Highlights from a Milestone Year

For the first time in the school’s nearly 110 years of existence, we are a fully independent and self-supported school at Yale.

Under the leadership of Dr. Bhramar Mukherjee, PhD, Public Health Data Science and Data Equity strategically supports and elevates data science training, education, research, and other collaborative efforts and promotes data fairness as the foundation of health.

Dean Megan L. Ranney, MD, MPH, gives the first state of the school address as dean of the newly independent school, introducing YSPH’s new strategic plan. “We thought it was incredibly important to signal that as a graduate and professional school, we are committed to not just conducting outstanding science but also making sure that it gets out into the world,” Dean Ranney says. The strategic plan “informs so much of what we are already doing and certainly helps light the way to the future.”

What began as a conversation about the need for people to listen with compassion and empathy in a conflict-driven world is now part of the Yale School of Public Health’s student orientation program. The Compassionate Dialogue series emphasizes communication across divides and helps us to listen without judgment.

Dean Megan L. Ranney, MD, MPH, elevates the issue of gun violence prevention at YSPH. Her discussion with Dr. Joseph Richardson Jr., PhD, of the University of Maryland, Nelba Márquez-Greene, LMFT, of YSPH, and Dr. Chana Sacks, MD, MPH, of Massachusetts General Hospital humanizes the stories behind gun violence.

The school community—including staff members Shannon McMahon and Randi McCray, MS—leans into its new strategic plan during the Winter Celebration by donating proceeds from its gift basket raffle, reflecting the school’s primary mission to build resilient public health communities at Yale, in New Haven, and beyond.

Three biostatistics professors are chosen to lead major national and international organizations, a rare distinction that underscores the department’s standing as a global leader in pioneering research and statistical science. Department Chair Dr. Shuangge Steven Ma, PhD (left) is president-elect of the New England Statistical Society (NESS). Previous department chair and Ira V. Hiscock Professor of Biostatistics Dr. Hongyu Zhao, PhD, (middle) is president-elect of the International Chinese Statistical Association (ICSA). And Dr. Bhramar Mukherjee, PhD, (right) is president-elect of the Eastern North American Region (ENAR) of the International Biometrics Society, one of the world’s biggest and most prominent biostatistics societies.

Faculty from across Yale convene for the Yale Forum on Climate Change and Health, hosted by Yale Planetary Solutions and the Yale Center on Climate Change and Health (YCCCH). They celebrate the 10th anniversary of YCCCH as “a leader and thought partner on climate change and health research at Yale and beyond,” says Jennifer Wang, MS, executive director of YCCCH.

YSPH faculty, staff, students, and alumni reflect on the fifth anniversary of the World Health Organization declaring the COVID-19 outbreak a global pandemic.

When a measles outbreak began in the Southwestern United States, students in Joanne McGovern’s Public Health Emergencies: Disaster Planning and Response course filled a void of timely information with “gumshoe epidemiology,” creating weekly online reports that went viral.

Ninety-eight volunteers are matched with 10 service projects at nine locations during the annual YSPH Day of Service, “a celebration of how we can all come together to create a healthier, stronger community,” says Jason Martinez, MS, director of the Community Impact Lab.

The school celebrates its first graduating class as an independent school with a rousing ceremony in Woolsey Hall. Dean Megan L. Ranney praises the class for its resilience. “I know you, our Class of 2025, has the empathy and the skills that are just what the field of public health and the globe needs now.”

Kaakpema “KP” Yelpaala, MPH ’06 (shown at far right), organizes the health track to “highlight how innovation supports population health, and to connect the dots between health innovation and people’s day-to-day lives.” The popular sessions had people lining the walls and sitting in the aisles and overflow rooms.

The Big Data Summer Immersion at Yale (BDSY) is an interdisciplinary training and research program in biostatistics that introduces undergraduate students to the intersection of big data and human health. Faculty from the biostatistics department welcome the students, who learn about research computing during their first days on campus, and get a guided tour of Yale University, too.

Yale’s newly launched Population Health Information and Visualization Exchange (PopHIVE), led by Dr. Anne Zink, MD, and Dr. Daniel Weinberger, PhD, democratizes data by providing access to, and understanding of, multiple near-real-time sources of data on America’s health. This exciting initiative helps correct longstanding problems with our nation's public health data infrastructure and is already having an impact on state and local health officials and care providers.

Staff, students, and faculty gathered on the YSPH campus to celebrate YSPH’s independence day with ice cream and Yale's Handsome Dan. “We are well over a century old as a school, but it was last year on July 1st we became a truly independent self-determining school,” Dean Ranney says. “Thank you for being here and creating community together. Community is core to public health, and this event is part of that. So go have fun! Enjoy yourselves, enjoy your summer, and I look forward to celebrating with you many more times in the months to come.”