Welcome OOMPH Students!

We’d like to extend a warm welcome to our Fall 2021 cohort of newly admitted students.  They’ve been hard at work attending orientation sessions, mapping out their curriculum plans, and enrolling in their first courses.  Since this is their first Student Newsletter, we’d like to take a moment to explain the various ways the program stays in touch with our students.

We know the feeling of trying to locate multiple emails at once, so we’ve centralized our program’s communication to help you find important information in a pinch! In the newsletter, you can expect to find important dates, course enrollment info, practicum updates, useful tips, events, job opportunities and much more.

While the newsletter will be sent to your @berkeley email, archived newsletters are available in the Student Hub (scroll down to the “Newsletter Archive” tile on the main page).

Students will also receive "Announcements" from the Student Hub for more time sensitive items.  These announcements are emailed to your @berkeley email, show up in your CalCentral dashboard, and are archived on the Announcements page of the Student Hub.

Lastly, you can also expect to receive general email communications from Berkeley Public Health and the University.

Once again, welcome incoming students and welcome back continuing students - we’re glad to have you join us for an exciting year!

Important Announcements

Important Dates and Deadlines: 

• August 23, 2021 Online courses instruction begins. Course sites open at 9:00 am Pacific Time.
• August 26, 2021 Refund policy for fall 2021 begins.
• September 3, 2021 Deadline for all students to drop classes without a fee. $10 fee charged for each class dropped after this date.
• September 6, 2021 Academic & Administrative Holiday 
• September 9, 2021 D-Lab Training & Lab Services Workshop
• September 10, 2021 Deadline to become “officially registered” (tuition and fees paid, no blocks). $150 Late Registration Fee after this date.

Did you know?

We have the required books and materials website. It is a great website that includes all the readings and course materials for the upcoming academic year. Trying to plan ahead? Check out this resource today! 

Spotlight: New Courses for Spring 2022

PHW222A: Tech Policy by Jamie Robinson (3 units, Spring 1)

James Robinson, PhD, MPH will begin offering his Health Care Technology Policy course in the OOMPH 8 week online format. This course examines the policy framework for biomedical technology, including medical devices, drugs, diagnostics, digital therapeutics, and algorithms. Emphasis will be placed on the funding of research and development, the protection of intellectual property, FDA market authorization, insurance coverage, and algorithm design. While, the focus will be on the US, the course will examine industrial policy and innovation nationalism within a global context.

PH290: Implementation Science by Stef Bertozzi (2 units, Spring)

Stefano Bertozzi, MD, PhD is developing a 2 unit, 15 week online Implementation Science course. Implementation science leverages a heterogenous set of methodological tools to study the implementation of programs and policies, including both qualitative and quantitative methodologies; process evaluations; impact evaluation; and cost-benefit, cost-effectiveness, and efficiency analyses. The proposed curriculum will reflect diverse faculty instructors and methodologies which span a wide range of disciplines from economics, epidemiology, behavioral science, to cutting edge statistical techniques. More details will be shared in our next newsletter.

PHW206A: Nutrition Assessment by Sarah Zyba (3 units, Spring 1)

Sarah Zyba, PhD will offer the first new online public health nutrition course: PHW206A: Nutrition Assessment for Spring 1 of 2022 will cover current tools to assess nutrition and dietary behaviors; field application of measures; and their use in evaluating nutrition programs

OOMPH Events

D-Lab Training & Lab Services Presents to OOMPH

The Social Sciences Data Lab, or D-Lab, will provide an overview of their FREE training and consulting services to OOMPH students on Thursday, September 9 at 5 PM via zoom. D-Lab assists the Berkeley community with the full range of research development, research design and data acquisition. They offer guidance in statistical methods and results to data visualization and communication. Our very own OOMPH student Avery Richards will be a presenter. 

Add this event to your bCal here.  Hope to see you there!

SPH Events

Get Involved! If you are interested in attending SPH virtual events, please visit the community events calendar.

Student Spotlight

We are excited to welcome 16 UC Berkeley Global Public Health Fellows & Morris Global Public Health Fellows to OOMPH. We have been continuously and deeply inspired by the work and leadership of our fellows and the impact that they’ll continue to have throughout their time in our program. 

Haiti:

• Joseph, Lesly

India:

• Kantipudi (Kantipudi), Suvarna Jyothi
• Singh, Jaspreet

Kenya:

• Mboya (Mboya), John Otieno
• Odhiambo, Belinda Charles

Lesotho:

• Mokete (Mokete), Moliehi Gladys

Malawi: 

• Mwafulirwa (Jane Jere), Jane Nthanda

Pakistan:

• Fatima, Mahnoor

Uganda:

• Awor, Susan
• Kesande, Maureen
• Mufumba, Ivan (Mufumba)
• Owaraganise, Asiphas-
• Walekhwa (Walekhwa), Abel Wilson Sr. (Abel)

Zimbabwe

• Dhodho (Dhodho), Efison

Academic Support & Services

The Diversity, Respect, Equity, Action, Multiculturalism (DREAM) Office provides a variety of tutoring from current grad students (both by appointment, drop-in and group sessions) for writing support for papers, capstones and projects.

For writing support, please sign up at sphwritingtutor.setmore.com

Career & Practicum

Practicum Opportunities

• Transportation Equity Student Researcher @ Other and Belonging Institute
• Graduate Student Researchers @ Other and Belonging Institute 
• Berkeley Unified School District Gardening & Cooking Program
• Fall 2021 Foodwise Teens & Adults Internship @ Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture
• Fall 2021 Foodwise Kids Internship @ Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture

Wellness

• The Science of Burnout: How to Manage Stress and Maintain Mental Wellbeing by  Dr. Sahar Yousef recording from August 5, 2021 event. Sponsored by Advancing Practice.
• Navigating Mental Health at Work Reading List from the Harvard Business Review
• Breath Slowly: The eXHALeR web app is meant to help with your breathing exercises, and has been said to reduce stress and anxiety, by promoting slow and even breathing. Try it today! 

If you have any wellness tips that you would like to share, please send them to oomph_prog_mgr@berkeley.edu. We may post it in our next newsletter!