National Public Health Week (NPHW) | Yale School of Public Health

Get Involved and Celebrate Public Health

This year’s National Public Health Week (NPHW) is April 1-7. As public health practitioners, experts, and students, we know that every day is public health – from the work we do, to the water we drink and the air we breathe. As we embark on a week dedicated to celebrating the impact and importance of public health, let’s come together to reflect on our collective efforts to shape healthy communities and recommit ourselves to even brighter futures for all.

This year’s NPHW, sponsored by the American Public Health Association (APHA), is focused on the theme, “Protecting, Connecting, and Thriving: We Are All Public Health.” This theme resonates deeply with our core values, reminding us that public health extends far beyond the confines of classrooms and laboratories—it permeates every aspect of our lives, and must involve everyone in our communities.

This NPHW, get involved. Join us for a variety of events, from wellness sessions to a Leaders in Public Health event with the 24th Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Alex M. Azar II. Take action for public health each day through our public health check-in activity and be entered to win a prize! Also, see below to dig deep into each day’s NPHW theme by reading related stories and research articles from the Yale School of Public Health.

Of special note...

We’re also happy to recognize that March 30 – April 7, 2024, is Health Equity Week, sponsored by Health Equity Solutions. Check out Health Equity Week events on the Health Equity Solutions website.

Participate in Public Health and Win a Prize!

Calling all at Yale who want to contribute to, or even just learn more about, public health! Do you want to win a special YSPH prize bag? Each day of NPHW, you can visit this form to share how you participated in that day’s theme or activities. Fill out the form each day to enter to win. Each day you fill out the form is an additional entry for a chance to win. Maximum one entry per day. Form closes on Sunday, April 7, at 11:59 p.m. The winners will be chosen on Monday, April 8 and contacted directly to claim their prize.

Activities that can count toward your check-in include attending a NPHW event, reading a relevant YSPH article (examples listed at the bottom of this webpage), or taking action to make a difference (APHA provides examples for each day’s theme on their website).

National Public Health Week Daily Themes

Each day of National Public Health Week has its own theme, designed to emphasize many of the components of public health. Explore relevant Yale School of Public Health stories and research articles related to each theme below.

Monday – Civic Engagement

YSPH STORY: CDC grant boosts effort to reduce New Haven health disparities
YSPH RESEARCH: Ransome, Y. (2020).
Is investing in religious institutions a viable pathway to reduce mortality in the population?
Social Science & Medicine (1982), 262, 113106.
YSPH RESEARCH: Zhu, D. T. (2023).
Cross-sectoral community and civic engagement after Dobbs v. Jackson.
Lancet Regional Health. Americas, 22, 100514. (Zhu is a 2023 MPH graduate)

Tuesday – Healthy Neighborhoods

YSPH NEWS ARTICLE: New Haven neighborhood has the most people vulnerable to extreme heat (NBC Connecticut)
YSPH RESEARCH: Cunningham, S. D., Mandelbaum, J., Shebl, F. M., Abraham, M., & O’Connor Duffany, K. (2023).
Neighborhood Social Environment and Body Mass Index: The Mediating Role of Mental Wellbeing.
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20 (16), 6602.
YSPH RESEARCH: Tran, E., Blankenship, K., Whittaker, S., Rosenberg, A., Schlesinger, P., Kershaw, T., & Keene, D. (2020).
My neighborhood has a good reputation: Associations between spatial stigma and health.
Health & Place, 64, 102392.

Wednesday – Climate Change

YSPH STORY: Tired of health disparities, community leads frontline solutions to climate change
YSPH RESEARCH: Domingo, N. G. G., Fiore, A. M., Lamarque, J.-F., Kinney, P. L., Jiang, L., Gasparrini, A., Breitner, S., Lavigne, E., Madureira, J.,Masselot, P., das Neves Pereira da Silva, S., Sheng Ng, C. F., Kyselý, J., Guo, Y., Tong, S., Kan, H., Urban, A., Orru, H.,Maasikmets, M., … Chen, K. (2024).
Ozone-related acute excess mortality projected to increase in the absence of climate and air quality controls consistent with the Paris Agreement.
One Earth (Cambridge, Mass.),7(2), 325–335.
YSPH RESEARCH: Schwartz, S. E. O., Benoit, L., Clayton, S., Parnes, M. F., Swenson, L., & Lowe, S. R. (2022).
Climate change anxiety and mental health: Environmental activism as buffer.
Current Psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.), 1–14.

Thursday – New Tools & Innovations

YSPH MAGAZINE: Innovating for the Public Good
YSPH VIDEOS: Yale School of Public Health Innovators Video Series
YSPH RESEARCH: Boatright, D., Nguyen, M., Hill, K., Berg, D., Castillo-Page, L., Anderson, N.,Agbelese, V., Venkataraman, S., Saha, S., Schoenbaum, S. C., Richards, R., Jordan, A.,Asabor, E., & White, M. A. (2024).
Development of a Tool to Measure Student Perceptions of Equity and Inclusion in Medical Schools.
JAMA Network Open,7(2), e240001.

Friday – Reproductive and Sexual Health

YSPH STORY: Dreamer Girls project is a ‘dream come true’ for YSPH professor
YSPH RESEARCH: Boyer, C. B., Gaydos, C. A., Geller, A. B., Garges, E. C., & Vermund, S. H. (2022).
Sexually Transmitted Infections in the U.S. Military: A Sexual Health Paradigm to Address Risk Behaviors, Unintended Pregnancy, Alcohol Use, and Sexual Trauma.
Military Medicine,187(5–6), 140–143.
YSPH RESEARCH: Opara, I., Abrams, J. A., Cross, K., &Amutah-Onukagha, N. (2021).
Reframing Sexual Health for Black Girls and Women in HIV/STI Prevention Work: Highlighting the Role of Identity and Interpersonal Relationships.
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health,18(22), 12088.

Saturday – Emergency Preparedness

YSPH STORY: AI-powered triage platform could aid future viral outbreak response
YSPH RESEARCH: Degutis, L. C., Shoaf, K., Aragón, T. J., Atchison, C.,Dyjack, D., Hites, L., Links, J., Olson, D., Potter, M., Thompson, J., & Turnock, B. (2021).
The Urgent Need for Public Health Preparedness Funding and Support.
American Journal of Public Health,111(3), 363–365.
YSPH RESEARCH: Galvani, A. P.,Parpia, A. S., Pandey, A., Sah, P., Colón, K., Friedman, G., Campbell, T., Kahn, J. G., Singer, B. H., & Fitzpatrick, M. C. (2022).
Universal healthcare as pandemic preparedness: The lives and costs that could have been saved during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America,119(25), e2200536119.

Sunday – Future of Public Health

YSPH STORY: Popular epidemiologist lays out future path of public health communication
YSPH STORY: Public health innovator uses ‘Disruptive Collaboration’ to improve health care
YSPH RESEARCH: Rai, M., Breitner, S., Wolf, K., Peters, A., Schneider, A., & Chen, K. (2022).
Future temperature-related mortality considering physiological and socioeconomic adaptation: A modelling framework.
The Lancet. Planetary Health,6 (10), e784–e792.