4/3/25: April Planetary Health Dinner Recap

In April, JHIPH welcomed JHU faculty, staff, and students for the final Planetary Health dinner of the academic year. This event marked an exciting celebration of JHIPH’s first anniversary as an institute at Johns Hopkins, offering reflections on the progress made so far and engaging attendees in shaping the path ahead. 

The evening began with remarks from Dean Ellen J. MacKenzie of the Bloomberg School of Public Health, who emphasized JHIPH’s remarkable ability to unite people across JHU as One University, and highlighted the importance of cross-disciplinary collaboration in addressing the complex health impacts of large-scale planetary change. 

“Our goals are ambitious, there’s no question about it, but that ambition is in direct response to the scale of the challenges before us. I know that our current moment is deeply troubling, but every day, JHIPH brings people together around the values of science, evidence, progress, and hope.” – Dean Ellen MacKenzie 

The evening also spotlighted the work of JHIPH’s Education program, which has focused on: 

• Defining the critical role of education in advancing Planetary Health, 
• Establishing a baseline of Planetary Health curriculum at JHU, and 
• Preparing educators—both inside and outside of Johns Hopkins—with the knowledge and tools to teach Planetary Health concepts in their classrooms.  

Education Program Faculty Directors Megan Weil Latshaw and Hunter Gehlbach also shared exciting developments in how Planetary Health education is being integrated across Johns Hopkins’ academic divisions. These include, but are not limited to, a new series of First Year Seminars related to Planetary Health, the inclusion of new Planetary Health competencies the School of Nursing’s revised Master of Science in Nursing: Entry into Nursing curriculum, and ongoing efforts to integrate Planetary Health into the School of Medicine’s fourth-year curriculum. 

Other key highlights from the year, include: 

• The signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the United Nations Development Programme, establishing a formal framework for cooperation between JHIPH and UNDP in achieving shared goals for Planetary Health. 
• A partnership with the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown Law to advance the emerging field of Planetary Health law, governance, and policy. 
• Efforts to define principles for Planetary Health Cities, which will be further developed at the upcoming Planetary Health Cities Symposium in June 2025. 
• A collaboration with the Applied Physics Laboratory and the Whiting School of Engineering on key Planetary Health focus areas: coastal resilience, the Arctic and cryosphere, critical resources, and air quality control. 
• The launch of a Planetary Health Fellowship in Emergency Medicine at the School of Medicine. 
• The incorporation of a Planetary Health track, with supplementary funding, into JHU’s Nexus Awards—an initiative launched in 2023 to support convening, research, and teaching, anchored at the Bloomberg Center. 
• The establishment of a new Bloomberg Distinguished Professorships cluster in Planetary Health. 

The dinner space was beautifully adorned with artwork from a variety of talented artists, adding a visual dimension to the evening’s celebrations. 

Upcoming Events

• Cross-Disciplinary Education Gathering– April 23, 2025. This gathering will bring together faculty from across JHU to explore ways to integrate Planetary Health into curricula and foster collaboration across disciplines.
• Planetary Health Cities Convening– June 16, 2025. A convening on Planetary Health Cities is scheduled for June 16, 2025, at the Hopkins Bloomberg Center in Washington, D.C.  

Interested in the events above? Reach out to [email protected] for more details!