Building a world-class academic destination for advancing health and well-being
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF HEALTH
Georgetown’s drive to do its very best work in service to the common good has shaped centuries of growth and progress.
Today, it animates the university’s $3 billion campaign ambition, calling us to invest in areas of great strength for Georgetown— and even greater opportunity.
Through Called to Be: The Campaign for Georgetown , we are answering the call with resources and action, empowering new generations of professionals to transform health outcomes.
When we launched the School of Health in 2022, we entered a new era for Georgetown’s work to advance the health and well-being of people around the world. We have been gaining momentum ever since, grounded by a shared sense of responsibility, and a recognition of the importance of well-being.
A sense of purpose, sustained meaningful relationships, and resiliency are often overlooked in our prescriptions for good physical health. And a confluence of contemporary issues has presented unprecedented challenges. Climate change, identity politics, global wars, income inequality, and the pervasive spread of mis/disinformation require unconventional approaches in how we think about our work.
The interplay of these conditions requires a new cadre of health professionals to tackle these issues—all for the sake of advancing health and well-being. Our mission calls us to critique the status quo and advance the body of knowledge through interdisciplinary research methods. Our mission calls us to normalize humility as we work in partnership with communities to inform policy and shape practice so all people are respected for their differences, and have access to opportunity. Collectively, these commitments are distinguishing characteristics of the School of Health.
I am ever so excited about our story. Indeed, the task is bigger than us, but I am confident that—together—we will leave the world better-off than we found it.
This is the work we are called to do.
—Christopher J. King, Ph.D., MHSc, FACHE; Inaugural Dean and Associate Professor, Georgetown University School of Health
King brings decades of experience in health policy, administration, and equity to the School of Health. Previously, he served as chair of Georgetown’s Department of Health Systems Administration, providing visionary leadership and oversight of undergraduate degrees in Health Care Management & Policy and a nationally accredited master’s degree in Health Systems Administration. Before joining Georgetown, King served as the first Assistant Vice President of Community Health for MedStar Health, Georgetown’s clinical partner and the mid-Atlantic region’s largest not-for-profit health care system, where he was a passionate advocate for addressing social determinants of health in the delivery of care to patients from a diverse array of backgrounds.
Creating an unmatched destination for leaders in health
Established in July 2022, the School of Health builds on Georgetown’s centuries-long track record of educating leaders across medicine, the sciences, and policy.
Our leadership in these fields is distinct and expansive. We are guided by the university’s Jesuit identity, with an enduring dedication to service; social justice; and cura personalis, or care of the whole person. We are rooted in the nation’s capital, allowing students to engage directly with policy-informing research and to build crucial skills. And we are driven to deliver knowledge for the common good—always evolving to anticipate the needs of our students and larger society, while staying true to our foundational commitments.
Embracing problem-based interdisciplinarity
Promoting health equity and racial justice
Maintaining agility and responsiveness to emerging health challenges Leading and influencing in the field of health
Producing change in the health care ecosystem
A pathway to unleash our potential
This is a defining moment for our commitment to advance the health and well-being of people locally, nationally, and globally. We are called to educate a new generation of leaders who understand the historical and systemic factors at work—and have the skills to confront both entrenched and emerging health problems.
Innovative research, interdisciplinary education, and transformative community engagement are all essential to this ambition. Donor support makes them possible.
Investments in student scholarships, experiential learning, and our faculty will fuel our growth and help solidify our role as a world-class destination for talented leaders ready to forge a healthier future.
We will strengthen the talent pipeline for health careers.
Numerous factors underpin health and well-being. That’s why we champion meaningful reforms across every sector of society—and it’s why we seek to develop a workforce that understands the challenges faced by all of the populations our graduates will serve.
Scholarships are the most powerful tool we have as we strive to broaden access across our programs, ensuring that the School of Health community includes the full array of perspectives needed to confront deep-seated health problems.
What do we mean by ‘social determinants of health’?
The phrase was first popularized in the 1990s by epidemiologists, referring to factors beyond traditional health that can have an equal, if not greater, effect on well-being than genetics or biology. Think: food insecurity, substandard housing, and poverty— situations that exacerbate health disparities worldwide.
Consider a patient who receives a prescription that must be taken during a meal— but who can’t afford food. Or a child who is treated for asthma in the hospital—but returns home to the unsafe housing conditions that caused his respiratory symptoms in the first place.
We need a more holistic approach, one that meets patients where they are and acknowledges their unique circumstances. By making a Georgetown education more accessible, we will help cultivate a workforce attuned to the many drivers of health disparities.
However, the significant expense associated with pursuing health careers has made it challenging to foster a diverse workforce. Cost concerns not only deter potential applicants but also limit students’ career choices. Too often, looming student debt prevents graduates from choosing roles based on their passions, blocking the flow of talent to positions that address the health of populations in greatest need.
Giving to scholarships is one of the most direct ways to strengthen the School of Health’s capacity to offer students a world-class experience. With donor support, we will increase the affordability of our undergraduate and graduate programs, support students pursuing community-based work, and enable more Hoyas to pursue a master’s degree in health sciences immediately upon completion of their Georgetown undergraduate degree.
CURA PERSONALIS , CLOSE TO HOME
Welcoming talented students into our programs is just the start. We commit to helping School of Health students thrive in every facet of their lives, including their academic pursuits, mental and physical health, spiritual growth, and sense of belonging.
Recognizing that feelings of exclusion, alienation, and inequity can directly undermine a person’s well-being, we are taking steps to build community among School of Health students, faculty, and staff. We must ensure an inclusive learning experience for all, through our programming, pedagogy, and practices.
With your support, we will provide more generous scholarships, strengthening our academic community and the pipeline of future health professionals.
A CORE PILLAR OF OUR ACADEMIC APPROACH
Throughout their careers, our graduates will face numerous challenges to delivering care, support, and services to individuals in need. Some will encounter distrust of health care professionals rooted in past discrimination. Others will grapple with the cost concerns of uninsured or underinsured patients. Health professionals who have developed a greater cultural understanding will be uniquely ready to navigate these scenarios.
We are committed to educating these kinds of leaders, ensuring that School of Health graduates can create solutions in partnership with their communities, across all sorts of sectors—clinical care, public policy, scientific research, health systems administration, community engagement, and more.
CO-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES THAT DEVELOP VALUABLE SKILLS
Extending traditional classroom learning with programming focused on cultural understanding and humility is a key part of this preparation. Through research opportunities, workshops, seminars, and other educational offerings, School of Health students acquire vital knowledge and competencies.
Philanthropy will play an important role in enhancing the co-curricular activities available to School of Health students. Support for a program coordinator, for instance, would help establish a role dedicated to expanding and overseeing experiential and longitudinal learning opportunities. Having a coordinator skilled in educational strategy, partnershipbuilding, and curricular development would enhance our capacity to facilitate meaningful internships, hands-on learning, and professional development activities.
A unique opportunity for students to present their research
Each year, dozens of Georgetown students from health- and science-related majors seize the opportunity to present their research to peers and faculty at the university’s Undergraduate Research Conference (URC). Established in 2003 by the Department of Human Science, the URC is made possible by the generous support of the Wietlisbach family.
Student-led research projects provide meaningful opportunities for undergraduates to connect their personal and academic interests with their scholarly work. The URC enriches this process, teaching students critical presentation skills, from creating a coherent scientific story to writing a concise abstract and creating a thoughtful poster.
The conference has grown into a centerpiece of the student research experience and plays an instrumental role in fostering greater collaboration between the School of Health and other Georgetown programs.
In addition, funds for pilot research projects ensure that the School of Health can tackle ongoing health challenges and nimbly research emerging public health threats such as natural disasters, pandemics, and geopolitical conflicts.
IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCES IN COMMUNITIES NEAR AND FAR
Community-based experiences play an essential role in broadening students’ understanding
of health-related issues. Many undergraduate and graduate students in the School of Health participate in this kind of hands-on learning, ranging from longitudinal research in our backyard of Washington, DC, to immersive educational opportunities halfway around the globe.
Often grounded in communities with the greatest need, these formative activities play a critical role in expanding students’ understanding of population health, as well as their ability to build partnerships with local organizations and their awareness of global health needs.
As the School of Health grows, one of our top priorities is enabling students to conduct research and fieldwork early in their academic careers, igniting a passion for community service and establishing a foundation that students can build on during their time at Georgetown. Philanthropy will increase support for students who pursue these opportunities, as well as the faculty who bring these programs to life.
A truly global undergraduate education
The School of Health’s four-year Bachelor of Science in Global Health program blends public health and health systems management with an emphasis on how the environment, culture, economics, and politics affect the health status and well-being of whole populations.
Students majoring in Global Health study abroad for one semester during their final year, during which they complete a research-focused internship focused on the health of underserved communities. Internship sites have included Australia, Bangladesh, Japan, Peru, Mexico, Ghana, and Tanzania. Across the past two decades, more than 300 students have taken part in this dynamic program.
Practicing a community-led approach with Alaska Natives
“It’s one thing to talk about global health theoretically in the classroom, but it’s completely different to practice it in the community and actually do the work,” says Seareen Maaita (H’24), a global health major who interned for 15 weeks with the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium along with fellow student Alaina Anderson (H’24).
Both Maaita and Anderson chose to study at Georgetown in part because of its experiential learning opportunities. During their semester working with the Consortium—a nonprofit led by Alaska Natives, and the only locally run alternative to the federal Indian Health Service (IHS)—the students saw firsthand the difference when research efforts reflect community needs, rather than outside interests. They collaborated closely with the consortium as it worked to fulfill its mission of providing comprehensive medical services, along with disease research and prevention, and rural water and sanitation system construction.
“This really is the community taking charge of their health care,” said Anderson. “Being here has shown me how much the community is needed when addressing health, and there’s another element of social justice in taking control over their health instead of relying solely on IHS.”
Student Isra Satiar (H’26) meets Dr. Anthony Fauci, former Director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases and current Distinguished University Professor at Georgetown.
Creating impact at the intersection of health, policy, and law
Recognizing that law and policy can be especially powerful health interventions, Georgetown’s School of Health and O’Neill Institute for National & Global Health Law in 2023 built on an existing initiative to form the Center for Global Health Policy & Politics.
The cross-campus center brings together lawyers, social scientists, epidemiologists, and policy experts with decades of experience in global health. Through research and strategic convening, they address the political determinants of health and support the creation of legal and policy environments that help stop pandemics, expand equity in access to medical technologies, tackle health inequalities, and save lives.
Philanthropic support for School of Health faculty will increase our ability to pursue similarly impactful collaborations that address concerning global health challenges.
INTERDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATIONS WITH IMMENSE POTENTIAL
Unfortunately, the field of health as a whole has historically been slow to embrace interdisciplinary collaboration. There is an opportunity—and a real need—for Georgetown to help fill the leadership void, as a school that explicitly prioritizes greater connectedness and partnership where it has not existed in the past.
Recent global events remind us just how important this is: vast health crises demand equally expansive solutions from the academic, policy, and medical communities.
EMPOWERING TEAMS TO PURSUE ‘BIG IDEAS’
The School of Health’s “Big Ideas” initiative was born out of this ambition for high-impact interdisciplinary work. Launched in 2023, the project invited faculty to propose unconventional, interdisciplinary approaches that could advance knowledge and solutions to seemingly intractable health problems.
The school greenlit two initial proposals, both noteworthy for their potential to influence the formation of the School of Health and make a distinct contribution to the university.
Global Mental Health & Well-Being Initiative
One of the selected projects involves a coalition of more than 40 faculty, staff, and students pursuing research, pedagogy, and advocacy related to psychiatric, mental health, and psychosocial issues at home and abroad. The Global Mental Health & Well-Being Initiative convenes stakeholders from the School of Health, School of Foreign Service, College of Arts & Sciences, School of Medicine, Center for Global Health Science and Security, and Law Center.
Among its research projects, the initiative is exploring the relationship between climate-related stressors and emotional dysregulation, sleep disruption, and adverse mental health outcomes in Bangladesh. Another effort focuses on achieving equity in the diagnosis of Black men’s distress and depression.
Initiative for Health Economics, Financing, and Outcomes
The second selected project is a faculty-initiated research hub focused on issues encountered by health care systems domestically and globally. Through thought leadership and inquiry, the Initiative for Health Economics, Financing, and Outcomes hopes to support evidencebased decision-making processes for health sector stakeholders such as governments and international agencies.
Early projects through the initiative have explored issues related to vaccine manufacturing in low-income countries, adverse health outcomes experienced by refugees, and the economic impact of COVID-19 on health care workers.
Through these projects, and others like them, the School of Health will forge transformative solutions to emerging health threats—and educate new generations of leaders ready to mount a collaborative response. Philanthropic partners will make it possible to dream even more expansively about the School of Health’s work to change the health landscape.
With your support, we will expand our faculty and incubate novel solutions to complex health problems.
