To celebrate National Public Health Week (NPHW), April 2-7, the GW Public Health Student Association (PHSA), in collaboration with Milken Institute School of Public Health, hosted a week full of events.
The theme for this year’s NPHW was "Changing Our Future Together." In alignment with the American Public Health Association (APHA)'s daily themes, PHSA curated events around issues of behavioral health, communicable disease, environmental health, injury and violence prevention, and ensuring the right to health.
The week’s kickoff event was a panel discussion on “Trauma: A Community Approach.” Wendy Ellis, project director for the Building Community Resilience collaborative, moderated the discussion with Prevention and Community Health Associate Professor Kathleen Roche and Megan DesCamps, health policy advisor for U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp. Ellis noted that adverse childhood experiences are “one of the few issues we have some bipartisan support.” Panelists also addressed health inequalities in D.C. and among immigrant and Native American populations.
Featured speakers also included author Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, who spoke about her book Periods Gone Public, as well as former Michigan Congressman Bart Stupak, who gave a presentation on his work on the Affordable Care Act and his book For All Americans. On Thursday, APHA hosted a student town hall with Executive Director Georges Benjamin. Benjamin joined Dean Lynn Goldman and GWSPH student Nilakshi Biswas, MPH '18, for a panel discussion on current public health issues followed by a Q&A session with students in the audience and via Twitter.
During a Career Options in Global Health Panel & Luncheon on Tuesday, GWSPH alumni talked about their experiences transitioning from student to employee. The panel showed just how broad the public health field is—panelists represented research and government organizations as well as think-tanks and NGOs—and the intersectional career opportunities in the field. Current students were able to network and ask questions.
There were also several interactive events throughout the week. On Monday, students, staff and faculty were encouraged to climb the stairs to the second floor of the GWSPH building for a healthy snack provided by Trader Joe’s. Later that day, there was a virtual reality and public health event where participants were able to try out a pair of VR glasses—technology that organizations such as the United Nations and International Rescue Committee are using.
“National Public Health Week was several months in the making and was built on the hard work of all of our board members, as well as effort from our school faculty and administration,” said PHSA President Jordan Wolfe. “We’re proud to show what can occur when students work side-by-side with professors to craft a fun and engaging week of public health events, and we look forward to building on that partnership in the future.”
Hopefully this week motivated individuals to make changes in their lives and their communities.