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Topic: Using Our Voice to Advocate and Champion Truth and Justice

  • Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center School of Public Health

    Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center School of Public Health

    At the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center School of Public Health, faculty and staff knew COVID-19 had become a dire threat when the US reported its first confirmed case on January 30, 2020. The intense period of Mardi Gras parades was just beginning, and the last two weeks of February 2020 would be the…

    Newark, DE
  • Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

    Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

    “We had been thinking about the threat of a pandemic long before any of us had heard of COVID-19,” Dean Ellen J. MacKenzie of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health says. “One of my first official functions as dean of the Bloomberg School — back in the fall of 2017 — was to…

    Newark, DE
  • Georgia Southern University Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health

    Georgia Southern University Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health

    For Dean Stuart Tedders of the Georgia Southern University Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health, the moment of realization that COVID had emerged as dire was when communities around the world began shutting down. “For me this was monumental because I had never experienced a global reaction like this to any health problem.”  Dean Tedders…

    Newark, DE
  • Upstate Medical University Public Health Program

    Upstate Medical University Public Health Program

    For members of the Upstate Medical University Public Health Program, located in Syracuse, NY, the threat posed by COVID-19 emerged gradually. It was easy to dismiss at first, since potential pandemics like SARS 1, MERS and H1N1 were serious, but regionally and/or temporally contained. However, the arrival of SARS-COV2 in Italy, with devastating impact, demonstrated…

    Newark, DE
  • West Virginia University School of Public Health

    West Virginia University School of Public Health

    At West Virginia University, the Dean of the School of Public Health Jeff Coben explains that their pandemic response started at home. “As a land-grant institution, we are committed to supporting the health and well-being of West Virginians — it’s one of our top priorities,” Dr. Coben explains. “Our first action was to meet with…

    Newark, DE
  • Yale School of Public Health

    Yale School of Public Health

    At the Yale School of Public Health (YSPH), there were many signs that COVID had become a dire threat. Nathan “Nate” Grubaugh was active on Twitter very early on, warning that what was happening in Wuhan looked ominous. YSPH faculty realized relatively quickly that this was another “SARS,” but one that was less lethal per…

    Newark, DE
  • Indiana University Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health – Indianapolis

    Indiana University Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health – Indianapolis

    Founding Dean and Professor Paul Halverson of the Indiana University Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health – Indianapolis first heard from colleagues about the severity of the pandemic. “I realized that after talking with colleagues at ASTHO and at CDC that COVID-19 was spreading faster and was making people much sicker than what we…

    Newark, DE
  • Georgia State University School of Public Health

    Georgia State University School of Public Health

    Georgia State University School of Public Health Dean and Professor Rodney Lyn became ill with COVID-19 two days before the nationwide shutdown in March 2020. He says, “The moment of realization for us occurred during this week, though even at that time we could not have imagined that almost 6.5 million people worldwide and over…

    Newark, DE
  • George Mason University College of Public Health

    George Mason University College of Public Health

    For Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Bob Weiler at George Mason University College of Public Health, the moment of realization that COVID-19 had become a dire threat was January 31, 2020, when the U.S. declared COVID-19 a public health emergency, followed by March 12, 2020, when Virginia declared a state of emergency. “Because of…

    Newark, DE