School News

Kaakpema “KP” Yelpaala, MPH ’06, lecturer and senior fellow in public health (health policy) is bringing his experience as a global entrepreneur to a new role as faculty director for YSPH’s Future of Health Innovation Hub. The hub aims to do four things: redefine population-level health entrepreneurship and innovation; equip students and faculty members with critical innovation skills; build sustainable partnerships across academia, industry, government, and philanthropy; and advance interdisciplinary collaboration.

The hub may be new, but a spirit of innovation has long existed at YSPH. It builds upon the school's history of social entrepreneurship, including InnovateHealth Yale (IHY). Launched in 2013, the program focused on supporting public health students and advancing their entrepreneurial ideas around public health innovation. Yelpaala also served as the IHY faculty director.

Through IHY and similar programs, YSPH has funded 52 startups operating in 30 countries so far and has been awarded more than $400,000 in impact grants and internship funding for a broad array of student ventures. Plus, the school has coached more than 300 students on public health innovation and collaborated with 10-plus startup/innovation hubs at Yale to further support student and faculty innovation. YSPH alumni have gone on to be funded and supported by Techstars, MIT Solve, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Google, and leading venture capital firms.

— Meg Dalton

At the Yale School of Public Health, a culture of innovation bridges gaps between science and society

On February 3, 2023, a train derailment and chemical burn in East Palestine, Ohio, released large quantities of hazardous chemicals into the environment. Sections of the town were evacuated for days. Vinyl chloride, used in making plastics, was intentionally burned from several of the rail cars, sending plumes of black smoke over the town. Many residents developed symptoms of illness soon after.

Dr. Nicole Deziel, PhD, associate professor of epidemiology (environmental health) at the Yale School of Public Health (YSPH), and Dr. Michelle L. Bell, PhD, professor of environmental health at YSPH and Mary E. Pinchot Professor and Sr. Assoc. Dean of Research and Director of Doctoral Studies at the Yale School of the Environment (YSE), are leading a National Institutes of Health-funded study on the potential impacts to drinking water in the nearby rural community. They traveled to East Palestine in February 2026 to meet with community members to better understand their concerns and priorities and to describe the planned water study activities.

The East Palestine Train Derailment Health Research Program is funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and involves research led by the University of Kentucky, University of Pittsburgh, and Yale University. A health study will focus on respiratory and cardiovascular health, mental health and wellness, reproductive and menstrual health, as well as liver and kidney function. For the water study, the Yale team will track potential contamination in groundwater and drinking water, with YSE professor of hydrology Dr. James Saiers, PhD.

Dr. Deziel said the research is grounded in community collaboration. After attending numerous listening sessions, Dr. Deziel said, “We take our responsibility to the community and the research very seriously, and we hope that our water research project can provide meaningful answers and information.” Dr. Bell added that “water-related concerns were top of mind for many residents, and we hope that our project’s state-of-the-art hydrologic model can inform the situation in East Palestine as well as preparation and response for future issues.”

East Palestine community shares pain, seeks progress with new study launched

Health research group opens East Palestine office

Childhood vaccinations save millions of lives worldwide each year. Many people have questions about routine vaccinations: their need, their safety, and rumors surrounding them. These questions have become particularly acute in the wake of changes in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s new childhood immunization schedule.

Our public health experts have been on the front lines of guiding communities’ responses to these changes, including sitting on state advisory committees, working with the Vaccine Integrity Project, and collaborating with local health care providers. They explain what the new guidelines are and what they mean: What parents should know about the new childhood immunization schedule.

They have also worked to answer people’s top questions about vaccination with evidence-based information: for example, whether childhood vaccinations are safer than the diseases themselves, and whether children today receive more vaccines. See a full list of 14 questions, answered with the nuance you’re looking for in the YSPH Childhood Vaccination Information Sheet, also available in a sharable PDF format.

Dean Megan L. Ranney, MD, MPH, moderated an event with Stuart Buck of the The Good Science Project about the benefits of reproducibility and transparency in science in January.

Buck discussed how as a vice president at the philanthropic research organization Arnold Ventures, he launched a project that could only replicate about 40% of a set of psychology studies. In a second project, researchers attempting to replicate 50 cancer studies from top journals could only complete 23 of them, taking twice as long and costing twice as much money. Ranney highlighted a recent review paper showing high reproducibility of studies using real-world health data.

The event was sponsored by the Yale ISPS (Institution for Social and Policy Studies) in partnership with The Data-Intensive Social Science Center, the Tobin Center for Economic Policy, and Yale Library. The events with Buck focused on how reproducibility, transparency, and humility serve not as bureaucratic burdens in science but as the architecture of trustworthy knowledge.

— Rick Harrison

Building Trust in Science: Yale Hosts Conversations on Replication, Transparency, and Public Confidence

Manos Juntas, a free clinic in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma with Yale ties, recently received an Innovation Award in Community Health addressing infectious diseases in underserved communities from the Pfizer Foundation and Direct Relief. The award will be used to expand access to vaccine-preventable disease prevention at the clinic and build an infrastructure for a sustainable immunization program, said Jackson Higginbottom, MPH ’20, program manager at the Yale School of Public Health and board president & director of Manos Juntas.

“This is the most significant funding Manos Juntas has secured in its 30-year history. It will allow us to build a sustainable immunization program and expand vaccine access for patients who often have nowhere else to go." Higginbottom said.

Since its inception in 1995, Manos Juntas has evolved into a well-established free medical clinic in Oklahoma City providing high-quality, no-cost medical care to uninsured and underinsured patients. More than 4,400 volunteers, including physicians, nurses, and pre-health students, have served tens of thousands of patients since its inception. The clinic operates exclusively through volunteer leadership, partnering with organizations such as the Oklahoma City Community Foundation, Americares, Direct Relief, and the National Association of Free and Charitable Clinics to secure medications, supplies, and specialty referrals.

Manos Juntas offers comprehensive services ranging from primary and preventive care to psychiatry, diagnostic testing, specialty referrals, and chronic disease management for conditions like diabetes and hypertension. It also serves as a training site for students, fostering the next generation of health care providers and teaching them to practice compassion and cultural humility.

How a free clinic with Yale ties is helping underserved patients get care in Oklahoma City

STAT news has named Dr. Katelyn Jetelina, MPH, PhD, as one of nine influencers shaping health information online. Jetelina, assistant professor adjunct of epidemiology (chronic diseases) at YSPH, is the founder and CEO of Your Local Epidemiologist, a public health newsletter that translates ever-evolving science to the public, reaching more than 500 million views in over 133 countries.

“This publication exists for one reason — to provide an independent source of health information that helps people make evidence-based decisions,” Jetelina wrote on Instagram last year. “We’ll keep moving forward with empathy, transparency, and a shared commitment to a healthier future for all.”

Nine influencers shaping health information online, for better or worse