Happy spring, alumni and friends!
As we welcome the spring season, I am pleased to provide you with an update on what is happening in the School of Public Health (SPH). Earlier in March, SPH welcomed alumni back to campus during Homecoming. It was great to see our alumni who recently graduated and those who were celebrated in the various decade classes. If you missed this year’s event, we hope to see you next year. Additionally, our faculty and staff were invited to participate in the Loma Linda University Health’s Diversity & Equity Health Conference. The theme of the conference was Designing Our System to Advance Health Care Equity. A key goal of the conference was to provide opportunities for participants to learn about work completed throughout our university, hospitals and clinic system to advance healthcare equity. Faculty were also invited to submit abstracts for a poster or oral presentation.
As we approach the end of the academic year, we are eagerly preparing for June's commencement ceremony, where our School will gather to celebrate its graduating students. We are diligently working to ensure this ceremony is meaningful and memorable.
ENDOWMENT
In August, we celebrated the work of Harvey Elder, MD, and his lasting impact as a physician in the San Bernardino community. Elder served in the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health alongside Alexander Taylor, MPH, a program manager and epidemiologist.
Taylor and Harvey worked closely together in medicine, public health, and epidemiology in San Bernardino County Department of Public Health and at the Department of Infectious Diseases in the Veterans Affairs Medical Center. They were committed to caring for patients and training students to make a lasting impact on future generations.
Thanks to a generous donation from Taylor, Elder's work will be honored by the Loma Linda University School of Public Health Endowed Epidemiology Scholarship, supporting students passionate about making man whole through epidemiology. This new Epidemiology Scholarship will help future generations and inspire those to answer their calling to do this work.
#WOMENSHISTORYMONTH
Last month we celebrated Women’s History Month and SPH was eager and deliberate in recognizing and highlighting some of the contributions our alumni are making in their various areas of influence.
Priya Bhat-Patel, DrPH, was elected to Carlsbad City Council and ran while finishing her dissertation. She made history as the first Indian American elected to City Council in San Diego County and the youngest in Carlsbad.
Betty Crocker, DrPH, MPH, Director of Child Nutrition Services for the Redlands Unified School District and her team members Josie Perez, MPH, and Alyssa Cummings, MPH, are all graduates of LLUSPH, working to improve the health of their community.
Salomeh Wagaw, MPH, is committed to utilizing her skills as an Epidemiologist, combining her passion for uplifting health equity, driving policy development, and addressing social determinants of health regionally. She has served as an Epidemiologist with Riverside County since 2013 and transitioned into her role in 2021 as Program Director of Health Equity at the Riverside University Health System- Public Health.
Sherie Lou Z. Santos, MPH, MCHES, worked as a Legislative Director and Health Policy Director for a member of the House of Representatives. She transitioned into her new role in October as the Director of Policy and Government Affairs for the Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs focusing on bettering the health of all maternal and child health populations, including families.
We continue to be proud of each of you who have made public health personal and are changing the world one community at a time.
Please stay in the loop in-between newsletters and follow our social media channels on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Thank you, alumni and donors, for your continued support throughout each quarter. I continue to be thoroughly impressed by the work our alumni, faculty and staff are doing to promote Public Health globally. Thank you for being part of the Public Health family.
Sincerely,
Dwight Barrett, Ed.D. MBA — Acting Dean
LOMA LINDA UNIVERSITY | School of Public Health