Statements & Announcements

It gives me great pleasure to announce the appointment of Keshia M. Pollack Porter, PhD ’06, MPH, as the next chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management, effective February 15, 2022. Keshia has an outstanding record of academic accomplishments, demonstrated leadership and administrative abilities, and a bold vision for the Department’s future.

We have collected many achievements and ongoing priorities in a progress report on our strategic plan. I encourage you to read this report, which is available as a document and on the web. It will give you a valuable sense of our successes and the work ahead.

Barney Graham, MD, PhD, will be honored with the Dean’s Medal at the Vaccine Day Symposium on November 16. The Dean’s Medal is the School’s highest honor, reserved for outstanding public health researchers and practitioners who demonstrate exceptional leadership in their fields in safeguarding and improving the public’s health.

Please join me in honoring the Indigenous communities that have inhabited these tribal lands for more that 15,000 years as we recognize Indigenous Peoples’ Day. In doing so, we work in solidarity to combat ongoing invisibility, bias, and racism that negatively impact the well-being of Indigenous peoples.

The pandemic has been my greatest test as a leader, but I took comfort in knowing I wouldn’t be making decisions alone.

Today is a day for reflection – reflection about a terrible day, about those whose lives were lost, and about what each of us can do separately and together to help heal the world.

We are writing to share some specifics regarding our plan for a phased return to the Bloomberg School.

Most of us must have seen the horrific scenes from India that have followed the severe second wave of COVID-19. India’s neighbor, Nepal, is now going through a similar, if not worse, humanitarian crisis due to COVID-19.

The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) and The Jed Foundation (JED) on April 29 released a report, “Supporting Graduate Student Mental Health and Well-being: Evidence-Informed Recommendations for the Graduate Community.” We at the Bloomberg School are proud to endorse the report’s statement of principles.

As the global COVID crisis continues to unfold, we share the world’s concern and empathize as witnesses to the growing humanitarian crisis occurring in India. The country is being taxed by the extraordinary demand for limited critical resources as an overwhelming number of people are diagnosed with COVID-19 each day.