“Policy change not climate change” is a slogan that climate activist Greta Thunberg and environmental justice advocates have echoed to policymakers. 

Near the end of each academic year, School of Public Health faculty, staff, students, families and friends look forward to honoring our outstanding students through the SPH Convocation.

Getting ready to ditch your mask as the percentage of the U.S. population vaccinated against COVID-19 steadily rises? Not so fast, warns Dr. Donald Milton, professor of applied environmental health at the University of Maryland and a leading expert on how viruses spread through the air.

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.

Over 24 hours on Wednesday, March 3, 2021, the University of Maryland School of Public Health community came together virtually to support our research initiatives, scholarships and educational programs. 278 donors—alumni, friends, faculty, staff and students—gave a total of $220,724, an increase of more than 137 percent from the previous year. That placed the School of Public Health at #2 on the leaderboard after Athletics for most funds raised during Giving Day.

Leading scientific and medical experts are calling upon the Biden Administration to take immediate action to address inhalation exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus as a cornerstone of the COVID-19 pandemic response.

In his first week on the job, President Joe Biden signed several climate-related executive orders, including rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement, halting the construction of the Keystone pipeline and aggressively expanding and investing in efforts to fight environmental racism in disadvantaged communities that have suffered the most from pollution.

Shifali Mathews was part of the first class of students in the accelerated BS/MPH program. She completed her bachelor's in public health science in 2020 and earned her MPH in environmental health sciences in 2021. She is conducting climate change and health research with Dr. Amir Sapkota.

After successfully defending her dissertation in December 2018, Rianna Murray began working at the Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health (MIAEH) with Dr. Amy Sapkota as a Postdoctoral Associate in February 2019. Murray’s primary role in this position was Program Manager of the UMD Global STEWARDS (STEM Training at the Nexus of Energy, WAter Reuse and FooD Systems) graduate training fellowship, funded by the National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) program, which prepares future leaders focused on innovations at the nexus of food, energy and water (FEW) systems.

In 2020, Richard Remigio successfully submitted and was awarded an R36 Dissertation grant. He defended his dissertation proposal and presented two abstracts at the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology (ISEE) virtual conference. Remigio is working on his dissertation and is about ready to defend it.