Public health students make social impacts

The University at Buffalo Social Impact Fellows program (SIF) brings together select graduate students from the College of Arts and Sciences, School of Management, School of Social Work, and now, SPHHP. Fellows complete a summer experience with a community partner, tasked with developing a social innovation program to address a problem the agency identifies.

The SPHHP student fellows worked in three- or four-person multidisciplinary teams with a designated community organization on their social innovation, and each fellow received $5,500. SPHHP’s fellows were Marissa Camacho (MPH-Epidemiology concentration); Diana Sieracki, Tahreem Kamal and Alice Connelly (MPH-Individualized concentration); and Tara-Ann Perreault (MPH-CHHB concentration).

Eleven local nonprofit partner organizations took part in the program based on a social innovation need proposal they submitted earlier in the year. Partners that SPHHP helped bring to this program or that SPHHP has worked with in the past included the Rural Outreach Center, International Institute of Buffalo, and Erie Niagara Health Education Center (AHEC). 

SPHHP was “excited to be invited to join the Social Impact Fellows program,” said Assistant Dean Kim Krytus, PhD, MPH/MSW, CPH, director of Graduate Public Health Programs. “Students from the other schools have welcomed and worked so collaboratively our MPH students, with students and partners noting that public health is a natural field to include.”

Before the projects ended and teams shared their work during an “impact showcase,” several SPHHP fellows took time to share their thoughts on the program

Diana Sieracki is the only student from the Online MPH program involved in SIF. Her SIF team, which included a College of Arts and Science PhD student in human geography and a School of Social Work student, was placed at the Partnership for the Public Good. A community think tank, it works with 300 partners to create a community agenda each year. Sieracki’s team tested an idea for a community first-responders team, a long-time desire of the organization’s partners, tailoring it for a specific Buffalo neighborhood.

“Community responders address social needs through a public health approach,” Sieracki explains. “Non-violent, low-risk issues can be referred to community responders” who can give more appropriate treatment or referrals than traditional first responders might.

“We’re taking a person-centered holistic approach to a social issue while coordinating a small-scale pilot. We’ll prioritize people from the neighborhood to be on team—people who are trusted leaders and part of community.” Sieracki’s team, which included combined social work/public health student Nana Afia Owusu-Ansah, won an award for Best Implementation Model during the social impact showcase.

Tara-Ann Perreault was paired with Erie Niagara Area Health Education Center, which helps get teens into the health workforce. Perreault worked with an MBA student, social work student and a College of Arts and Sciences health communication PhD student on two projects: First, they looked at ways to expand an Erie County-based birth equity project addressing black maternal health into Niagara County; and second, worked on a grant proposal to study how gun and domestic violence affects pregnant women.

“We’re making connections to figure out the current research on the statistics, what’s offered currently, places to table, etc. We’re trying to take a public health approach that is very real-world, practical and applicable,” she says. “I’m getting a good perspective on the amount the work it takes to start an initiative--how expensive and time consuming it is.”

Though Perreault values her interprofessional UB-based training with other health science students, SIF “offers much more interprofessional dialog,” she says. “Students from the other non-health schools consider things we might not.” 

Marissa Camacho worked with the Rural Outreach Center along with a social work student and College of Arts and Science gender studies PhD student. Their effort was to help the center expand a health initiative from a main patient/client center into other geographies via partnerships with mobile health clinics.

“Geography is a social determinant of health,” says Camacho, “and many rural areas don’t have a lot of providers and sometimes have transportation issues, too.”

Camacho got involved in SIF after Assistant Professor Carole Rudra encouraged her to apply.

“I like the idea of interprofessional education because that’s really important,” Camacho explains. The social work team member looked at internal operations like budgeting and standard operating procedures to help staff to stay up to date on technology. Camacho worked creating a transportation map for all counties that track back to Buffalo where many health services are found.

Camacho also appreciates the opportunity to “navigate team dynamics. Interprofessional collaboration is spreading across all sectors, even apart from health care. Being able to understand different personalities and how they mesh is important. Our SIF foundational seminars taught us how to deal with differences of opinion if they come up.”

Camacho’s team won the program’s Social Innovation Award, and the Rural Outreach Center received the Best SIF Partner Award.

Allie Connelly’s team, made up of her, a social work student and College of Arts and Sciences sociology PhD student, collaborated with Jewish Family Services’ RICH (Refugee and Immigrant Center for Healing), a psychosocial support department. The team’s effort was to increase the level of interest in and improve the effectiveness of the department’s programs for refugee communities.

“We’re analyzing barriers to access, and looking at new locations, different times of year and possibly moving certain groups virtually. We’re also identifying new partner organizations, local nonprofits whose missions align with Refugee Reset and developing working relationships with them,” says Conelly. The demographics of refugee groups arriving in Western New York are often based on what’s happening in the world at a given time, so Connelly and her team are adapting the department’s curriculum to work with any population.

Connelly affirms that being a SIF participant has widened her perspective on what public health means. She had majored as an undergraduate in human biology and was surrounded by STEM students.

“As I’ve been working with this team, I realize how much the refugee resettlement project related to public health. I realized there are so many opportunities to take a public health approach. I love this program, and public health is a great addition to it.”

In addition to the five MPH Fellows who participated, two combined degree fellows also participated: Prasiddhi Patel, MBA/MPH student, and Nana Afia Owusu-Ansah, MSW/MPH student.