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COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Expanding its public health breadth and reach, the University of Maryland School of Public Health will launch a new Department of Global, Environmental, and Occupational Health (GEOH), opening its doors this fall.

A public policy course on the impact of policies on children and families led junior public health major Sophia Thompson to her passion: maternal and child health and policies that can address racial and economic disparities within the field.

Robin Schlesinger has long been passionate about advocacy and supporting children, going back to an aha moment during a discussion about school shootings.

Dozens of University of Maryland programs earned high rankings in U.S. News & World Report’s 2024-25 Best Graduate Schools lists released Tuesday, with many achieving top-25 placements in overall and specialty categories.

Among UMD’s highlights, the College of Education and the School of Public Health both climbed into the top 25, and the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences (CMNS) earned four top-25 accolades, including No. 15 in artificial intelligence.

Depending on where Marylanders live, their assurance of safe drinking water isn’t always crystal clear. In some Baltimore neighborhoods, it can be brown. While the city’s drinking water meets federal safety standards when it leaves municipal treatment plants, it might pick up lead, E. coli and other contaminants while flowing through a network of aging pipes before reaching a drinking glass. 

It can be as simple as a high-five from a kid while prepping an anti-bullying workshop in Prince George’s County. Or seeing a family equipped with tools like mosquito nets to reduce their malaria risk in Sierra Leone.

“It’s so rewarding to volunteer in these communities,” said biological sciences major Meghna Pandey ’24, co-president of the University of Maryland’s Public Health Beyond Borders—the first organization of its kind at an American college.