At the Yale School of Public Health (YSPH), students in Joanne McGovern’s Public Health Emergencies: Disaster Planning and Response course aren’t just learning about crises—they’re actively responding to them.
This spring, McGovern’s students produced a comprehensive situational report on the unfolding measles outbreak in West Texas currently impacting multiple U.S. counties with rapidly rising case numbers. As of April 8, there were 505 reported measles cases in Texas with 57 people hospitalized and two fatalities—both unvaccinated school-age children, according to state officials.
The students’ report contains a wide array of detailed information—from color-coded maps showing outbreak areas to charts noting county infection levels and vaccination rates, to details of local and state government responses to the crisis. The report also includes measles symptoms and vaccine information for the public and containment and treatment guidance for local health officials.
By early April, the report had been viewed by over 300,000 people nationwide through newsletters, professional networks, and platforms like Your Local Epidemiologist, LinkedIn, and the Connecticut Health Care Coalition website. The report is part of a larger class project called the Virtual Medical Operations Center (VMOC) brief, a student-driven initiative born out of McGovern’s mission to provide hands-on experience in public health crisis communications.
“We were the only ones doing a comprehensive situation report,” said McGovern, a lecturer in the YSPH Department of Environmental Health Sciences. “The students are filling a critical gap.”
The students are filling a critical gap.
Joanne McGovern, lecturer, Yale School of Public Health
The students are fortunate to be learning from one of the best when it comes to emergency preparedness and response.
A highly decorated retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel, McGovern has more than four decades of emergency preparedness and response experience. During her 34-year army career, McGovern served in combat missions, peacekeeping operations, disasters, and humanitarian responses around the globe in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and domestically in the U.S. In addition to her Yale teaching duties, McGovern is an instructor for the U.S. Department of Defense Medical Training Institute. She has also served as an advisor to the Yale New Haven Health System Center for Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Response She managed Yale’s Contact Tracing and Outreach Program during the COVID-19 pandemic and she has written extensively on the importance of emergency medical planning and decision-making in a crisis.
McGovern’s inspiration for the course came from her experience navigating gaps in public health and medical emergency coordination during Hurricane Katrina. After returning from two years in Iraq, she was deployed to New Orleans and quickly realized the absence of a civilian medical operations counterpart—an absence that highlighted the need for better infrastructure and preparedness in disaster response. Her collaboration with Yale’s Dr. Sandy Bogucki, MD, PhD, whom she met during that deployment, led to the development of the course. Driven by the belief that students learn best by doing, McGovern aimed to train the next generation of public health and medical professionals to think critically and act effectively in real-world crises.
“Data is absolutely worthless unless it drives decisions,” McGovern said, underscoring her commitment to transforming raw public health data into actionable insights for decision-makers during emergencies.
McGovern’s class this spring began with a wildfire briefing early in the semester, focusing on an outbreak of fires in Los Angeles. The students’ subsequent fire report was downloaded over 800 times. Then, as the Texas measles outbreak worsened, students shifted their focus, analyzing Texas vaccination coverage and case trends at the county level.
“Seeing the numbers go up in each report has been sobering to say the least,” said Alexandra Nechaev, MPH ’25. “It is devastating to see how preventable this crisis was.”
The class isn’t just a simulation—it’s a real-time public health intervention. “Everyone understands that this is the real world,” McGovern said. “People are really relying on us getting that information out on a regular basis.”
In preparing their reports, the students are responsible for everything from research and slide creation to editing and data visualization.
“Being actively involved in the Virtual Medical Operation Center and the Yale Environmental Health Science brief has kept me more engaged and updated on current events across the public health space than I’ve ever been,” Nechaev said.
For Dr. Vanessa Evardone, MD, the course taught more than technical skills—it shaped her professional outlook.
“The course emphasized preparedness, not just clinically but also in leadership, coordination, and cultural sensitivity,” she said. “This understanding will directly inform my future work in occupational and environmental medicine.”
Barbara Odac, MD, who is currently balancing her double medical residency in internal and preventive medicine while taking classes at YSPH, also shared how she plans to bring this experience to her work as a physician.
“I am eager to bring the lessons I’ve learned into practice by developing comprehensive crisis response plans, engaging in public education efforts, and collaborating with interdisciplinary teams to improve overall community resilience,” she said.
McGovern said the team plans to continue producing briefs on additional health topics moving forward. “Right now, the VMOCs are going nationwide,” she said. “The students are filling a gap—a critical gap.”