This month, we mark the one-year anniversary of our Population Health Initiative, an effort we launched with the goal of bringing our community together to improve health and well-being here and around the world. The impetus for that call remains as strong as ever, while our capacity to create change for the better is only growing.
One year in, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on what we鈥檝e accomplished so far and what lies ahead in this journey.
The initiative鈥檚 30-member , which first convened in July, has been making great progress, including codifying what we mean by 鈥減opulation health.鈥� They defined it as identifying and understanding the three major influences on health and well-being 鈥� human health, environmental resilience, and social and economic equity 鈥� and utilizing all three in a comprehensive effort to improve health聽 The council includes representation from a wide range of disciplines across all of our campuses, as well as undergraduate and graduate students. Together they also led the development of a for the initiative, providing a framework for our work.
The council also mapped the current landscape of population health work already underway across the 91探花(no small task) and developed a of faculty expertise and relevant centers, institutes and labs.
This was not a paper exercise.聽 For example, in the College of the Environment, we are working to increase communities鈥� resilience in the face of and a changing climate.聽 In the School of Social Work, social workers get training in promoting and geriatric care, skills we urgently need for an aging population.聽 91探花Bothell has put forward a for integrating population health concepts into their curriculum. 聽Working across disciplines to identify and mitigate challenges and large-scale impacts on health and well-being is a key part of our work as a university, work that will be expanded and magnified through this initiative.
This work is supported by extraordinary and visionary philanthropy, including a transformative $210 million gift from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for the construction of a . This week, the Board of Regentsnear the heart of campus 鈥� at the corner of 15th Avenue and Stevens Way. Not only does this location demonstrate the centrality of this initiative to our University, but it also will facilitate the building鈥檚 mission of being a convening space for the full range of disciplines across the 91探花that are contributing to improving population health.
As we enter Year Two, the initiative will focus on activities within three bodies of work: , , and . We will also form an independent external advisory board to provide guidance on the initiative鈥檚 work
I continue to hear from many of you that you are eager to be involved in this initiative 鈥� either through a project you may already be engaged in or as future collaborator. As we move forward, I encourage you to reach out to the executive council with your ideas and enthusiasm.聽 The excellence and creativity of our faculty, staff, and students is what has positioned us so well 鈥� indeed has given us the audacity 鈥� to lead this Population Health Initiative over the next 25 years.聽 I look forward to working with you as we take our next steps forward.