Gina Lovasi, the interim dean of Drexel University’s Dornsife College of Public Health,Lovasi, who’s been at Drexel for seven years, formerly ran the school’s Urban Health Collaborative, a research center that aims to improve public health outcomes and reduce disparities in cities. She then served as the school’s associate dean for education and was named interim dean of the college in June.
One of the ways that’s been showing up for us is that we have a lot more students interested in taking our courses. So we’ve gone through a process of making sure that we’re welcoming to all the learners, even ones that are based in majors outside of public health, who want to take one or more public health courses while they’re here.
It’s not just about whether you get a COVID test, or whether you get a vaccine, but whether your workplace environment is supportive of staying home when you’re sick, whether you have a neighborhood environment that supports a healthy lifestyle that keeps you from having some of the risk factors we know exacerbated COVID-19 infection and mortality risk.It’s not only the pandemic that has [inspired] people to come into public health.
There are different ways to decide how to prioritize [public health concerns]. To me, what’s been interesting and surprising, is that I think there’s been a shift between wanting to rank which diseases are causing the most death and disability to thinking about which areas for potential action have the best reach to make improvements.