Public health is the science of protecting and improving the health of individuals and communities by identifying inequitable systems, promoting healthy lifestyles, researching disease and injury prevention, and detecting, preventing, and responding to infectious diseases. At UVM, this effort is driven by an underlying mission to promote health equity, or the opportunity for every person to attain their full health potential regardless of social position or other socially determined circumstances. Students in the Public Health Sciences program examine the ways that health inequities are reflected in populations and consider strategies to improve outcomes for groups historically marginalized due to race or ethnicity, religion, socio-economic status, education level, gender, age, or geography by taking courses on health promotion and education, global health, epidemiology, health communication, and health care systems. In their senior year, Public Health Sciences majors pursue an experiential capstone project with a community partner agency that directly contributes to population health. And then, they graduate.

Here are the stories of three recent Public Health Sciences grads.

Health Close to Home

“The challenge of working in the place I grew up,” says Celia Heath '21, public health and advocacy coordinator for the United Way of Addison County, “is facing some realities that I didn’t know existed.”

Among them: the critical need for mental health promotion and youth substance use prevention in her community.

“As a kid, I only saw the bright side of living in Vermont; but there are a lot of different issues and disparities that I had no idea about before working in this field,” said Heath, who graduated from the Public Health Sciences program in 2021. “Part of my job now is trying to find equitable and creative solutions to these public health issues.”

As a Public Health Sciences major at UVM, Heath learned about differences and gaps in the quality of health and healthcare across racial, ethnic, and socio-economic groups, and studied the ways health systems deliver services to meet the needs of target populations. A fundamental understanding gained through her experience in the program, she says, is of the interdependence of factors called “social determinants of health” – the economic and social conditions that influence differences in health status among individuals and groups.

Heath's work involves assessing community data, cataloguing emerging needs, and identifying best practices to support United Way agencies in their efforts to prioritize public health, wellness, and safety in ways that can help promote public health initiatives and reduce youth substance use in Addison County. She develops educational materials, programs, and social media campaigns for the youth public health coalition and works closely with United Way-funded partners to increase their visibility in the community.

The social determinants of health she studied in class have become a tangible reality.

"Everything is connected," said Heath. "Health is connected to housing, which is connected to workforce, which is connected to financial stability, which is connected to mental health . . . the intersections are endless. I see this first-hand every day.”

She feels well-prepared to face the odds. During her senior capstone project, Heath worked with the Vermont Family Network, a nonprofit with a mission to support children, youth, and families, especially those with disabilities or special health needs. Working to solve real-life problems as part of a team prepped her for success in her current role.

“Every day I walk into work with a toolkit of knowledge that I have compiled from my time at UVM. I use this knowledge to help educate, advocate and support the people in my community and that is very important to me,” she says. “I am constantly learning, but I have a solid foundation of public health knowledge and experience that I can always rely on.”

Heath still sees the bright side of living in Vermont – especially in the opportunity to work daily to advocate for improved health outcomes in her community.

"Advocacy is a newfound passion of mine,” she says. “I am so fortunate to be in a position where I can support my community in this impactful way.”

Helping Pregnant Women, Moms, and Children Thrive

Taylor Murray '20 works as a public health nutrition assistant in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) at the Vermont Department of Health, combining her health and nutrition interests with a commitment to equity.

Her role involves working to ensure that pregnant women, moms, and children under the age of five have access to the education and resources they need to be healthy. In a typical appointment with her clients, Murray assesses their general health and nutrition status, and then connects them with the community resources that can help address their needs – including referrals to health and dental care providers, food banks, childcare providers and preschools. Murray also helps connect new moms with breastfeeding support and helps families access food benefits provided by the income-based federal nutrition assistance program.

Murray says it has been an eye-opening experience to witness the struggle some families face day-to-day to provide necessities for their children.

“My background in health sciences has shown me how inequitable our world can be,” said Murray, who also minored in nutrition and food sciences and behavior change health studies at UVM. “Every conversation I have, especially with WIC participants, is centered around the social determinants of health. If people do not have necessities, how can we expect them to change their health behaviors?”

The best part of her job, says Murray, is when a family walks away from a WIC appointment feeling confident in their ability to take care of themselves and their children.

“It is amazing to see how we can help make their lives a bit easier and provide them support and reassurance that they are doing the best they can.”

Public Health Caring

“I think public health is one of the fields, in addition to most health care fields, you have to care,” says Hannah Kaufman ’20, G ’21, a program administrator for the Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in Washington, D.C.

“I started in this field because I was so angry about what I was hearing,” Kaufman said.

The Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health (AIM) is a national, cross-sector commitment founded in 2014 through a cooperative agreement funded by the Health Services Resource Administration and executed by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists to lead in the development and implementation of patient safety bundles for the promotion of safe care for every U.S. birth. Kaufman’s work supports the delivery of these bundles, which are straightforward sets of evidence-based practices that, when performed collectively and reliably, have been proven to improve patient outcomes.

According to AIM data, more than 700 people die due to complications from pregnancy and childbirth annually; Black and Native persons die at a rate three times higher than White people; and 60% - the majority - of these deaths are preventable. Additionally, the number of birthing persons who die or experience severe health problems because of pregnancy and childbirth in the U.S. has increased in the last 30 years.

Kaufman’s days are fast-paced, involving development of multiple deliverables, all due at the end of the one-year supplemental grant period. She admits at times it can be easy to lose sight of the mission to help make birth safer and improve birth outcomes – “when I’m doing the contracts, invoicing, planning webinars,” – but adds that hearing from clinicians and providers implementing the project on the ground makes it all worthwhile.

Kaufman notes she shares a devotion to maternal health with her mom, a certified nurse midwife, who once told her “You can’t teach caring.”

“We’re doing our best to impact health care in the clinical setting, for the individual patient,” said Kaufman. “I feel as though I’m on a team that is passionate and driven towards the same goal, doing what we can to improve these outcomes.”

Though Kaufman initially came to the University of Vermont from Princeton, New Jersey to study English - “I chose UVM for the outdoors. It felt good there,” she recalls - a general elective course on Siddhartha Mukherjee’s Pulitzer-prize winning The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer changed the course of her career.

“I found my way to medical sociology and medical anthropology,” Kaufman said. “Taking Intro to Public Health felt like my world blew open.”

“I had never learned about these topics before,” Kaufman said of the ethical, educational, and practical issues surrounding public health work that the course presents. “By sophomore year I knew I needed a master’s in public health.”

The Public Health Sciences program’s emphasis on collaboration, and critical and systems thinking, impressed Kaufman throughout her undergraduate experience.

“The learning was so based in discussion, I feel like I spent more time talking to my peers and professors than taking notes,” she says. “Professors gave us the freedom to explore our passions and empowered us to target our projects in different areas. The public health community at UVM really feels like a family.”

And Kaufman knows you can’t teach caring.

Kaufman earned her B.S. in Public Health Sciences in 2020, followed by an accelerated master’s degree in Public Health in 2021.

To learn more about the Public Health Sciences program at UVM, contact Program Director Deb Hinchey at Deborah.Hinchey@uvm.edu.