From the Dean

Dear Family and Friends of the Celia Scott Weatherhead School,

I hope this message finds you well and thriving in your career. Public health has never been an easy calling, and 2025 has tested us in an abundance of new and unexpected ways. Still, we are no strangers to difficult climates, and resilience has always been a critical part of our profession.

In this issue, we share both the frustrations and the accomplishments of the past year. You’ll hear from faculty who have felt the effects of funding cuts—and from those whose grants have been restored. We focus on global health because the shuttering of USAID has had and will continue to have impacts on not just practitioners but also communities in need around the world. However, we know that the cancellation of grants and downstream repercussions have been felt across the breadth of public health. For that we turn to three leaders who weigh in on the critical importance of public health and the upheaval felt in this vital field.

Will artificial intelligence and large language models play a role in the tumult? That remains to be seen, but it’s definitely making its presence felt. We talk to faculty members who are leaning into these new tools, which offer both exciting possibilities and also serious challenges. AI is one of our eight strategic initiatives, areas in which I believe the school will expand in the coming years.

Workforce development is another of our strategic initiatives, and for that we caught up with our new director of public health workforce development who describes our new certificate program for the Louisiana public health workforce. Our Office of Public Health Practice also shares how they are innovating to find new ways to connect students with real-world opportunities for hands-on learning. Despite the headwinds, I remain deeply hopeful. With the school’s recent naming and our recognition among the Top 10 schools of public health, according to U.S. News, the Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine is in a strong position. Whatever the funding model, the world will always need public health, and public health professionals will continue to find ways to meet urgent needs, advance equity, and improve health across the U.S. and around the globe.

Best regards,

Thomas LaVeist, PhD
Dean