News from the School of Public Health

Congratulations to SPH faculty and staff who received annual awards honoring outstanding teaching, public health practice, service, mentoring and commitment to the school’s success and community during the 2023-2024 academic year! 

Minoring in humanities, health and medicine behavioral and community health graduate Temitope Akinbiola is working to become a nurse practitioner. She will begin her masters for nursing in the fall at Johns Hopkins University.

No stranger to academic rigor, Biglin is a 2024 Philip Merrill Presidential Scholar, student ambassador, Global Public Health Scholar and BS-MPH enrollee in the health policy analysis and evaluation concentration. She has interned across the field of public health in the U.S.

The last test for the Class of 2024, or maybe our first, came as the lights went out, hundreds of  soon-to-be graduates in full regalia in a briefly dark XFinity Center, fanning one another with the yellow index cards that were our pass to walk the stage after so much hard work. But the long-awaited moment to, as Dean Lushniak puts it, ‘begin again’ was postponed.

First-generation community health graduate Heydy Herbert BS ’24 has always been a passionate advocate for issues close to her heart. As a student who was undocumented until two years ago, Herbert — an anti-Black racism and disability studies double minor — understands the importance of helping out.

Dr. Shanéa Thomas (he/she/Dr.) is on a mission to get individuals in the LGBTQ+ community the mental health care – and the empathy – they need and deserve.