The Center for Public Health Advocacy
Turns 'One'
A Message From the Directors
Dear Friends and Colleagues –
 
We are gratified by the enthusiasm from faculty, students, staff, and colleagues that has greeted the Center for Public Health Advocacy over the past year. We would not be where we are without you.
 
As we move into our second year, the Center will play a critical role in advancing evidence-driven advocacy leadership, both within the School and beyond. We will expand access to advocacy resources, convene public health leaders and advocates, and continue to support scholarship in this important area. We will also continue to identify and impart the advocacy best practices needed to inform decision-makers and shift public policy. As we wrap up our first year as a Center we reflect on our collective achievements, highlighted below.
 
The Center’s milestones would not have been possible without Dr. David Jernigan’s extraordinary contributions to the creation of the Center. David will move on to new challenges in the coming months and his leadership will be missed.

We look forward to another year of growth, continued collaboration, and new achievements.
 
Best wishes,
Jose “Oying” Rimon and Beth Fredrick
Inaugural Advocacy Speaker Series Event
The Center kicked off the first Advocacy Speaker Series on September 19, 2017 with former Maryland Senator Barbara Mikulski as the keynote speaker. She spoke to students, faculty, and staff about the critical role of advocacy in achieving effective public health policies and about the importance of creating relationships and community organizing. Following her formal remarks, the Senator participated in a Center-led strategy session with faculty members focused on incorporating evidence-based advocacy into public health research and programs.

When Senator Mikulski retired from the US Senate in January 2017, she was the longest-serving woman Senator and the longest-serving woman in the history of the US Congress. Mikulski has been a long time advocate and champion for education, civil rights, and women's health. She is a social worker by training and a proud Baltimore native.

Launch of the Certificate in Public Health Advocacy
The Maryland Higher Education Commission has approved the Certificate in Public Health Advocacy. The certificate program opened for enrollment at beginning of the 2017-2018 academic year. The program is open to JHSPH students, JHU students from other divisions, as well as non-degree seeking students from outside the University. Eight JHSPH students have enrolled in the program this year.

The certificate program comprises at least 18 credits of interdepartmental coursework, in which students gain a practical understanding of how to apply advocacy methods and evidence in a variety of policy settings, both domestic and international. The primary goal of the certificate is to develop students' abilities to translate research into practice, use evidence to inform public health policy, shift social norms and attitudes, and improve public health.

New Advocacy Resources
The Center has developed two teaching case studies focused on real-life public health experience. The case studies are based on the Harvard Business School Case Method, an educational innovation that presents students with the challenges confronting leaders and professionals in their field. The cases place students in the role of decision-makers in situations where uncertainty and risk must be weighed against desired health and policy outcomes.

The first case studies focus on family planning funding in the lead-up to the 2012 London Summit on Family Planning and alcohol tax policy in the state of Maryland. These cases have become a dynamic piece of several courses taught at JHSPH. The Center plans to develop additional case studies in 2018 and beyond.

Faculty Affiliate Network
The Center has established a diverse network of affiliated faculty to help increase the visibility of public health advocacy and to highlight the various advocacy efforts happening across the school. Faculty affiliates have a connection to the work of the Center through courses they teach, research or public health practice activities they have conducted, and/or formative input they have provided.

As the Center continues to grow, we are committed to partnering with key faculty across departments and disciplines who are already on the front lines of public health advocacy.

Growing Our Team
Diane Coraggio joined the Center for Public Health Advocacy shortly after the Center was formalized. As the Program Manager, Diane is the main point of contact and liaison for all Center activities, working closely with the Center’s leadership.

Diane has over 10 years of experience in public health advocacy and communications around issues related to vaccines, nutrition, and maternal health. She holds a MHS degree from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Department of International Health and a BS in Public Health from Temple University.

December 2017 | No. 1
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
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