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How witnessing hardship guides purpose, and how students and faculty turn resolve into action: Why people choose public health often highlights community, equity, and the drive to improve systems that fail people—encouraging prospective students to remember their “why” and keep building change.
Sara Adar jokes that her kids have grown tired of her antics—as she puts it, they are “very much over me.” Although her 14-year-old twins still call her “Science Mom,” they no longer participate when she stops the car at a moment’s notice to go play in traffic, testing some level of environmental disturbance. Fortunately for the rest of us, Adar is still “playing in traffic.”
Dr. Larry Brilliant, MPH ’77, arrived at the University of Michigan School of Public Health in the 1970s with perhaps the most impressive résumé for a prospective student. He and his wife, Girija, had just returned from India after helping eradicate smallpox. Of course, the physician and medical epidemiologist has gone on to have a world-class career in public health and in the technology industry.
Reflecting on his 60-year career in public health, Michigan Public Health’s Dr. Arnold Monto said his success has hinged on his ability to address the laboratory, population and policy concerns that impact public health measures to halt the spread and reduce the severity of influenza epidemics and pandemics. By doing so, he has helped to save countless lives, prevent untold suffering and provide future generations with the tools to stem the threat of severe respiratory illnesses.