Dean LaVeist commemorates his first second line with a selfie.
Dear Friends,
I’m closing in on my first full year here at the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, and, looking through the pages of this magazine, I’m pleased with the many things we have accomplished – so far. We’ve launched an online program, held our first Public Health Film Festival, rebranded the school, and gone through a thoughtful strategic process. We even created two new traditions, the graduation oath and the Creighton Wellman Medal. That was a lot for the first year, and there’s a lot more to come. We unveiled the results of our strategic planning at an on-campus town hall in June. The process, conducted under the banner of “A Culture of Shared Success,” involved numerous meetings with faculty, staff, students, and alumni and covered areas such as student enrollment and recruitment, budgeting, communications, distance learning, and more. The results of the planning are available online at sph.tulane.edu/sphtm-strategic-plan. You can also take a quick glance at our new mission, vision, and values statements at sph.tulane.edu/mission-and-values. Although we rebranded this magazine last year, we’ve also unveiled a new brand aesthetic for the school, one that complements the university brand but also speaks specifically about SPHTM. Our new brand fits under the tagine of Find us on the Front Lines. I hope that resonates with you as much as it did with those participating in the branding process. Looking ahead, we have at least two prominent activities this fall that we invite you to participate in. On October 12th we’ll commemorate 400 Years of Inequality with a day-long symposium to be held at SPHTM. This event is part of a national movement involving other schools, universities, non-profits, and other organizations and marks the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in America in 1619. It’s a somber but important milestone that deserves attention and a commemoration that includes not only racial inequality, but all forms of inequality. In November we invite all alumni to return for Tulane’s Homecoming but especially alumni of the Department of Health Policy and Management, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary. We have a reception and a football tailgate planned as well as a special presentation by Zeke Emanuel. See the inside back cover for more details and make plans to attend. I hope that going through these pages you get a sense of the excitement and enthusiasm I feel and I hope everyone else feels when they are on campus. The School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine was great, but now we are making it even better! Come be a part of it!
Best regards,
Thomas LaVeist
Dean