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Once a week for more than 50 years, SHAC’s medical and dental clinics have provided services to patients who couldn’t otherwise afford care. Student leaders have established newer initiatives such as Mental Health, Gender Affirming Care, Bridge to Care and SHAC XYZ (a free STI testing program) to address emerging community needs. Through SHAC’s outreach programs, volunteers go into the community to provide blood pressure and blood sugar monitoring, lifestyle modification counseling and other services, while social needs navigators work with patients from a more holistic approach, providing support to address food insecurity, safe housing, financial assistance, mental health, transportation or insurance.

“I think the fact that it’s run by students lets us be a little more nimble than larger institutions or organizations,” says MD-PhD student Caleb Easterly, who is in his second year as chief community relations officer (CCRO) at SHAC and is studying health policy and management at Gillings. As part of his work to maintain and strengthen SHAC’s relationships with patients and the surrounding community, he’s creating a patient feedback form and a patient advisory board. “Part of how I see my role as CCRO is to fight to make sure that the care we offer at SHAC is as good, if not better, than what people might get elsewhere, and this requires constantly reflecting on how we’re doing and how we can do better.”

SHAC partners:

• School of Medicine
• School of Nursing
• School of Pharmacy
• School of Dentistry
• School of Public Health
• School of Social Work
• School of Business
• Division of Physical Therapy (Department of Allied Health Sciences)
• Division of Occupational Therapy (Department of Allied Health Sciences)
• Division of Speech and Language Pathology (Department of Allied Health Sciences)

by Dorothy Cilenti, DrPH, Kristin Tully, PhD, Suzanne Woodward, Piia Hanson, MSPH, MBA, Alison Stuebe, MD

The preventable nature of maternal mortality and inequities by race in the U.S. call attention to the ways we have constructed health care and our society. Numerous media outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR and others covered this new report with calls to action.

When considering causes of racial and other inequities in maternal mortality, it is essential to consider the health care system and acknowledge racism and other forms of bias within policies and interpersonal interactions. Innovative practices in public health and clinical care, pay structures and measurement are a part of identifying what is working well in maternal health and establishing accountability.

UNC is a hub of action to address maternal mortality with an explicit focus on health equity.

In response to worsening maternal health outcomes, the Maternal Health Learning and Innovation Center (MHLIC), housed at UNC-Chapel Hill with funding from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau and the Health Resources and Services Administration, works with diverse stakeholders to promote evidence-informed approaches that center equity and value the perspectives of people with lived experience. In partnership with many organizations, the aim is to identify engagement and policy levers that accelerate the implementation of innovations. Many of these innovations are being launched or expanded in states and regions that are transforming their health systems to be more data driven, equitable and responsive to the needs of pregnant people and their families.

The COVID-19 pandemic and response unmasked persistent, multilevel problems, such as gaps in access to health care, lack of adequate care coordination, suboptimal health care working conditions, variation in nurse-to-patient ratios, and misalignment between women and their health care teams in terms of racial and language concordance. In addition, the evolving nature of COVID-19 science meant that messaging around key components of health decisions changed over time.

It is now known that pregnant people are a priority population to serve with COVID-19 vaccines, because they are at a higher risk of severe illness from the virus. Gillings Distinguished Scholar of Infant and Young Child Feeding Alison Stuebe, MD, was at the forefront of calling for new parents and their newborns to remain together during COVID-19 and establish exclusive and continued breast/chestfeeding, which is consistent with World Health Organization guidance.

"This virus unmasked the multiple ways that biomedical approaches fail to address the social contexts and structures that determine health and well-being."

— Alison Stuebe, MD

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“Early recommendations to separate birthing people from their infants illustrate the failure of reductionist approaches to the COVID crisis,” Stuebe says. “This virus unmasked the multiple ways that biomedical approaches fail to address the social contexts and structures that determine health and well-being.”

Stuebe and Kristin Tully, PhD, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology, lead a Patient Safety Learning Lab (PSLL), funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, to evaluate journeys through care and reengineer systems to be more effective, just and enjoyable. The lab’s interdisciplinary team partners with parents, companions and health care team members to redefine what it means for mothers and birthing people* to be safe and well in this country.

Health and safety are positive concepts which mean much more than surviving a pregnancy. Care during this precious part of our lives should foster autonomy, provide timely access to relevant information, promote self-efficacy and belonging for new families to thrive, and be structured for clinicians to offer respectful, equitable and supportive care.

The research and capacity-strengthening work at UNC complements activism in maternal health to transform health care and public health in this country. Respectful, equitable care requires a diverse workforce, and Gillings has been at the forefront of efforts to advance this work.

The Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute at Gillings is providing technical assistance to historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and other organizations serving communities of color to develop internationally credentialed lactation consultant training programs. Educational grants to diversify the workforce are among the comprehensive strategies included in the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act of 2021, a set of policy proposals that is critical to advance birth equity and improve the quality of care for all. In addition, UNC’s Kathryn Menard, MD, MPH, is a member of the U.S. Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Infant and Maternal Mortality which has proposed a set of recommendations to address the unacceptable disparities in infant and maternal outcomes.

This is an exciting time for the Gillings School and faculty, staff and students at other schools to be a part of real, sustained change for maternal, infant and family health. Unfortunately, there is an immense need to improve our society and the inclusivity and patient-centeredness of health care services.

Learn more about MHLIC, PSLL and colleagues’ work to make real, sustained change: maternalhealthlearning.org, postnatalsafety.com, newmomhealth.com, Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute.

*We use the term birthing people in addition to mothers to promote inclusive and affirming care for all who give birth.

Liz Chen, PhD, MPH, assistant professor of health behavior, serves as the design thinking lead at Innovate Carolina and co-leads the Carolina Graduate Certificate in Innovation for the Public Good. Unlike other problem-solving approaches that use empirical data to move forward and find a single solution, Chen says design thinking involves going backward, in a sense, to further understand a problem in context alongside people who are impacted by the challenge before trying to solve it.

“We rely on building empathy and letting end users lead,” Chen says. Design thinking practitioners work with those experiencing a public health challenge to design multiple potential solutions. Constant data collection, iteration and learning from failures are built into the process.

Design thinking goes hand in hand with approaches like community-based participatory research, Chen says, where communities have more power in generating solutions than other public health approaches. Design thinking also involves small-batch, cyclical testing similar to implementation science and continuous quality improvement processes.

“Our students look for ways to engage directly with audiences so they aren’t the ones holding all the power and making decisions about how interventions look,” she says.

— Liz Chen, PhD, MPH

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“Our students look for ways to engage directly with audiences so they aren’t the ones holding all the power and making decisions about how interventions look,” she says.

While a Master of Public Health (MPH) student in the health equity, social justice and human rights (EQUITY) concentration, Jared Bishop (’21) worked as one of Chen’s design thinking research assistants. He joined the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-Education (SNAP-Ed) team at the UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention’s Food, Fitness and Opportunity Research Collaborative (FFORC) to help design educational opportunities for caregivers of young children. They partnered with Cooking Matters, a national program that teaches participants to use nutrition information to make healthier choices and cook delicious, affordable meals.

The FFORC team’s multi-stage, multilayered process was grounded in design thinking. Bishop and colleagues identified places where caregivers would prefer to access food skills education: health care settings, schools or early childhood education centers, and food retail environments — specifically, grocery stores. They conducted separate design thinking processes for each.

Inside grocery stores, they held caregiver-only sessions to identify “pain points” and “happy points” about the shopping experience and then held cocreation sessions with managers who implement SNAP-Ed in different states.

“We did design thinking with an equity focus,” Bishop says, “centering the voices of caregivers. Not only did we listen to their feedback — we made sure their voices were uplifted when we worked.”

The process made the caregivers feel seen and heard, Bishop says. “Hearing that other parents have the same concerns about navigating those areas was comforting for them, knowing they’re not alone.”

The FFORC team’s project resulted in a publicly available toolkit and roadmap to use design thinking to build SNAP-Ed plans.

Margaret Benson Nemitz, MPH, an alumna of the health behavior MPH program, and colleagues at the North Carolina Institute for Public Health (NCIPH) implemented design thinking with local health departments to plan how they might reach their annual goals better.

“There are many similarities between what human-centered design teaches us and what strategic planning teaches us,” Benson Nemitz said.

They recruited six local health departments in N.C. to participate on a design team. They framed their challenge through a design thinking lens: “How might we design a support system for quality improvement for all local health departments while providing for differences among health departments?” The participants, all new to design thinking, met monthly from July to December 2021.

“No one knew what to expect. No one knew how to think in this way."

— Margaret Benson Nemitz, MPH, NCIPH community assessment coordinator

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“No one knew what to expect. No one knew how to think in this way,” she said. “It was fun to watch representatives get comfortable drawing their ideas, asking big questions and us all being confused together.”

They spent time with a literal drawing board, Benson Nemitz said, even adding things they later determined wouldn’t work in practice alongside the ideas they thought would work. But that openness, creativity and quick feedback are built into design thinking.

“It was interesting how foreign the process felt to the group,” she said, “and how much joy there was. How much freedom and fun and play.”

“He gets upset,” she says with a laugh, but for her, it’s a fun way to constantly remind him that he’s loved and supported.

As associate dean for student affairs, Sims Evans makes sure that students at Gillings know they’re supported, too. She goes out of her way to cultivate relationships with students, giving them her cell phone number and checking in with them proactively and frequently to see how they’re doing. That personal touch often leads to long-term friendships, reflected in the countless invitations Sims Evans receives to former students’ dissertation defenses, weddings and baby showers.

Health policy and management student Julia Nevison, who got to know Sims Evans through her service on the School’s Student Government Association, recalls a time last year when she was feeling busy and overwhelmed. Sims Evans reached out and took her to lunch. “That really meant a lot to me,” Nevison says. “At the end of the day she’s here to support us, 100 percent.”

"I recognized right away that Charletta was a unique, caring, and talented individual; a supportive leader and supervisor; and someone that I could work for, and with, for a long period of time."

— Greg Bocchino, EdD

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A Mount Olive, N.C., native, Sims Evans grew up in the nearby small town of Dudley, where her love for music was nurtured by strong family traditions. “I listen to all types of music. My family sings a lot, and I used to sing in church choirs growing up,” says Sims Evans, whose favorite musician is Patsy Cline. “When my family gets together for holidays, we sing.”

In keeping with another family tradition, Sims Evans went to Winston-Salem State University, where her mother, sister, cousins, aunt and uncle attended. After graduation she moved to Maryland, where she was a certified recreational therapist at a mental institution. She earned her master’s degree in counseling and was a public school guidance counselor in Maryland before returning to North Carolina to start her student affairs career in higher education, working at several universities and the N.C. Community College System before joining Gillings in 2011.

Greg Bocchino, EdD, senior executive director of academic advising and student affairs, works closely with Sims Evans to strategically plan events and services for students. When he first interviewed for his job at Gillings more than eight years ago, he knew she was a great leader who would also become a great friend. “I recognized right away that Charletta was a unique, caring, and talented individual; a supportive leader and supervisor; and someone that I could work for, and with, for a long period of time,” he says. “My parents ask me how she’s doing on a weekly basis – she is like family to me.”

In the Office of Student Affairs, Sims Evans leads a team of 22 professionals who offer academic and career counseling, handle student disputes and grievances, advise student organizations, and provide student outreach and recruitment. “She does so much for the School – her whole team does,” Nevison says. “With everything Student Affairs does, they emphasize a team approach. They are all about working together and collaboration.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Student Affairs created Wind Down Wednesdays, a virtual mental fitness series to help students build a toolkit to cope with the pandemic. Nutrition student Serena Hutchinson got to know Sims Evans through the monthly series and has worked with her on the School’s mental health task force and other initiatives. “With any issue that comes up at the School, Charletta’s answer is: ‘None of this matters unless the students’ voice is heard,’” Hutchinson says. “I can’t think of any person who cares more about students than she does.”

Angelica Figueroa’s eyes light up as she talks about Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Va., where she worked for a decade before joining the Dean’s Office at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. Figueroa first got a job at the amusement park in high school and worked her way up from a gift-store cashier to senior supervisor for guest arrival, with more than 200 team members reporting to her during the peak summer months.

“Busch Gardens is where I learned many formative skills and foundational values, and a philosophy centered on leadership and customer service,” says Figueroa, who has relied on that philosophy as administrative support in the Dean’s Office for more than 11 years. “My theme park experience is one of the reasons I was hired at Gillings. It was a perfect fit. In both, my goal has been to deliver a quality, positive and memorable experience.”

First hired as a temporary administrative support specialist, Figueroa was promoted to serve as executive assistant to Barbara K. Rimer and promoted again to office manager. A highly skilled project manager, she leads a six-person team that works closely with the school’s senior leaders – planning and supporting events and projects, managing calendars, assisting with communications, and helping the school move forward in pursuit of its mission.

"Angelica does a ton of high-quality work herself, and she is highly gifted at teaching, encouraging and managing the people she supervises. She is an amazing problem solver who has a way of bringing out the best in people to benefit every situation."

— Lisa Warren

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“Staff members often work behind the scenes, and our impact isn’t always apparent. Still, we bring knowledge and diverse backgrounds that help support this complex organization and make Gillings the rich place that it is,” she says. “I love, love the people I work with. They are all trying to make the world a better place.”

One of those staff members, Lisa Warren, has worked with Figueroa in the Dean’s Office since 2015. “Angelica does a ton of high-quality work herself and she is highly gifted at teaching, encouraging and managing the people she supervises,” Warren says. “She is an amazing problem solver who has a way of bringing out the best in people to benefit every situation.”

Born in Puerto Rico as the oldest of three children, at age 9 Figueroa moved with her family to Newport News, Va. She met her future husband Matthew when they were both students at the College of William and Mary, where she earned her degree in international studies. They live in Chapel Hill with their 2-year-old son, David, who has Down Syndrome. “His diagnosis has really changed the way I look at the world. In other ways, it’s reinforced and expanded values that I hold dear—each of our contributions matter and have their own impacts,” she says. “I feel incredibly fortunate to have that perspective.”

Elizabeth French, MA, associate dean for strategic initiatives and Figueroa’s immediate supervisor, notes that Figueroa’s values, background, and appreciation for other people allows her to connect the dots across people, ideas and events in a way that elevates the dean’s office and the school as a whole. “Angelica has a way of setting people up for success – the fact that things go smoothly doesn’t just happen, and I can’t say how important that level of care is,” French says. “She is just a lovely human being who has a bedrock respect for people and their humanity.”

Rimer said Figueroa embodies all that is best about Gillings. “She is kindness, competent and fearlessness wrapped in a package of decency and a willingness and eagerness to learn new skills,” Rimer says. “Angelica makes everyone who enters the Dean’s Office feel welcome and wanted. Her knowledge of the school is vast, and she calls it up in the most seemingly effortless way. Angelica is the heart and soul of the school.”

“To this day, I get calls from family members asking for my help with diagnoses or advice around issues of public health, even before COVID-19,” Smith says. “As I look at the work that lies ahead of us to fulfill the Gillings School’s mission, it will be important to preserve our core while embracing our future. The world has changed so much in the past two years, but the response from Gillings has been amazing. I marvel at the life-changing research coming from our faculty, our brilliant and diverse students, and our committed staff who continue to work tirelessly in the face of so much change.”

Smith spent the last 10 years as associate chair for administration in the Department of Neurology at the UNC School of Medicine, where he focused on policy development and implementation, financial planning and management, strategic planning, human resources management, and information systems design and delivery. Before coming to UNC-Chapel Hill, Smith was the director of human resources consulting at the University of Virginia, where he previously was chief administrative officer in the departments of pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology.

Smith joins Gillings at a time when the pandemic has changed many assumptions about work and the role of public health in society. Old learning and operational habits are being examined, and Smith brings his experience with the “Future of Work” from his time at the School of Medicine. While Gillings has helped to usher in the most diverse class of students in the School’s history, there is still work to be done with enrollment and hiring.

“Good people stay in good places, and a big part of my job will be to continue to make Gillings a ‘good place.’”

— Robert Smith III, PhD

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“Good people stay in good places,” Smith says. “And a big part of my job will be to continue to make Gillings a ‘good place.’”

Smith began collaborating with Gillings in 2012, when he delivered his first guest lecture on ethics in the Department of Health Policy and Management. He has worked closely with second-year Master of Healthcare Administration students to place them in internships within the School of Medicine that allow them to gain practical experience in a hospital setting.

Outside of work, Smith has been an avid cyclist since his time as a member of the Piedmont Flyers cycling team.

“My love for Gillings goes back a long way, and there’s a reason why we’re the top public school of public health,” he says. “I want to help preserve all that makes us great while still looking toward the future.”

She was designing, implementing and evaluating injury prevention and behavioral health programs that focused mainly on diverse and underserved communities. She soon realized that program design could only go so far in solving public health challenges, especially where equity was concerned.

“I recognized that policy is such an important lever, and advocacy is such an important tool,” said Zachary, PhD, MPH, a 2008 MPH Gillings graduate in health behavior who earned her doctorate from Johns Hopkins University in her hometown of Baltimore.

That recognition prompted her to apply for a policy analyst position at the NC Justice Center, an advocacy organization for economic and social justice issues. Zachary got the job and moved to North Carolina, and where she became a respected policy analyst and effective advocate – first at the Justice Center and then as Health Program Director at the nonprofit organization NC Child, which works for better opportunities for all children in North Carolina.

"Her policy expertise, her passion for justice and her focus on keeping people at the center of what that work looks like is so impressive."

— Nicole Dozier, director of the N.C. Justice Center’s Health Advocacy Project

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“Her policy expertise, her passion for justice and her focus on keeping people at the center of what that work looks like is so impressive,” says Nicole Dozier, director of the North Carolina Justice Center’s Health Advocacy Project. “She interacts with people in a way that makes them feel comfortable and connected, and she has a way of inspiring them to action.”

In 2020 Zachary joined Gillings as assistant professor and leader of the health policy concentration in the Department of Health Policy and Management, where she focuses on teaching public health students about policy analysis, improving equity in health care access, and the importance of communities and coalitions in achieving change.

“She is one of a special group of faculty in our school with direct advocacy experience, and she has a commitment to and long history of working with and for low-income populations,” says Pam Silberman, JD, DrPH, health policy and management professor and longtime leader in state health policy. “She has a great understanding of Medicaid and health policy, along with that real-life experience as an advocate trying to shape policy and empowering people to have a voice in the process. She’s the real deal.”

For example, as legislators began discussing shifting the state’s Medicaid program to a managed-care model in 2015, Zachary and her NC Child colleagues formed the Parent Advisory Council (PAC), a diverse group of parents and caregivers who had children with various health needs. PAC members received training and resources that helped them learn to self-advocate, then became actively involved in the policy process – drafting their own Medicaid agenda, submitting it to the state, and meeting with leaders in the legislature and Department of Health and Human Services. The PAC continues to operate today, and many of its members serve in advisory roles for community groups and state programs.

“It’s important to invite people and communities to share their voices when you’re trying to determine whether policies work or don’t work for them,” Zachary says. “Policy and advocacy work is about being in communities and working with them to help them build capacity. Leaders in their own communities should be part of the process.”

Zachary applies this people-centered approach to her classroom – not just in how she teaches but also in how she treats her students. “She places a strong focus on underserved populations and assuring that they are centered in classroom conversations,” says Raquel Harati, who worked as Zachary’s teaching assistant after taking one of her courses. “She also truly cares about her students and their well-being outside of the classroom, and advocates for students directly to the school when any issues arises that we need assistance with. She is one of the most supportive supervisors and professors I have ever had.”

Dr. Rimer joined the UNC School of Public Health as an adjunct associate professor in 1992. She began her service as dean in 2005, launching a 17-year journey at the helm of what is now — through a transformative gift she helped secure — the internationally renowned Gillings School of Global Public Health.

When Dean Rimer steps down this summer, she will remain on faculty as Alumni Distinguished Professor in the Department of Health Behavior. In announcing that she was stepping down as dean, she made it clear that she still has work to do, students to mentor and untapped passion for making positive change.

That same irrepressible energy has colored Dr. Rimer’s entire service as dean. She reshaped the role from her first day in it — being both the first woman and first behavioral scientist to hold the position — and went on to become the School’s longest-serving dean. She led Gillings to what currently stands at five consecutive rankings periods as the top public school of public health in the United States and second overall according to U.S. News and World Report.

What most people think of first is her powerful fusion of insight, humility and generosity of spirit.

Under her leadership, the School has vaulted past peers in grant dollars, becoming the top public school of public health for funding from the National Institutes of Health and building a portfolio of more than $1 billion in research dollars since 2016. That funding has supported scientific inquiry, education and practice across all 100 North Carolina counties, 47 countries and five continents.

Over the course of her career, Dean Rimer has compiled a litany of national achievements. A notable cancer researcher in her own right, she chaired the National Cancer Institute’s Advisory Board, was elected to the Institute of Medicine, received the American Cancer Society’s Medal of Honor and was appointed to the President’s Cancer Panel, which she chaired from 2011 to 2019. She was vice chair of the Task Force on Community Preventive Services for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, she co-authored hundreds of scientific papers, and she earned more awards than can be named here — but none of this defines her.

At the Gillings School, Dean Rimer paired her innovative vision with a singular work ethic. She spearheaded the development of the Water Institute at UNC, created the School’s Practice Advisory Committee to engage community leaders across N.C., and fostered strong partnerships across the University and the state, positioning Gillings researchers to lead large-scale projects of critical importance in areas such as water quality, children’s environmental health, and COVID viral sequencing and surveillance.

She also marshalled Gillings leaders in revamping the Master of Public Health (MPH) degree, launched the online MPH@UNC program, and developed a multi-partner public health program with UNC-Asheville and the Mountain Area Health Education Center. These accomplishments have altered the course of public health for the better — but, again, they do not define her.

Dean Rimer has championed inclusive excellence within the Gillings School — through an ambitious Inclusive Excellence Action Plan — and more broadly, as part of the N.C. Governor’s Commission on Inclusion. From candid town hall meetings with students to thoughtful blog posts about events like Nikole Hannah-Jones’ tenure application, she has offered an example of leadership not through buzzwords, but through action informed by collaboration. The School’s 2021 fall cohort was its most diverse yet, welcoming a record number of students from historically excluded groups. And still, this is not what defines our outgoing dean.

In the case of Dean Rimer — Barbara, to all who meet her — what most people think of first is her powerful fusion of insight, humility and generosity of spirit.

There are few staff and faculty at the Gillings School who have not received a hand-written note or email from Barbara congratulating them on a promotion, mourning the loss of a loved one or celebrating the birth of a child. Similarly, few in the Gillings community have not witnessed Barbara’s sincere redirection of any accolades given her to the people around her, whom she consistently credits for the School’s continued preeminence.

In one of her blog posts, Dean Rimer quoted Dr. Jane Goodall: “I think empathy is really important, and I think only when our clever brain and our human heart work together in harmony can we achieve our full potential.”

For 17 years, Dean Barbara K. Rimer has offered a shining example of that philosophy in action. That example is her greatest legacy.

The solution may lie in storytelling, according to Nabarun Dasgupta, PhD, MPH, a Gillings Innovation Fellow and senior researcher at UNC’s Injury Prevention Research Center. In public health, narrative can shine a light on challenges faced by underserved communities and put a human face on commonly overlooked issues.

Dasgupta, a 2013 doctoral graduate of the Gilling School, has leveraged his background in epidemiology to tell public health stories through data visualization and empathy.

“I like to say epidemiology is the science of telling true stories about health with numbers,” he explains. “Visualizations are great for telling a story that sticks in people’s minds — if you do it right. More important than creating complex ways to slice and dice numbers is making sure we’re not overlooking who owns the data or where there might be gaps.”

"I like to say epidemiology is the science of telling true stories about health with numbers."

— Nabarun Dasgupta, PhD, MPH

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His expertise has helped agencies like the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization track public health concerns. He co-founded Epidemico, a health analytics startup that uses machine algorithms to predict disease outbreaks. His knowledge of visual dashboard design has aided development of apps, websites and other tech for government agencies around the world.

His goal is to give the public concise understanding of health challenges and amplify patient voices.

Since 2002, Dasgupta has also worked to better understand the overdose crisis. In 2007, he co-founded Project Lazarus to address surging overdose deaths in Wilkes County, North Carolina. By working with local pastors, agencies and community health outlets, Project Lazarus took an approach to harm reduction that Dasgupta calls “radical empathy” by having difficult conversations about a stigmatized topic that affected many.

Project Lazarus brought the overdose death rate down 69% by helping doctors prescribe opioids more safely, developing support for pain patients and training people to use naloxone, a drug to reverse overdose. With support from the N.C. Medical Board, Project Lazarus was the first program to distribute naloxone kits directly to pain patients and people who use drugs, even though it required a doctor’s prescription at the time.

"What patients fear more than side effects is having information withheld. In our zeal to get people vaccinated, I feel like public health hasn’t been talking about side effects in an open way, and so some people aren’t going back for their second dose or boosters."

— Nabarun Dasgupta, PhD, MPH

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In 2012, Dasgupta co-founded the Remedy Alliance naloxone buyers club in response to a shortage of this life-saving drug. The team worked directly with Pfizer to acquire naloxone at a discounted price for distribution in harm reduction programs. Today, the buyers club facilitates nearly 150 such programs. It has been critical during the pandemic, when shortages have made costs skyrocket and limited the drug’s access from last mile programs that have difficulty meeting regulations necessary to acquire it.

“We are leaving behind our strongest allies in the current model of distributing and administrating naloxone,” Dasgupta says. “There are Super Savers in the community who have reversed dozens of overdoses, and they teach others how to use it. They’re the ones who drive most of that intervention. We’re not empowering this innovative first responder phenomenon to be even more effective. We need to focus on getting them naloxone with no limits from insurance companies or pharmacists.”

The overdose crisis has recently shifted away from prescription drugs to street drugs that are more difficult to track and may contain dangerous ingredients. In 2022, Dasgupta received funding from the Foundation for Opioid Response Efforts to develop laboratory methods to analyze street drugs in real time, along with systems to alert the public about potential dangers.

His recent work also centers untold stories by encouraging people to report side effects of drugs and vaccines, including the COVID-19 vaccine, because adverse events reported by physicians and pharmacists are sometimes different from those that concern patents.

It’s hard for clinicians to be honest about side effects, Dasgupta says, but proactive conversations are necessary to establish trust in health care.

“What patients fear more than side effects is having information withheld. In our zeal to get people vaccinated, I feel like public health hasn’t been talking about side effects in an open way, and so some people aren’t going back for their second dose or boosters. That’s something we could have addressed and can serve as a lesson on how to improve future public health communication.”