Message from the Chair
Building Brighter Futures
I couldn’t help but smile. I was at the grill preparing burgers and hot dogs for my wife, daughters, parents, siblings, and their spouses and it was as if the world, for a moment, was back to normal. We had all not been together since Thanksgiving 2019, and the re-discovered smiles, laughter, and well-intentioned teasing just felt nice. This trip had been planned for months, set in motion as we knew that all the adults in our family would be fully vaccinated in mid-spring. Our extended family, similar to so many across the country and world, had missed out on seeing and enjoying each other during the first 15 months of the pandemic. That fact alone made this weekend feel different. Our time together was unique, exceptional even. I wanted to cherish every moment, keenly aware that the future was far from certain. We had to be more intentional, make our interactions more meaningful, and never take for granted how important we were to each other.
I had a very similar feeling in our Population Science and Policy offices in early July. All fully vaccinated, our multi-disciplinary team came together to celebrate our third anniversary as an academic Department. We had spent the last year working from home. Our team had adapted our research, community, and policy strategies to virtual forums, interacting with our communities and each other in new and important ways. I am so proud of the impact our faculty and staff made and continue to make during the pandemic: writing, researching, and engaging with our communities to address disparities and improve the health of our communities. Yet, it was clear on this day that the power of our work is more than our processes and products - it is the passion and talent of the members of our team who are dedicated to partnering with communities to improve health outcomes.
As we start our fourth year, our team is focusing our efforts to help Illinois communities build brighter futures. We spent our early years educating the region, state, and country on the importance of rural and small city health disparities and chartering a path towards greater health equity. The pandemic amplified the importance of our efforts, demonstrating the impact of employment, housing, education, race, culture, and communication to our health - too often, the consequences were tragic. As the pandemic sits in a new phase, it is time for us to aim bigger. We will move our research, community development, and policy recommendation efforts from education to action.
To achieve this goal, the Department of Population Science and Policy is building a new strategic plan. Our faculty and staff will be focused on growing our academic and community strengths, piloting and modeling new strategies to transform the way we deliver public health and health care services and education. We will also work to broaden our efforts to tackle the region’s most challenging issues, using our Illinois Rural Health Summit recommendations to design programs and policies that make a positive difference. These decisions will also lead to new and exciting ways that we communicate will all of you. Ultimately, we hope to take our Department’s success to a new level – we will be an academic organization that uses research, social innovation, and policy recommendations in new, intentional, and meaningful ways.
We will never take for granted how important it is to use our expertise to help those in need. We know we cannot do it without all of your innovative ideas, support, and partnership. I look forward to continuing to work with all of you, as we work together to provide innovative, sustainable solutions to improve the health of rural and underserved communities.
Sincerely,
Chair, Department of Population Science and Policy
