To continue to be a leading partner promoting global and local health, we proposed to 1) expand our efforts to improve health and well-being in Baltimore; 2) enhance our cross-sector collaborations to improve health and advance health equity and social justice; and 3) connect our global and local partners to have a greater collective impact on health.
Expand our efforts to improve health and well-being in Baltimore
Established the Baltimore Community Engagement Committee with representatives from each department to enhance the School’s work in the city. The committee is making recommendations and disseminating resources to increase the quality and impact of partnerships between the School and our city.
Coordinated with more than 100 community partners and thousands of students each year, as part of work led by SOURCE, the community engagement and service-learning center for the Johns Hopkins University schools of Public Health, Nursing, and Medicine. Largely through SOURCE’s efforts, the School was awarded the 2019 Outstanding Community Service Award by the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health.
Worked closely with the University to reshape the Urban Health Institute as it transitioned to new leadership and refocused its work to advance health and health equity in Baltimore via a wide range of programs, events, and educational and funding opportunities, including support for faculty to work with community-based organizations and city agencies.
Supported the Local Health Improvement Coalition led by the Baltimore City Health Commissioner. The associate director of the Urban Health Institute, who is also a faculty member in the School’s Office of Public Health Practice and Training, is co-chairing this citywide effort. She also worked with the Baltimore City Health Department on the city’s public health strategy for violence reduction.
Supported the establishment of the new Chief Health Policy Officer position for the Baltimore City Health Department. The policy officer is a full-time faculty member in the Department of Health Policy and Management, with part of her time supported by the Bloomberg American Health Initiative and the Institute for Health and Social Policy. The model of faculty working for the City Health Department was developed for the Chief epidemiologist, who is also a full-time faculty member in the Department of Epidemiology.
Supported Baltimore’s COVID-19 response in multiple ways, including:
Providing management and training for the city’s successful vaccine ambassador program through the International Vaccine Access Center.
Providing resources for JHPIEGO to manage the city’s innovative community health worker response to COVID.
Offering epidemiological support from School faculty and students.
Benchmarking Baltimore’s experience with COVID against those of counties with similar sociodemographic characteristics.
Developing and implementing the Johns Hopkins Health Education and Training (HEAT) Corps with cross-campus partners, including the launch of a COVID-19 curriculum for K-12 youth, taught in virtual classrooms in Baltimore and across the country, with over 150 SOURCE volunteers.
Played a central role in designing and implementing the JHU Innovation Fund for Community Safety. This work was done in close collaboration with the University’s Office of Economic Development. The $6 million fund will support nine community grantees over four years to implement innovative approaches to promoting safety and reducing violence.
Supported the Centro Sol Policy Group in advancing services for the Latinx population. Projects in 2021 included supporting more language access to emergency pandemic services, assisting with insurance-related challenges, and developing policy to support eligible families in receiving social supports.
Collaborate across sectors and systems
Expanded our Office of Public Health Practice and Training and appointed an Assistant Dean for Practice and Training.
Supported the public sector during the pandemic. This work by the Office of Public Health Practice and Training included:
Extending the reach and use of massive online open courses and other training materials in contact tracing, disease control, psychological first aid, long-term care, and assisted living taken by more than a million students across the globe and used by multiple government agencies.
Assisting county health departments and the state health department in Maryland in conducting data analyses and providing policy recommendations.
Providing policy and research support to counter the harassment and threats to public health officials, including leading a national coalition to support the public health workforce, providing congressional testimony, assembling quantitative data and firsthand accounts, and launching the website standwithpublichealth.jhsph.edu.
Providing more than 20 briefings to 180 U.S. mayors during the pandemic, in partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative.
Built scores of new cross-sectoral partnerships around the country each year. The Bloomberg American Health Initiative has extended grant opportunities to more than 175 Initiative partners, including many nontraditional organizations, such as the New Jersey State Police, the NYC Center for Court Innovation, Kaiser Health News, and the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources Cooperative Extension. Projects launched in 2021 include an innovative initiative in the Washington, D.C., public schools to share student attendance data (with parental consent) with pediatric practices so they can support children and families at risk for chronic absenteeism. The Initiative also supported the Legal Action Center in outlining the legal responsibilities of emergency departments to care for patients with substance use disorder.
Promoted global health equity research via grants to more than 59 collaborative research teams. The Alliance for a Healthier World has provided critical support to teams working in climate equity, health equity, and social justice dimensions of COVID-19. The Alliance has trained grantees in networking and problem-solving, facilitating engagement through seminars and events such as the International Symposium on Global Health Policy Research. The Global Health Equity Scholars program provides scholarship funding and research opportunities to help develop the next generation of global health equity researchers and program implementers.
Expanded partnerships through The Challenge Initiative (TCI) to support the sexual and reproductive health needs of women and girls living in low-income, urban communities in Africa and Asia. TCI has scaled up proven high-impact family planning and adolescent and youth reproductive health interventions in 111 sites across 11 countries worldwide.
Connect global and local partners
Convened virtual international symposia on Global Health Policy Research. The Alliance for a Healthier World brought together a global community of researchers who draw on social science theory and methodology to study global health policymaking focused on addressing challenges related to the pandemic.
Played a key role in launching the Johns Hopkins India Institute (JHII) in September 2021. Building on years of collaboration between Johns Hopkins and partner organizations in India, the Institute coordinates efforts to build the capacity of the health care workforce and improve outcomes of the health system. In addition to raising awareness of Hopkins’ work in India, the Institute’s goals include promoting dissemination of evidence-based research to the broader population, building and sustaining equal and collaborative partnerships with Indian counterparts, and expanding research activity through local and international funding. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic in India, JHII rapidly mobilized the University community and network of alumni and supporters to provide support during its deadly “second wave." This included raising $2.2 million that was spent on humanitarian relief in India.
