We, the undersigned members of LGBTQ+ Students and Allies in Public Health (LGBTQ-SAPH), strongly denounce police brutality and impunity against Black communities and, more broadly, racism and white supremacy in all their societal manifestations. We unequivocally express our support of the Black community, and all other communities of color demanding justice.

Doctoral students John P. Salerno (behavioral and community health) and Natasha D. Williams (family science) highlight the structural, social and individual-level challenges faced by LGBTQ persons in the context of COVID-19 and propose strategies to mitigate their psychological trauma in a commentary published in the Journal of the American Psychological Association. Both Salerno and Williams are research staff in the UMD Prevention Research Center. 

Dear SPH community,

We are all grieving the tragic killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery and too many other Black men, women, children and transgender persons, named and unnamed, we have lost to violence fueled by racism, inhumanity and injustice. We have also been mourning the disproportionate and preventable loss of black and brown lives from COVID-19 as the pandemic has laid bare the structural inequities of our society and hit the most vulnerable among us hardest. 

Duane J. Wallace II earned both his bachelor's (Behavioral and Community Health) and master's degrees from the University of Maryland School of Public Health. Duane is a project director at Shattuck & Associates, Inc., where he provides public health evaluation services to federal, state, local and grassroots social service agencies and organizations. He is also a doctoral candidate and adjust professor at Morgan State University.

Congratulations Spring 2020 graduates! We are so proud of your accomplishments and with the future of public health in your hands, we feel hopeful about the future.

Near the end of each academic year, the School of Public Health faculty, staff, students, families and friends join together for the special occasion of honoring our outstanding students through the SPH Convocation ceremony.

Before coming to the Center for Health Literacy, Érick Tássio worked as a dentist in Paraíba, Brazil. The visiting doctoral student decided to work at the Center for its dedicated mission on advancing health literacy and its contributions to oral health research. “I selected the Center because it allowed me to share knowledge and gain experience with well-known researchers in the health literacy field as Dr. Alice Horowitz and Dr. Cynthia Baur,” he said.

South Korea has limited the introduction of the pandemic better than any other country. How have they done that? Have they been able to keep the economy going during the pandemic?

At a time when the pandemic is reshaping life in unpredictable ways and solid information is more vital than ever, University of Maryland students—or the bots they’ve created and deployed—are working to send accurate, easily understandable answers to your COVID-19 questions right to your phone.

Daisy Le is a tenure-track assistant professor in the policy, populations and systems department at the George Washington University School of Nursing.