In Summer 2022, the Office of Public Health Practice and Community Engagement (O-PHPCE) was established with a commitment to create and grow sustainable partnerships that engage communities as outlined in our SPH 2024-2030 Strategic Plan. The formation of the office was made possible by a $1.5 million gift from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Our primary responsibilities are:
- Consultation: providing individualized feedback & conceptualization support on project plans, curricula, or research proposals.
- Convening & Connecting: gathering a quarterly learning collaborative meeting for shared learning and connection, convening and co-leading a community advisory council specific to public health practice & community engagement, and connecting students, faculty, staff, and communities for mutually beneficial partnerships.
- Catalyzing: serving as the incubator for larger school initiatives and projects around public health practice & community engagement.
- Creating Guidance Documents & Resources: creating guidance documents and best practices guides for public health practice & community engagement and creating tools to assist with the administrative processes of community engagement on both the SPH side and the community side.
- Evaluating Processes & Providing Recommendations: evaluating existing processes, such as internship placement & mentorship, and providing recommendations for improvement.
The O-PHPCE is headquartered in the Office of the Dean at the University of Maryland School of Public Health. The office is designed to support bilateral pathways between and among students, staff, faculty, and the community to enable public health practice opportunities that enhance academics, research, practice, and community well-being, promote public health practice transformations, and serve as a resource and innovation hub for the school and community partners domestically and globally.
Our Mission is to create sustainable and synergistic pathways to practice, model, and evaluate community-engaged research, service, and education and we carry out this mission while maintaining our commitment to true participatory practices and power sharing, a dedication to integration with existing efforts for public health practice and community engagement, and a yearning to be a source for convening and shared learning.
Our Vision is a school where faculty, staff, and students routinely and intentionally collaborate with a wide range of community partners to integrate public health practice in education, research, and service and promote evidence-based, equitable solutions toward the improvement of health and well-being -- locally, nationally, and globally.
Our Values
Organization
We see our office as a hub for streamlining and organizing already existing efforts to prevent duplication of efforts across the School of Public Health.
Participation
We are committed to true participatory practices and power-sharing on all levels of our internal and external community.
Humility
We know that no single person or community has all the answers. We come to this work with deep humility and eagerness to learn and share these lessons learned with others.
Passion
We are passionate about learning, teaching, and doing public health and community engagement in practice.
Connection
We are dedicated to bringing a variety of partners together to facilitate shared learning and collaboration.
Equity
We recognize the unique approaches to public health practice and community engagement that different projects and communities require, and we strive to ground all our work in equity.
Our Team
Office Capabilities Statement
