Boston University School of Public Health

08/25/2026

SPH students have unique opportunities to make a positive impact in the community before graduation. Our faculty use practice-based teaching approaches to prepare SPH students to be changemakers beyond the classroom.

Senator John Keenan of the Massachusetts state legislature and his staff enlisted students in Jacey Greece’s communications strategies course to devise interventions to draw attention to the health risks of sports betting.

Two student groups developed complementary strategies to advance Sen. Keenan’s Better Health Act: one focused on methods to build support among fellow legislators,while the other centered on mobilizing constituents and stakeholders to encourage their representatives to support the legislation.

Students then had the opportunity to present their proposals directly to Sen. Keenan and his staffers in person.

Impressed by the quality of work, Sen. Keenan’s team plans to explore how they can use the students’ proposals to increase the bill’s odds of success. Learn more ➡️ http://spr.ly/6182B1Qzpy

08/24/2026

As part of our 50th anniversary, we’ve been hosting a special series of Public Health Conversations with local, national, and global public health leaders.

Earlier this year, we hosted a Public Health Conversation in conjunction with the World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland. Dean Adnan Hyder spoke with global public health leaders about their hopes for health around the world and their visions for the next 50 years.

Watch the full conversation here featuring Jarbas Barbosa da Silva of the Pan American Health Organization, Sania Nishtar of Gavi the Vaccine Alliance, and Francisco Songane of the Africa Public Health Foundation. ➡️ http://spr.ly/6184B1SWBe

08/21/2026

SPH trains public health leaders in the heart of Boston. Our location means that our students have the opportunity to use the city as a learning tool.

In EH 804: Field Methods in Exposure Science, students use our urban environment as a living laboratory, exploring the complex environmental and socioeconomic factors that affect public health.

Throughout the semester, teams of students work on projects that assess noise levels at various MBTA stops, manganese levels in residential water across the city, and the air quality conditions of urban roads.

This is just one example of coursework at SPH that embodies Think. Teach. Do. Read the full story here ➡️ http://spr.ly/6185B1iuwP

08/20/2026

Any level of movement is beneficial for your health, but could just a couple of minutes of higher intensity activity have even greater improvements towards your health?

A recent study covered by Public Health Post showed that even small amounts of high-intensity exercise were beneficial. People who exercised vigorously just 1-2% of the time—for example, adding a minute of running to a daily walk—experienced improvements in their health.

If you’re short on time, more intense exercise can be a way to gain the same benefit as a longer workout. One minute of vigorous physical activity is estimated to be equivalent to two minutes of moderate-intensity activity.

The authors suggest an emphasis on intensity rather than just the duration of exercise to preserve health. For anyone who may not be able to perform intense physical activity, movement at any level is still beneficial for health and well-being.

Read more from Farah Nimeri ➡️

Incorporating even small amounts of vigorous activity into your exercise routine can lower the risk of chronic disease and early death.

08/19/2026

As we continue to celebrate 50 years of SPH, we’re taking a trip back into the archives.

Since 1976, our students have gone on to become leaders in public health across more than 120 countries. Our alums bring their expertise to just about every setting – government, hospitals, labs, academia, and so much more.

Whether you graduated in the 1970’s or 2020’s, we want to hear from you! Tell us about your favorite SPH memories here ➡️ http://spr.ly/6187B15wEt

08/18/2026

Each year, millions of Americans spend a significant amount of time applying to Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and other public assistance programs to meet their basic food and healthcare needs.

The arduous process of completing forms, interviews, verifications, and potential appeals—which often must be repeated for each program a person applies to—places a substantial administrative burden on applicants and their families, as well as the state government agencies tasked with processing these applications.

This burden could be alleviated by developing a streamlined application process that considers the real experiences and barriers that public assistance applicants frequently encounter, according to a new commentary by researchers at SPH and Children’s HealthWatch.

Learn more ➡️

Designing a multiprogram enrollment application that enables people to apply to several public benefit programs at once can substantially reduce the time, costs, and stress associated with this process—as well as promote equity and improve health outcomes, according to a new commentary in the Amer...

08/17/2026

As part of our 50th anniversary, we’ve been hosting a special series of Public Health Conversations with local, national, and global public health leaders.

Earlier this year, Dean Adnan Hyder hosted national public health leaders in Washington D.C. to reflect on the state of public health in the United States and their visions for the next 50 years.

Watch the full conversation here, featuring Linda Alexander of the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health, Georges Benjamin of the American Public Health Association, and Brian Castrucci of the de Beaumont Foundation. ➡️ http://spr.ly/6180B1w3pa

08/14/2026

It was an exciting summer for Boston as fans from all over the globe flocked to the city to celebrate the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Back in May, we shared that 5 SPH students, Melissa Mezieche, MacClement Guthrie, Julianna Reyes, Alma Nieto, and Deirdre Otoo, had the unique opportunity to be part of the World Cup and conduct their summer practica with the Center on Emerging Infectious Diseases (CEID) to monitor disease outbreak throughout the tournament.

By July 31, when the students’ practicums concluded, the team had monitored and reported on cyclosporiasis outbreaks across the United States with a suspected link to lettuce, an influenza outbreak at Lackland Air Force Base following the end of vaccine mandates for service members, a cluster of Legionnaires’ disease cases in New York City and positive cultures of Legionella bacteria in the cooling towers of area buildings, new measles cases in all three host countries, and the health challenges posed by poor air quality and extreme heat.

The daily rhythm of surveillance required each student to work both quickly and meticulously, through layers of data, to detect signals of diseases.

In a new article, the students reflect on their eight weeks of real-time surveillance work and share how their perspective has evolved on both epidemiology and what it means to be a public health professional.

Read more ➡️

Melissa Mezieche, MacClement Guthrie, Julianna Reyes, Alma Nieto, and Deirdre Otoo reflect on their summer practica at BU's Center on Emerging Infectious Diseases where they helped monitor disease outbreaks throughout the tournament.

08/13/2026

As we continue to celebrate 50 years of SPH, we’re excited to highlight the work of our students, who come to the School from Egypt, Boston, and everywhere in between.

Mai Hussein (SPH’26) practiced dentistry for over a decade in Alexandria, Egypt, before she pivoted to clinical research during the COVID-19 pandemic. She already held a degree from Harvard Medical School, but Hussein was eager to deepen her understanding of population health and enhance her data analytics skills. In September 2024, she took the plunge and returned to Boston to pursue her MPH.

“Hussein stands out in so many ways for her delightful, all-in, always participating, always present-everywhere spirit. She is an exemplary example of a student taking advantage of all the School of Public Health has to offer,” says Joe Anzalone, assistant director of advising in the Career & Practicum Office.

“I have seen her engage fully in both academics and in the SPH student community. She truly embodies SPH’s mission to Think. Teach. Do. For the Health of All.”

Read the full story here ➡️ http://spr.ly/6188B134T6

08/13/2026

Congratulations to SPH's Maria Glymour and Andrew Stokes, and CAS' Deborah Carr on receiving a $2.8M NIH grant to lead BU-SHARP, the Boston University-Quantitative Population Science and Healthy Cognitive Aging Research Program!

BU-SHARP will foster national research collaboration on preventing and ameliorating the consequences of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) in disproportionately affected populations.

Research on the most effective strategies for prevention of ADRD are often impeded by methodological challenges, insufficient data, and research teams that lack the interdisciplinary expertise to study specific groups and contexts.

This fall, Glymour, Stokes, and Carr will lead the university in addressing and filling these knowledge gaps.

Learn more ➡️

Maria Glymour, Andrew Stokes, and Deborah Carr will lead the Boston University-Quantitative Population Science and Healthy Cognitive Aging Research Program (BU-SHARP) to foster national research collaboration on preventing and ameliorating the consequences of Alzheimer’s disease and related dement...