News from the School of Public Health

Students and instructors from across the world will soon be connected with those in the University of Maryland School of Public Health community, thanks to grants awarded to several SPH departments and faculty to establish new global public health classrooms.

Terps like to say that they are “fearless”, always pushing “fearlessly forward”. For SPH Dean’s Council member Deborah Gebhardt, Ph.D. ’79, “fearless” means jumping into the action, not always knowing what lies ahead. This trailblazer has spent a lifetime breaking barriers and forging a path of excellence, from early days playing baseball alongside the boys in her Hazleton, Pennsylvania, neighborhood, to founding a company that regularly counsels leaders of the nation’s largest organizations.  

Black barbershops and beauty salons often serve as virtual community centers, improving not only the hairstyles but the well-being of their clients by hosting vaccine clinics health outreach activities, according to Professor Stephen B. Thomas, founding director of the University of Maryland’s Center for Health Equity and originator of the barbershop initiative known as HAIR (Health Advocates In-Reach and Research).

Without smart policymaking, banning harmful chemicals like bisphenols and phthalates—common ingredients in plastics manufacturing—can result in a game of regulatory whack-a-mole where chemicals of similar toxicity or that have not been rigorously tested take their place.

The finding comes from a wide-ranging University of Maryland study published on Wednesday in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

This Giving Day on March 6, Terps showed up big for their school, raising the University of Maryland’s largest amount for this annual event: $4.22M. Nearly 10,000 people shared their support for UMD and its students, faculty, staff and programs by donating to more than 493 funds within the university, including many within the School of Public Health.

After a dreary winter—and brutal flu and cold season—most of us are welcoming a new kind of affliction: spring fever. Coma-like weeks on the couch, whether brought on by a super virus or the new season of “Vanderpump Rules,” may have you itching to resuscitate your fitness routine—or reluctant to emerge from hibernation.