Forging the Future

Rollins launched an ambitious new five-year strategic plan September 12, 2023, in response to the school’s changing leadership, growing needs, and evolving challenges in public health.

“I’m excited about the possibilities ahead, and see this plan as a roadmap to achieving maximum impact in a way that is thoughtful, measurable, and community informed,” says M. Daniele Fallin, PhD, James W. Curran Dean of Public Health. “This plan is bold and ambitious, but it is also attainable. In the months and years ahead, this plan will help inform our efforts, but it will also serve as a living document that will adjust to address changing public health challenges as well as unique needs posed by our community.”

Articulated within the plan are six core goals with affiliated objectives and tactics associated with each. Multiple objectives are cross-cutting across goal areas, which lends the plan a sense of connectivity in aim, purpose, and function. Diversity, equity, and inclusion, in particular, serve as a throughline in the report and a significant area of emphasis across all goal areas.

The strategic plan’s steering committee was chaired by Timothy L. Lash, DSc, and included representation across the school with faculty, staff, and student members.

“It was a huge team effort, and literally everyone we asked to help, agreed,” says Lash. “The ambitious and values-oriented product is a testament to the outstanding efforts of the steering committee members, working group members, and the entire Rollins community.”

The plan was developed in partnership with members of the internal and external Rollins community and incorporated feedback from more than 300 faculty, staff, and students, gathered through listening sessions, surveys, and in-depth conversations as led by the plan’s steering committee, working groups, and colleagues from Woodruff Health Sciences Center’s Strategic Planning Office.

Goals

Research: Make discoveries that make a difference

We will advance public health science that improves health and health equity through rigorous, collaborative, and interdisciplinary research.

Education: Transform Our Offerings

We will broaden who we teach, diversify how we teach, and enrich what we teach in response to evolving public health priorities and emerging challenges.

Practice and Partnerships: Put Research to Work

We will build ethical and equitable collaborations with local, regional, and global partners to engage communities and translate our research into mutually beneficial public health practices, policies, and programs.

Our People: Build a Thriving Workplace

We will cultivate a school where all members of our community have opportunities for professional growth and feel included, respected, and valued.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Integrate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

We will center diversity, equity, and inclusion in our identity through our research, practice, operations, and educational activities.

Communications: Champion Public Health

We will promote and strengthen trust in public health information.

Curious about our plans for the future? Visit our strategic plan website at strategicplan.sph.emory.edu.

How Our Objectives Work Together

A careful read of these goals, objectives, and related tactics will reveal overlapping themes that do not fit solely in one place. This overlap is intentional. So much of what we plan to do—much like public health itself—is interconnected.

We’ve developed a multi-pronged strategy with intentional cross-fertilization. For example, tactics related to engagement with communities to provide quick and relevant public health information will ultimately apply to both our Practice and Partnerships goal and our Communications goal. Similarly, training on inclusive and equitable teaching will apply to both our Education and DEI goals.