Orientation highlights and inspiration

YSPH celebrates the start of the 2025-2026 academic year with snacks, games, introductions to programs, and the many ways to connect as a community—including a visit with Handsome Dan!

As the “proud dean of the Yale School of Public Health,” Megan L. Ranney welcomes students “to the field, profession, and discipline of public health.”

“Our founder articulated a vision for the science, teaching, and practice of public health,” Dean Megan L. Ranney said of C. E.-A. Winslow, who founded the school in 1915.

Dr. Harsh Parikh, PhD introduced students to Public Health Data Science and Data Equity, which supports and elevates data science training, education, and research.

Training in how to listen with compassion and empathy entered its second year as part of orientation, and beyond.

“YSPH is an intellectual playground,” Dean Megan L. Ranney said. Here, students put their heads together to solve a puzzle.

A scavenger hunt led students across the Yale campus to learn about YSPH's many interdisciplinary opportunities—and to pose with the Torosaurus sculpture outside the Yale Peabody Museum.

Orientation offered opportunities for students to learn about our community partners. The sessions were led by the Office of Community & Practice.

Close to 100 first-year students showed up for a panel discussion with six YSPH alumni who shared tips on everything from tailoring your MPH degree for today’s job market to finding the best places on campus to study. The discussion was sponsored by the Student Association of Yale School of Public Health or SAYPH. The panelists were, from left to right, Nicole Del Castillo, MPH ’24, a Connecticut state epidemiologist; Amanda Levi, MPH ’23, director of data and strategy at Inbox Health and a product and design consultant for Yale's Consumer Health Informatics Lab; Doug Spivak, MPH ’20, a senior process improvement consultant at Mass General Brigham; Hannah Beath, MPH ’23, director of the Connecticut Department of Public Health’s Office of Climate and Health; Dr. Brad St. Martin, MD ’17, MPH ’11, a urogynecologist at Hartford Healthcare; and Jennifer Ibarra, MPH ’20, a health science specialist for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.