations, government and academia, and within those groups, people focused both globally and locally.

Julie Macmillan and I were thrilled that a spectacular group of people agreed to be part of this, chaired by Dennis Gillings (details: www.sph.unc.edu/accelerate). We had the first meeting this past week, and it was truly remarkable. As a school, we are fortunate that outstanding people are willing to advise us on future directions, and the members of this group are especially impressive. As a group and individuals, they are smart, savvy and successful with a great deal of vision. We are getting a lot of advice from wonderful people in the School, including our Dean’s Council. But we also want to subject our efforts to scrutiny by people who live in other worlds and learn from them. As I have said before, CPHS is about accelerating public health impact through strategic investments in people and projects that will speed the pace of solving important public health problems. Our focus is on accelerating our impact.

Friday: Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice, Dean, School of Medicine, Meharry Medical School, gave the Lawrence Zollicoffer Lecture. It was a very thoughtful presentation that highlighted disparities in health care. Looking out at the audience, she said that it was encouraging to see such a diverse audience at UNC. I hope some of you were able to hear her. She encouraged people to find ways to make a difference in our own spaces. One of the really great things about public health is the opportunity to make a difference.

Taking the inside out

This Friday (Feb 29, 2008), our Minority Student Caucus will hold the 29th annual Minority Health Conference at the Friday Center. Already, more than 600 people have registered, and there is even a waiting list. I am awed by so much that our students accomplish, but this is particularly awe-inspiring. Special thanks to the student co-chairs of this year’s conference, Eboni Taylor and Janelle Armstrong-Brown. The lectures, seminars and posters that comprise the conference will focus this year on the impact of poverty, culture and environment on minority health. I’m looking forward to the 10th Annual William T. Small Jr. Keynote Lecture which will be presented by Nancy Krieger, PhD, Professor of Society, Human Development, and Health at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Motivational messages

I came of age during the ‘60s—no surprise. One of my personal heroes was Pete Seeger, a folk singer who could motivate hundreds of thousands of people to feel and act on injustice in the world. It was great to hear Pete Seeger Sunday afternoon on Bob Edwards Weekend (www.bobedwardsradio.com) He talked about how important participation is in a democracy, and it got me to thinking about how intertwined public health and democracy are—both depend on the participation of people. Seeger said “participation is the saving of the human race.” He ended by singing Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8), one of my favorite songs. So, if you haven’t heard it or it’s one of your favorites, here are the words.

To everything
(Turn, turn, turn)
There is a season
(Turn, turn, turn)
And a time to every purpose
Under Heaven
(Repeats after every verse)

A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep

A time to build up, a time to break down
A time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones
A time to gather stones together

A time of war, a time of peace
A time to love, a time to hate
A time you may embrace
A time to refrain from embracing

A time to gain, a time to lose
A time to rend, a time to sow
A time for love, a time for hate
A time for peace, I swear it’s not too late.

Let’s hope the time for peace is coming.

Happy Monday!
Barbara

When I think I know what to expect on any day at our School, I am surprised, often pleasantly. The global fashion show was one of those times. When Omar Robles asked me to be in the show, I knew “no” was not an option. But I never expected hundreds of students and others, an amazing array of fashions from around the world, cool music and a great announcer (Omar!). So, wrapped in a beautiful Indian shawl from our friend Sri, I followed fabulous Peggy Bentley (Associate Dean for Global Health) down the “catwalk.” As students, their children, faculty, staff and friends from across the campus (and NC State) sauntered down the red carpet in every imaginable traditional garb, there were hundreds cheering from the atrium. What a wonderful, inspiring, well-orchestrated event, and a lot of fun. Congratulations to Omar, Elena Lebetkin and the Global Health Advisory Committee. These folks raised $3000 for the Honduran Health Alliance.

Student Facebook page

I’ve resisted setting up a Facebook account for some reason. Anyway, I registered today so I could check out our students’ page. I was impressed not just by the pages and the useful information they offer, but also by the fabulous pictures. You all are painting a human, helpful, diverse picture of the School. Thank you so much! You can find this page by registering at www.facebook.com and searching for “UNC School of Public Health.”

What I’m reading

I recently read an interesting book, The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson. I am now reading The Republic of Suffering by Drew Faust, president of Harvard. Both contain a lot of information relevant to public health in fascinating ways. Ghost Map tells the story of how contaminated water caused a terrible cholera outbreak in England in 1854 (Broad Street pump and all that). The story is really about water and how water was a fundamental part of the fabric of social connections, how rank and status influenced the water one drank and consequently, risk of becoming infected. It also is about how the mystery of the outbreak’s cause was determined by what today we would call really good epidemiology. One learns how important it was that John Snow understood the neighborhood and its patterns to understand the disease, and that he collaborated with a minister who observed patterns of death in relation to neighborhoods.

In her book, Faust paints a clear, frightening picture of death during the Civil War, but the really interesting fact is that she says the soldiers feared infectious diseases more than being killed in battle. And what caused a lot of those infectious diseases — tainted water. Public health was important in the 19th century, and it is vital in the 21st.

Happy Monday and have a good week.

Barbara

The week began with a very early call from my father that he and my mother were at the UNC Hospitals emergency room, with my mother being the patient. She spent two days in the hospital, and while that was happening, our world subtly shifted. She is home, OK, and we all are relieved. UNC Hospitals was a terrific place (if one has to be in a hospital) with great care. Many faculty members, staff and students are juggling their own and family members’ illnesses. For some of you with children at home, this is especially stressful and challenging. As a society, we do a poor job of supporting families through illness trajectories. I want this school to help people adapt and cope. Please let Dave Potenziani or me know if ever the system seems not to be working for you.

UNC Tomorrow

President Bowles has released an important new report that focuses on what the university must do to achieve its 21st century mission (http://www.nctomorrow.org/). The report includes chapters on critical challenge areas, several of which are within our domain, e.g. health, environment, outreach and engagement. How can we be more responsive, nimble and more valuable to the state without losing our academic and research excellence? How can we adapt our teaching for the 21st century? This is really important for a school of public health and especially for this school as we contemplate being a global school. What does it really mean to be a global public university? Over the next year, we will be very active in turning this plan into reality.

Our alumni

We had an interesting meeting with our alumni association Thursday. What a wonderful group of people with fresh, creative, ideas! Schools like ours are going to have to do more and more to reach people using multiple channels. Some of our alumni want to hear from us through paper channels, others view paper as an assault on the environment, and still others just don’t think paper; they experience through the web, and it is how they want their information. We have to do an even better job of giving people the information they want in the way they want it. It is not an easy assignment, but we must do it.

Finished 4th edition

My colleagues, Karen Glanz, Vish Viswanath and I finished the manuscript for the fourth edition of our textbook. As we wrote this version, we worked hard to globalize the text, to weed out words that conveyed a U.S. or even western-centric perspective, and we looked to include examples and applications that were global. There are so many ways in which our professional articles assume that we are the world. For a lot of us, including me, this awareness is relatively new, but I am working on it. Being around people like Peggy Bentley and her colleagues helps one grasp the bigger picture. Seeing how Peggy Leatt and her faculty took on the task of globalizing their courses was a real inspiration! We can all become better at this, and we will be better for it.

The game

Too bad about the loss to Duke this week, but we still have a great team, as Sunday night’s nail-biter against Clemson proved!

Next week

I’ll write about some of the exciting times ahead as we plan to rename our school the Gillings School of Global Public Health.

The election field is getting smaller, but the stakes are getting higher for the public’s health. I hope we can talk openly as a school and public health professionals about who is likely to keep the public healthiest, to paraphrase an important report. Will any candidate have the courage and the persuasive power to make this the decade in which all of our citizens have access to health care? Will he/she work with various interest groups to invest individuals and employers in real dialogue about how individuals can take responsibility for their health without this being a euphemism for their being abandoned by our government?

Our students

Last week, Dave Potenziani, Felicia Mebane and I met with leaders of student government and with representatives of the Minority Student Caucus. I am really impressed with what our students are doing, not just to improve their lot and the SPH but to make the world better. Students plan the Annual Minority Health Conference. This year, there are more than 550 registrants for the February event. Wow, that is just phenomenal!

Our commencement speaker

I am really looking forward to hearing Heather Munroe-Blum, PhD, at commencement for the School. She is an alumna of our epidemiology program and now Principal at McGill University in Canada, rated one of the top 15 universities in North America. I really appreciate her views on universities and public service. At her installation, she said, “I believe there can be no greater happiness than to be called upon to serve a cause for which you care passionately, and into which you can pour all of your energy and any talent you may possess. This is my lucky fate. But it is not only mine. It is the fate of all who serve universities.”

I could not agree more!

Happy Monday and best wishes,
Barbara