School of Public Health at University of Memphis

09/03/2026

Whats the best thing to bring to a public health picnic?

09/03/2026

The Dean’s Grand Rounds returns September 18 2026 at 10 am in E.C. Ball Hall 124 featuring Dean and Distinguished Professor of the Rutgers School of Public Health Dr. Perry N Halkitis.

During the event Dr. Halkitis will speak to Dr. Ashish Joshi, PhD,MBBS,MPH about humanizing the future of public health and lessons health professionals can learn from COVID-19, HIV, and other Pandemics. 

Perry N. Halkitis, PhD, MS, MPH, is an infectious disease epidemiologist, applied statistician, and public health psychologist with over 30 years of experience in infectious diseases, health disparities in marginalized sexual, gender, racial, ethnic, and cultural populations. 
 
Dr. Halkitis has authored more than 300 peer-reviewed publications and six books, including his latest book, Humanizing Public Health: How Disease-Centered Approaches Have Failed Us. 
 
RSVP using the link in bio!

09/02/2026

The University of Memphis School of Public Health welcomed students back to campus recently at our annual Fall . Current and new students were invited to connect with SPH faculty and staff to learn more about the resources available to set them up for success this semester.

53 new students and 14 current students attended the Orientation both in person and online.

We look forward to seeing what you all will accomplish this semester!

09/01/2026

The University of Memphis School of Public Health Fall 2026 Career and Resource Fair is coming up on September 17, from 1-3 PM at the FedEx Institute of Technology. Current students and alumni are encouraged to attend, build their networks, and connect with potential employers, community partners, and industry leaders.   

Our Coordinator of Experiential Learning and Career Readiness Zoë Henley breaks down the how to sign up and the benefits of attending the career and resource fair.

Looking forward to seeing everyone!

08/24/2026

08/18/2026

Amaree Austin focused her Changemakers project on increasing access to birth workers for African American women as well as helping build networks of both non-medical and medical birth workers of color and fostering a conversation on how provide more culturally appropriate care.

In Tennessee, Black women face a maternal mortality rate of 116 deaths per 100,000 live births, which is nearly three times the rate of white women in the state. State health data and reports rank Tennessee among the highest overall for maternal mortality in the nation.

Through the Changemakers grant Amareè was able to cover most of the cost to get her birth doula training. The grant also provided a framework to help her figure out how to apply that training into more comprehensive support networks for African American women.

A doula is a birth worker that provides continuous emotional, physical, and informational support during pregnancy, labor, and after birth. Research shows that they help lower the chance of cesarean sections, shorten labor times, reduce anxiety, and improve breastfeeding success by acting as a non-medical guide and advocate.

Great work Amareè!!

08/13/2026

For his project as part of this year’s Changemakers Initiative, Frans Judea Samosir created a larger conversation around the concept of . To actualize this vision, he built a podcast titled “Voice of Wellness” centered around a more complete and nuanced definition of wellness. He also hosted a community talk to empower people along their wellness journey.  
 
Guests on his podcast included fellow students, community stakeholders, and wellness advocates.  
 
Frans says that when people think of wellness, they typically think of the physical aspect while paying less attention to other types that may be just as important.  
 
The modern concept of multiple dimensions of wellness expands on a 1976 model by Dr. Bill Hettler, co-founder of the National Wellness Institute, which originally defined six core areas. In the years since, healthcare researchers have broadened the scope of wellness into nine distinct types: physical, emotional, social, intellectual, spiritual, cultural, occupational, environmental, and financial.  
 
Frans says creating a podcast has always been a dream of his, and the Changemakers micro-grant has helped bring this into reality. He believes that projects like Changemakers are so important because they allow students to build ideas that can benefit the world around them.  

wellness

08/08/2026

SPH graduate student, Ombeni Idassi, MHS, MPH harnessed the work he has already been doing around sickle cell disease as part of his project for this year’s inaugural Changemakers Initiative.
 
He built a coalition focused on mental health awareness within the sickle cell community, something that did not exist before he embarked on this project. Through community-based participatory research Ombeni wants to bring more awareness to the mental health challenges those who battle sickle cell disease may experience during their lifelong struggle against this debilitatingly painful disorder.
 
In creating this project, Ombeni hopes to look at how we can, collectively, address bringing resources, opportunities and evidence-based research to the community, but also understanding unique aspects and mental health challenges within the sickle cell population, and how this coalition can harness its collective power to help bring down negative health outcomes, painful side effects, organ damage and create conditions for which a better quality of life is possible.
 
Ombeni says there was no immediate center point which connected the healthcare, research, academia, government, and community all together to address mental health within the sickle cell community in a tangible way, and he hopes this project can be that center point. He does not think of this as his project, but instead the entire communities project, together.
 
Truly inspiring work, Ombeni!    
 

08/07/2026

We are so excited to welcome new students to SPH! Check your email to RSVP for New Student Orientation.

08/04/2026

Ferial Ahmadi brought her vast architectural experience, having spent 7 years as an assistant professor at the University of Mazandaran in Iran, to her Changemakers project this year.

Ferial hopes to create a bridge between public health, built environments, and architecture. To do this, she created MehrNest; a home-centered project that combines architecture and psychology to help families create supportive living environments for people with  and other mental disorders.

She believes that families who have children with ADHD are given limited advice on how they can optimize their home environments to address challenges those living with ADHD face; she thinks that this project can help fill in some of those gaps.

The mobile application she created gathers data from users with simple questions aimed at describing their home living space, especially the bedroom and study room of children or those with ADHD. After the app collects data, it can generate a sensory risk score. Based on this risk score, the app can offer suggestions on how to redecorate a family’s home to be more conducive to those dealing with ADHD or other mental health issues. 

Ferial hopes to patent this concept and launch it into all major app stores in the coming months; she says the support of faculty and staff during this project have helped make it possible and is grateful for the opportunity. 

Truly inspiring work Ferial!