Alumni Day Asks: What Future Will We Build?

Yale School of Public Health (YSPH) alumni gathered at the New Haven Lawn Club on June 5 for the annual Alumni Day, hosted by the Association of Yale Alumni in Public Health. It was a moment that felt as much like a reckoning as a reunion.

“Public health is being tested,” said Yale School of Public Health (YSPH) Dean Megan L. Ranney, MD, MPH, in her opening remarks. “What future will we build?”

Ranney focused her welcome on the school’s vision — linking science and society, making public health foundational to communities everywhere — and its mission to educate and equip scientists, practitioners, and leaders to develop systems-level solutions for a healthier society. She then walked alumni through four priorities from YSPH’s strategic plan that are shaping that mission.

On creating pathways for impact, Ranney pointed to partnerships with state governments, student fellowships, and growing collaboration with the private sector — efforts to move research into policy that positively impacts community. On shaping public health data science and AI, she described local and global data partnerships, expanded educational programming, and the development of novel AI frameworks. The school’s Big Data Summer Immersion program, she noted, drew 5,000 applicants from across the world. “How do we change our education because of AI?” She asked. “How do we train the workforce?”

In discussing enhancing trust in public health and science, Ranney described the school’s Compassionate Dialogue initiative and its Leaders in Public Health speaker series as tools for “finding ways to move forward together.” She highlighted PopHIVE— described by YSPH Fellow Anne Zink as “a gift to my former self as chief medical officer of Alaska.” Ranney also recalled Nicole Deziel, PhD, MHS, associate professor of epidemiology (environmental health sciences) working in Ohio recently with members of the MAHA organization. The collaboration happened after Ranney appeared on the podcast, “Why Should I Trust You?” with other guests from the organization.

On fostering community, she closed on a note of pride, describing the school’s newly created mace designed in collaboration with the Yale School of Architecture. The mace, with its central symbol — humans holding hands — “is resplendent and catches the light,” Ranney said.

Georges C. Benjamin, MD, executive director of the American Public Health Association, delivered the keynote address. Benjamin, who received the Award for Excellence, opened by defining science as the search for truth. He then focused on a public health challenge — what he called the paradox of success. When public health works, there is no visible crisis to point to, he said, and people take its success for granted.

The fix, he said, is deliberate storytelling. “We in public health are very good at knowing that when our best work is done, nothing happens, and we are proud of that.” But pride alone doesn’t build public trust, he added. Public health leaders need to “ring bells and take credit” when their initiatives keep communities safe. “Telling the story is always very important — we do good work and we need to make sure people understand that.”

The burden falls on public health advocates to connect the dots — to trace the line from an obscure upstream research project to a downstream life saved, he said.

Benjamin acknowledged that public health is navigating a period of fluid national health policy, shifting regulatory guidance, and sustained pressure on trust. Throughout all of it, he said, the work remains: mitigating barriers to health care access, addressing infectious disease, food insecurity, and systemic mental health impacts — with a focus on those who are most vulnerable.

The keynote was followed by a panel discussion on “Trust, Communication & Public Confidence,” moderated by Jackson Higginbottom, MPH ‘20, program manager for the Data Science and Data Equity initiative at YSPH. The three panelists — Stephanie Bittner Walker, MPH ’23; Camellia Mortezazadeh, MPH ’09; and Melissa Ungkuldee, MPH ’19 — brought perspectives from communications strategy, public health practice, and community engagement.

Walker described where public health practitioners find themselves today. “What is different now versus five years ago is the complex ecosystem we’re operating in — the sheer number of forces vying for our attention,” she said. TikTok, she noted, is not just a distraction but a competing advisor. “How can we make algorithms work for and not against us?” asked Ungkuldee.

Mortezazadeh stressed the importance of grounding public health campaigns in evidence-based data, pointing to neverabother.org, a campaign targeted to young people in California, as a model for how rigorous data can drive compelling public-facing messaging. Ungkuldee mentioned the importance of the human element: “What’s the personal story we can bring to this?”

The use of personal stories as a public health tool continued in a workshop led by Naria Halliwell, a YSPH lecturer and former producer for ABC News who co-teaches the YSPH course, “Navigating the Media Landscape for Maximum Public Health Impact” with Katelyn Jetelina, PhD, MPH, assistant professor adjunct of epidemiology (chronic diseases) and the founder of Your Local Epidemiologist newsletter.

Halliwell offered feedback to volunteers from the audience on how public health practitioners can develop and strengthen their voice in an era of declining trust. She stressed that communication is not an administrative skill but a trainable muscle that grows with practice. Having a personal backstory, Halliwell said, establishes credibility instantly and puts a human face on expertise. Without it, even the best data lands cold.

She urged the alumni to “craft a sticky narrative.” For Kimberly Mitchell, PhD, MPH '96, an epidemiologist, this meant describing her work as “a disease detective.”

Kate Walsh, MPH '79, received the Distinguished Alumni Award, presented by the alumni association’s president, Dashni Sathasivam, MPH '19. Walsh’s career spans more than four decades, including her recent role as Massachusetts Secretary of Health and Human Services, and 13 years as CEO of Boston Medical Center.

Aiwan Erin Chen, MPH '26, received a prize for the student poster competition with her project on measles vaccination. “I started last January working with Dr. Gregg Gonsalves on county-level measles vaccine medical exemption rates,” Chen said. “I began to be more interested in vaccination and how it relates to infectious diseases.”

Dean Ranney returned to the day’s animating question in her closing remarks, linking the theme of trust back to the school’s core mission. “Trust in public health is not rebuilt overnight,” she said. “It requires that we train the next generation.”