Inaugural associate director named for BC Global Public Health program
Boston College School of Social Work Professor Summer Sherburne Hawkins, a social epidemiologist whose research interests include health disparities among women and children, has been appointed as the inaugural associate director of BC’s Global Public Health and the Common Good interdisciplinary undergraduate program.
Hawkins will assume the post in January.
“I am excited to join Global Public Health and the Common Good in a leadership role,” said Hawkins, whose association with the program goes back to its predecessor, a three-course sequence in public health introduced in 2014 by faculty in BCSSW, the Connell School of Nursing, and the Lynch School of Education and Human Development. “One of the hallmarks of the program is its cross-disciplinary focus, offering faculty and students the opportunity to explore some of our most critical issues today from many perspectives. Social policy is health policy, and public health is the bridge that bring these areas together.”
“Summer is the ideal person for the associate director’s job. Her experience co-founding the original trio of courses in public health, along with her involvement in Global Public Health, is enormously valuable, and she brings a very useful disciplinary balance as an epidemiologist from the social work field. She’s experienced, she knows BC, and she knows how to run a program—all important factors as Global Public Health and the Common Good enters an exciting new phase.””
The first academic initiative of the Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society, Global Public Health and the Public Good—a partnership between BCSSW, CSON, and the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences—was launched in 2019 as a six-course, 18-credit undergraduate minor, and this fall became a 12-course, 36-credit major. The program, under the direction of Professor of Biology Philip J. Landrigan, M.D. ’63, focuses on education, service, and research to support the next generation of public health leaders. It is rooted in the Boston College liberal arts curriculum, grounded in science, and committed to social justice.
“Summer is the ideal person for the associate director’s job,” said Landrigan. “Her experience co-founding the original trio of courses in public health, along with her involvement in Global Public Health, is enormously valuable, and she brings a very useful disciplinary balance as an epidemiologist from the social work field. She’s experienced, she knows BC, and she knows how to run a program—all important factors as Global Public Health and the Common Good enters an exciting new phase.”
Global Public Health was the eighth most popular undergraduate minor in the 2022-2023 academic year, with 106 students. There are currently 25 Global Public Health majors, and the number is expected to rise to 50 by the next academic year.
The creation of an associate director position reflects the program’s considerable growth, said Hawkins, and the need for teaching and curriculum development; Global Public Health also will hire its first tenure-track faculty member in the coming year.
“We want to make sure the courses in Global Public Health are cutting edge and complementary,” she said. “It’s enlivening to expose undergraduates to the concept of public health, and to talk with faculty members who have ideas about teaching GPH-related classes. So it’s important that we have a process in place to make sure that the program meets the high expectations we’ve set for it.”
Hawkins said students are drawn to GPH in large part because it combines scientific and humanistic principles in a social justice context, offering the opportunity to make an impact on other lives.
“We have a responsibility to think about health not just on an individual level but in terms of community, and about health disparities not only in the United States but globally. Students really seem to understand that, and are motivated to use the skills and perspectives they develop to change the world.”
Several areas of focus lie ahead for GPH, said Hawkins, such as considering whether to seek accreditation through the Council of Education for Public Health, and working with Tufts University on establishing a “four-plus-one” program through which BC students who graduate with a degree in Global Public Health can take a fifth year in the Tufts Master’s of Public Health degree program. GPH also is developing its senior capstone project in which students would conduct research or public health practice in the community, such as through volunteering or working with a non-profit.
“We have a responsibility to think about health not just on an individual level but in terms of community, and about health disparities not only in the United States but globally. Students really seem to understand that, and are motivated to use the skills and perspectives they develop to change the world.”
University administrators expressed praise for Hawkins, who joined BCSSW in 2012, and is assistant director of BC’s Institute of Early Childhood Policy; she has published in prominent peer-reviewed public health journals on such topics as tobacco and cannabis use, maternal morbidity and mortality, infant feeding practices, and preventive health services.
“Summer Hawkins has helped shape the Global Public Health and Common Good program from the very beginning,” said CSON Dean Katherine Gregory. “We are eager for her to share in the leadership of this program and help it thrive into the future. Professors like Summer have a natural ability to work across disciplinary lines, which not only leads to cutting-edge research that makes an impact on public health, but also leads to novel academic programs like Global Public Health and Common Good. Her enthusiasm, dedication to our students, and colleagueship as a faculty member will help ensure that the program is a vibrant and successful one for years to come.”
BCSSW Dean Gautam Yadama noted that the establishment of Global Public Health and the Common Good is in step with the findings and recommendations of the World Health Organization Commission on Social Determinants of Health. The commission’s chair, Sir Michael Marmot, “famously underscored the need for public health to focus on the cause of causes, meaning social determinants of health outcomes,” said Yadama.
“This cross-school initiative signals that ‘social’ is not incidental to understanding and intervening to improve the health and well-being of the many billions around the globe and in our communities here in the U.S. Summer Hawkins will bring such sensibility to the program along with BCSSW faculty like Theresa Betancourt, Kirsten Davison, Praveen Kumar, Whitney Irie, Maria Piñeros Leaño, Erika Sabbath, Cathy Taylor, and William Byansi.”
Added Schiller Institute Seidner Family Executive Director Laura Steinberg, “I’m very excited for Summer to be stepping into this role. She was integral to starting the global public health curriculum at Boston College, and has been a key member of the program’s faculty as it has grown from a three-course sequence to a minor and finally a major. I can’t think of a better person to be the inaugural associate program director, and I look forward to working with her.”
For information on the program, visit the Global Public Health and the Common Good website.