21st Century Science
A World of Difference: Community-Centered Public Health Research
At the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science at University of California San Diego, community and research are inextricably linked. By working to address the most pressing public health challenges, including gender equity, poor access to clean water and lack of physical activity, the school is making a significant impact around the world.
In these first five years as a new school, strategic priorities were developed to expand its research activities in key areas: climate and environmental health, health equity and global health justice, health services research and health policy, healthy aging and human longevity science, mental health and substance use, quantitative methods in public health, and women’s health and reproductive justice.
“Public health as a field has the potential to transform our world for the better, and we are continuously looking to bridge the gap between our faculty and the communities we serve in order to make the greatest impact possible,” said Professor Cheryl A.M. Anderson, Ph.D., M.P.H., founding dean of the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and inaugural Hood Family Endowed Dean’s Chair in Public Health.
Women bear the burden of hauling clean water for their households.
Building Gender Equity from the Ground Up
Holly Baker, Ph.D.
A key aspect of public health is empowering disenfranchised groups, such as women and gender minorities, to advocate for their health. The Center on Gender Equity and Health (GEH) is an action-oriented collective of researchers, policy specialists and development experts working to eliminate gender inequities through impactful, community-based research. Professor Holly Baker, Ph.D., a faculty member within the center, has worked around the world to promote family planning and reduce gender-based violence in low- and middle-income countries.
“Studying the social networks and power dynamics between men and women is essential for promoting public health, as these dynamics can greatly impact women’s ability to advocate for their own health and well-being,” she said.
Baker, along with Rebecka Lundgren, Ph.D., M.P.H, GEH co-executive director and associate professor at UC San Diego School of Medicine, led the Agency for All Initiative, an international, multi-institutional effort to better understand and promote agency for individuals, communities and local organizations in low- and middle-income countries. According to Baker, one of the most important aspects of promoting agency at the community-level is capacity-building, the process of helping communities or organizations develop the skills and resources needed to solve problems without relying on external support from Western countries. While the initiative was originally funded by a historic $38 million grant from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and was intended to last from 2022 to 2027, the project was recently terminated due to changes in federal funding.
“Capacity-building is helping people develop critical thinking skills, helping them develop their research skills, helping them get access to the resources they need to be working with their own communities,” she said. “This is ultimately a form of diplomacy.”
“Public health as a field has the potential to transform our world for the better.”
– Professor Cheryl A.M. Anderson, Ph.D., M.P.H.
A Safer, Healthier Planet
Georgia Kayser, Ph.D.
Another critical aspect of improving public health is understanding and addressing the environmental factors that impact people’s health. Assistant Professor Georgia Kayser, Ph.D., is dedicated to improving water sanitation, hygiene and water quality locally and globally. Her research has spanned over 20 countries across Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Asia, where she has explored the factors that limit access to these essential services. She also works to identify interventions to improve public health.
“It is sometimes easy to take safe water for granted when you have access to it; however, 2.2 billion people around the world lack safely managed drinking water,” said Kayser. “My work seeks to understand why some communities are not able to access safe water; together with students and collaborators from around the world, we work with local organizations to tackle these problems.”
As deputy director of the UC Global Health Institute’s (UCGHI) Center for Planetary Health, Kayser is also fostering interdisciplinary research on planetary health, with a focus on informing environmental health programs and policies and providing training and research opportunities for students across the University of California.
“One of the unique aspects of UCGHI’s Center for Planetary Health is that we bring together people from a wide range of disciplines beyond public health, such as veterinarians, geochemists and economists,” said Kayser. “One of the biggest strengths of collaborating across the UC system is leveraging varied perspectives and interdisciplinary expertise to solve global health problems.”
