News from the School of Public Health

The University of Maryland School of Public Health is ranked No. 10 among publicly funded Best Public Health Schools in the country by U.S. News & World Report for the first time. The school places No. 20 among all 188 schools and programs on the list.

More than a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, most of us have experienced varying degrees of depression or anxiety related to the challenges of this unusual and trying time. 

Yet some people have weathered the stressors better than others. What factors predicted better mental health during the pandemic and what can this teach us about protecting against depression and anxiety during other difficult times? 

As COVID-19 vaccine distribution ramps up nationwide, unanswered questions remain about the vaccine’s effectiveness: Can it prevent infection of SARS-CoV-2 and transmission to others?

That’s what the University of Maryland, along with over 20 universities, will attempt to answer for a newly-launched national study, Prevent COVID U. 

Deputy Director for Clinical Training and Intervention, Dr. Elizabeth Aparicio (she/her), is an integral member of the University of Maryland Prevention Research Center (UMD-PRC). As a community-engaged, clinically trained public health social work researcher and scholar, Dr. Aparicio specializes in addressing the mental, sexual and reproductive health needs of youth in and formerly in foster care and youth experiencing homelessness. She brings the important lenses of trauma-informed care and the reproductive justice framework to inform and test mental health and sexual and reproductive health interventions for trauma-affected and marginalized children, youth and families.

This year has been a trying one for us all. From having an infectious disease thrown at us, to grappling with numerous sociopolitical unrests that have shaken this country to vast proportions, needless to say, many of us have wondered if this was indeed “the end of days.”

When it comes to health officials and experts evaluating environmental health risks among populations, what has been the norm isn’t enough, and a shift is needed to better protect children and other vulnerable groups, according to Devon Payne-Sturges, an assistant professor of Applied Environmental Health in the University of Maryland School of Public Health.