Twenty-two-year-old A hated that they’d had to start wearing a bra earlier than classmates and desperately wanted to be flat-chested. As a teen, while watching a show on weight loss, they saw a man wrap himself in plastic wrap to sweat off a few pounds—and thought, “What if I shrink-wrapped my chest?” The flaw in this plan quickly became apparent: They couldn’t breathe.

LGBTQ+ as well as Black and Latinx populations are at increased risk for using tobacco products, so youths of color who are LGBTQ+ are squarely in the sights of Big Tobacco. As a result, they experience greater tobacco-related health burdens than their non-LGBTQ+ and white peers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The School of Public Health continued to move fearlessly forward this year, tackling pressing issues at the local, national and global level, while educating the next generation of public health practitioners. Here's a look back at some of the school’s achievements in 2023.

As interim chair, Dr. Green will provide academic and strategic leadership and advance the teaching, research, service and outreach missions of the department and School of Public Health. She will succeed Dr. Craig Fryer, who has graciously served as interim chair for more than two years, on December 31.

Named for the late university supporter and Washington-area publisher, the Philip Merrill Presidential Scholars Program recognizes top graduating seniors at the University of Maryland and the professors and K-12 teachers who mentored them.

The intercampus training fostered discussions and collaboration between nursing, public health science and social work students around an often misunderstood topic.

McCullers, a behavioral and community health doctoral student with the School of Public Health and health equity research associate at Medstar Health, is one of 30 winners nationwide to win the award from Going Digital: Behavioral Health Tech.

The University of Maryland Alumni Association will honor Alumni Alyssa T. Krumlauf, Ph.D. '15, with the Spirit of Maryland Award and Veeraj Shah '21 with the Outstanding Young Alumnus Award during its annual "A Celebration of Terps: Featuring The Maryland Awards" event on November 10, 2023 in the Samuel Riggs IV Alumni Center.

Professor Cheryl Knott and University of Connecticut Associate Professor Debarchana Ghosh will develop a measure of county-level structural racism and discrimination as part of a five-year study that aims to fill a gap in preventive cancer-related research in historically underserved communities.