The COVID-19 pandemic has been hard on the travel industry and on the field of international education. But it has helped global public health come to grips with its colonial past and articulate its goals in ways that are truer to the mission of public health itself.
When Heather Lanthorn assumed the role of program director of the new Mercury Project at the Social Science Research Council in December 2021, she was ecstatic. Not only was she helping to build the field around a current phenomenon with long-term implications, but she also was returning to her roots and work that led her to the University of Michigan School of Public Health and deepened while she was there.
Across the country, the pandemic put stress on the health care system, revealing both its strengths—heroic providers and adaptability in the face of uncertainty—and areas where it must improve. Three Health Services Administration executive-level alumni share their COVID stories and the lessons they learned for the future.
Michigan Public Health professors Scott Greer and Elizabeth King and colleagues in Brazil analyzed early government responses from 34 countries on five continents to the emerging COVID-19 pandemic and how those decisions impacted citizen health.
Professional passion and personal motivation led Bhramar Mukherjee and Mousumi Banerjee to India and back as they rapidly used every skill and connection at their disposal to help their home country during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Emily Toth Martin, associate professor of Epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, received the University of Michigan President’s Award for National and State Leadership for her contributions to the COVID-19 response in 2020.