Dean Ranney’s Introduction to the School of Public Health Strategic Plan
Introduction
The Yale School of Public Health (YSPH) was founded in 1915 by C.-E. A. Winslow, widely seen as one of the founders of public health in the United States. Over the last century, we have led the transformation of the science and practice of public health on a global scale. In 1946, despite our unique status as a department within a medical school, we were one of the first eight "Schools" of Public Health to achieve accreditation in the United States. YSPH has since driven efforts ranging from setting up the first cancer registries in the country; to identifying Lassa virus; to serving as early advocates for reproductive health and access to contraception; to developing the Diagnosis Related Groups concept that underpins modern healthcare billing systems; to developing what may have been the first syringe exchange program in the country in the face of the HIV/AIDS epidemic; to serving as leaders in state, national, and global response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Today, we continue to boast immense strengths in the investigation and discovery of how systems ranging from the cellular to the societal influence health. Our scholarship remains amongst the most well-respected in the field, including but not limited to: research on health policy, environmental influences on health, cancer epidemiology and survival, informal caregiving, the impact of stigma and racism on health, infectious disease, and novel biostatistical methods. We attract impressive master’s and doctoral students and have a reputation for training them to be outstanding scholars.
Public Health in the 21st Century
But the world, and its health status, is changing. Existing public health tools and systems are no longer adequate for the health challenges ahead.
Increasingly, social epidemics such as violence, substance use, mental illness, loneliness, and distrust of science are driving dramatic drops in life expectancy. The American health system consumes nearly 20% of the U.S. GDP, yet Americans have worse health than people in peer countries. Globally, the health workforce is insufficient and poorly supported. Despite an increased quantity of health data and health technology, these data are not collected or used equitably. The effect of climate change on health is accelerating.
While more people now know the term "public health," many misunderstand or mistrust it, believing that public health is exclusively the provenance of government health systems, legislation, and mandates.
In parallel, trust in higher education as well as in science is dropping. The world's expectations of leading research universities are also changing. Universities are appropriately expected to not just pursue groundbreaking science, but also to empower society to translate this scholarship into positive social impact.
The Future of YSPH
In 2024, YSPH became a fully independent school at Yale University, elevating our voice and contribution to the state of public health locally, nationally and globally. In this moment of transition both for our school and for the world's health, we have an opportunity to lead the transformation of public health for the next century. Just as C.-E. A. Winslow did in the last century, the Yale School of Public Health of 2024 is committed to re-defining what public health means, how it is studied, how it is taught, and most of all how it is put into practice.
We see public health as a discipline. It is a way of approaching the world, allowing us to define and then create the foundations of a healthy society. As we transition into our next phase at YSPH, we will continue to conduct world-class research that illuminates the drivers of health and of disease. We are also committed to ensuring that our students, alumni, and faculty members have pathways for translating this knowledge into real-world health impacts. These impacts will be achieved on levels ranging from the cellular to the legislative, because a systems-level approach is essential for sustainable change. Most of all, we continue to assert that collaboration with the larger community of practice – locally, nationally, and globally; in the private, public, and non-profit sectors – is essential, to accurately define and answer scientific questions, to create trust in our findings, and most of all to systematically implement what works.
This strategic plan ensures that we are leading the world to a healthier future, leveraging our traditional strengths of scholarship and education, fortified by our commitment to translating science into real-world impact on issues of existential importance, and growing our collaborations with communities across the globe, in a way that is distinctively ours. It also aligns with the university’s mission (“to improve the world today and for generations to come through outstanding research and scholarship, education, preservation, and practice”), academic priorities (Arts and Humanities, Multidisciplinary Social Science, Science and Engineering, and Community Inclusion and Excellence), and science priorities.
Our strategic priorities and research foci will remain constant from 2025-2030. The specific initiatives under each priority will be dynamically pursued until successful completion.
Through this plan, we foresee a future in which we proactively link science and society, helping communities everywhere to thrive based on a foundation of public health.
Megan L. Ranney, MD, MPH
Dean of Yale School of Public Health