Reflections from the Chair: Fall 2025

As we dive into a new academic year, there’s a familiar buzz of excitement in the air; yet, I can’t help feeling that the start of this year feels a bit different from years past. Here in HBS, early fall typically brings a sense of fresh starts and reinvigorated energy after summer’s lull, offering us a chance to reset, refocus, and set intentions for the academic year ahead. And while this year still has plenty of that enthusiasm across our academic and research activities, we are still dealing with an overwhelming sense of uncertainty amid shifting federal priorities. 

I recently had the opportunity to co-author an editorial in the American Journal of Public Health defending the core principles in departments of social and behavioral sciences in public health. While all of public health is under pressure right now, social and behavioral research, practice, and training programs face a unique vulnerability due to our focus on centering marginalized populations at the forefront of health responses, and for our advocacy for health injustices affecting these populations. Alongside 15 other department chairs, I call for a renewed commitment to our core values of health equity, community engagement, and authentic partnerships, the use of diverse research approaches, inclusive department cultures, and our academic freedom. 

As part of the commitment to these values here in HBS, we are also focusing on building a stronger sense of community in a year that has been particularly more stressful than most. I’m excited about our new initiative, “Comma Together Tuesdays,” where we prioritize Tuesday as the day of the week to gather in person on campus. With some of our faculty and staff working remotely most days and our office spaces spread across multiple buildings, this initiative emphasizes togetherness and connecting with each other on a personal level around shared interests. The “comma” part of the initiative also reflects a key part of HBS folklore—at the time the department was formed in 2005, there was much debate about whether to include a comma after “health” in the name of our Department. In the end, the comma won the day! The comma between “health” and “behavior” in the department’s name is intentional, underscoring the role of each of these three domains in driving individual and public health. This typographical choice reflects the department’s core belief that health, behavior, and society are inherently interconnected—three facets of one integrated whole instead of separate entities. 

What I’m looking forward to this fall: Attending our Works of Research and Practice seminars, which are meant to engage our department around the diverse areas of research and practice that our community of faculty, staff, students, and collaborators participates in. I’m also looking forward to teaching in the second term, where I’ll be in the classroom for the course, Policy Interventions for Health Behavior Change. The class meets on Friday mornings and is an invigorating way to end the week by hearing about our students’ passions and helping them to think through how to make progress on the issues that matter most to them. I’m excited for our HBS Gratitude Potluck held the week before Thanksgiving, where we bring comfort food to share and celebrate recent retirements.