The Future of Public Health - Jan 2025 Edition

It's a difficult time to be in public health right now, with the incoming federal administration pausing federal funding, halting life-saving HIV treatment globally, and withdrawing from the World Health Organization exactly 5 years after COVID began its spread around the globe. A wise person recently told me to keep my hands on the wheel while others fiddle with the radio tuner. So I'm attempting to stay focused, despite waiting to hear about 3 federal grants and awards I recently applied for from the State Department and Health and Human Services. One way of doing that is focusing on my teaching, and the best part of teaching right now is seeing the minds of our future leaders at work. Montclair State is full of these future leaders.

In this semester's undergrad Health Policy & Administration course, we are studying the 1988 report The Future of Public Health from the U.S. Institute of Medicine, now known as the National Academies of Medicine. While there are critiques of the report, it essentially ushered in the era known as Public Health 2.0 through investment in the local public health infrastructure, evidence-based public health, and the later rise of health equity as a central driving force in the field.

I asked students to tell me where they envision themselves fitting in to the public health workforce of the future. These are primarily 3rd year undergrad students, looking ahead to graduation and jobs in a year or so, maybe grad school. Their high school years are marked by the COVID pandemic and e-learning, which also certainly shaped their interest in public health. Now in 2025, we are almost a decade in to Public Health 3.0 -- an era of interdisciplinary, community-engaged, data-driven advancement. And as President Trump takes office for the 2nd time, public health is once again at risk of extreme politicization and widespread misinformation. Maybe we will look back soon and realize it's actually a new post-COVID era of public health, a fraying infrastructure with declining public trust, still to be named.

But these students are more hopeful than I am. These students have vision, they want to help people from all sectors and angles. They are not one-size-fits-all, and they are from many different backgrounds and nationalities. One response from a student, Ms. Trinity Guadalupe, gave me chills of inspiration, and I share it here with her permission.

I am interested in Public Health because I realize you can not make a change practicing medicine, it is so much deeper than that, and the system behind it. The healthcare system has glossed over so many issues and people are stuck in the cracks and I want to be the one to address these disparities. Prevention is the most important part of health. You can put a band-aid over a cut but who will make sure you don't stand on top of the rock you fell off again? Honestly I do not see myself fitting into a system, I want to be the one to change the system and make it even better. If I had to put myself into the system described in Chapter 5 (Wilensky & Teitelbaum, 5th Ed.), I would say Policymakers and Elected Officials. I have learned that you really can not make a change without having money and power, such as a billionaire who isn't even qualified to be a president becoming elected, impeached, tried for crimes during his time as an elected official, then elected again. It is sad to see, but it is how the game is played, and I will not be playing the game for much longer. I'll be running it." 

Today, as we watch the Senate confirmation hearings for RFK, JR., this is the future of public health I have in mind. And as I told Ms. Guadalupe, I cannot wait to see her trample the system. Let's keep those hands on the wheel and eyes on the road friends.