Welcome to the Yale School of Public Health!

You are joining our school at a time when the world—and the field of public health—is at the very cusp of change. The demand for a next generation of diverse, methodologically rigorous, innovative public health leaders has never been more evident. There is no better place to understand and prepare to meet these challenges than here—and no time more important than now. 

You are also starting the year at an important moment in YSPH’s history. As you know, we assume full independence (for the first time in our 109-year history) on July 1, 2024. This is tremendous, and you are part of history by being here, now.

To help us engage with the incredible opportunity in front of us, I've identified four pillars that will guide our work:

Inclusivity: within our school, across campus, and through the inclusion of community voices and experience.

Innovation and Entrepreneurship: joining our impetus to create change, with an awareness of what is needed to make that change sustainable. 

Communication: the scholarship and practice of translating ideas into actions that resonate in families and communities across the globe. 

Data-Driven Leadership: the ultimate measure of our success, using data to create impact.

Through the four pillars, we are transforming the way the world thinks about, and acts upon, health problems and creating a new paradigm for what the study and practice of public health looks like in the world. And this year, we'll be releasing a new strategic plan to outline exactly how we will get there. We look forward to your input into the work ahead. 

Over the course of your time at Yale, along with our superb faculty, staff, and fellow students, you will become adept at measuring and defining health problems; gain experience in designing and implementing equitable, effective policies and practices; and importantly, develop comfort in communicating the value of this work. You will have the opportunity to explore course topics ranging from health justice to health policy, to digital health, to modeling, to social entrepreneurship, and beyond. And you will get to apply this learning to real world problems for the communities that matter most to you. Whether you care about child and maternal health, mental health, the effect of structural racism on health, the cost of health care, global humanitarian emergencies, or any of a host of other topics, you will have the chance to translate science into action in and out of the classroom.

The Yale campus is highly integrated, permitting students to access the talent of Yale faculty in thirteen other graduate and professional schools. Our YSPH students regularly take classes at, and work with students and faculty at other Yale schools (such as management, law, divinity, architecture, and more). At YSPH, we believe that any public health issue can be remedied when great minds collaborate across disciplines.

We have a network of 6949 YSPH alumni in fifty states and seventy-eight countries. Many academic, industry, and public health leaders have gone to YSPH. Our academic programs, internships opportunities, and placement statistics of our graduates are among the best in the country. You will have the chance to interact with these alumni and many other public health luminaries in our network during your time at YSPH and beyond.

As a YSPH student, you will acquire the tools you will need to describe, and then, more importantly, to create and implement systems solutions to the world's pressing health problems. Your peers and instructors will match your enthusiasm and your commitment to methodological rigor, allowing you to step into the next stage of your career ready to create change.

Enjoy the bulletin! I look forward to hearing what you are taking, what you are learning, and, most of all, how you are using scientific knowledge to create a healthier world.

Dr. Megan L. Ranney, M.D., M.P.H.
Dean, Yale School of Public Health