Whitney Hewlett Noël, MPH, on Roots of Health Inequities Course

JPHMP presents Public Health Perspectives, a podcast series targeted towards strengthening the future public health workforce. We will explore the narratives of public health care professionals and gain insight on career paths that shape the profession. In our journey, we will use JPHMP’s 21 Public Health Case Studies on Policy & Administration, which provides case studies that help students and practitioners connect with real life experiences. These case studies explore core problems, stakeholders, steps taken, challenges, results, conclusions, and discussion questions for analysis that can be used to strengthen the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) accreditation criteria that form the foundation of public health degrees.

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In this episode of Public Health Perspectives, Whitney Hewlett Noël, MPH, describes the Roots of Health Inequities course, funded by the National Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities and the National Institute of Health (NIH). The Roots of Health Inequity is an online learning collaborative. The site offers a starting place for those who want to address systemic differences in health and wellness that are, actionable, unfair, and unjust. As a participant in the learning collaborative you will have a chance to explore concepts and strategies by working through five critical questions: (1) Where Do We Start? (2) What Are “Frames” and How Do They Influence Public Health Practice? (3) What Can History Teach Us about the Role of Public Health and Public Health Practitioners? (4) What Are the Root Causes of Health Inequities? (5) What Are the Principles of Social Justice?  Whitney Hewlett podcast

To register: visit Roots of Health Inequity. For more information, contact rootsofhealthinequity@naccho.org.

Whitney Hewlett Noël, MPH, is a Program Analyst on the Performance Improvement team at the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO). In her role, she provides technical assistance to local health departments on areas including health equity and social justice and performance improvement-related topics such as accreditation and community health assessment and improvement planning. She serves as the Roots of Health Inequity web-based course curator and leads NACCHO’s Accreditation Coordinators’ Learning Community. Prior to joining NACCHO, she was the MSPI Coordinator at National Council of Urban Indian Health where she provided technical assistance on suicide and substance abuse prevention to Urban Indian Health Programs (UIHPs) across the US. Whitney received her Bachelor of Arts in Studies in Women and Gender from the University of Virginia and Master of Public Health in Maternal and Child Health from the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. 

Music presented in this program comes from The Gentle Art of Squinting by Taylor Arnold and Jordan Wilson. Listen to the complete album here Whitney Hewlett podcast

For further reading, consider these related articles from the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice:*

*Articles may require a subscription to JPHMP or purchase. Whitney Hewlett podcast


Camelia Singletary, MPH

Camelia Singletary, MPH, received her master’s degree in public health from the University of South Carolina in 2015. Her research interests include exploring the implementation of school physical activity programs in combination with nutritional components. She is also interested in analyzing the adoption of physical activity and healthy eating skills from a social-cognitive perspective. As a public health communicator at JPHMP Direct, she hopes to create linkages between evidence-based research, public health coursework, and health certification competencies.