Fall 2025
Incarceration and Health Justice
Incarceration is widely recognized as a significant public health challenge, deeply intertwined with broader issues of health equity and social justice. Correctional facilities house a disproportionately high number of individuals with chronic physical conditions, mental illness, and substance use disorders, reflecting both pre-existing health disparities and the impact of incarceration itself. This Task Force critically examines incarceration as a pressing public health issue, with a particular focus on California, while also examining alternatives to incarceration such as restorative justice and the prison abolition movement. Students will conduct rigorous, interdisciplinary research to accurately describe the health-related challenges associated with incarceration, develop actionable policy recommendations, and engage with local organizations working at the intersection of public health and criminal justice. As part of the course, students will be asked to participate in off-campus visits to correctional facilities and non-profits working in the carceral justice space.
GLP-1 receptor agonists — the new miracle drugs?
Jaron Mercer, Professor
This course explores the emerging role of GLP-1 receptor agonists (Ozempic/semaglutide, Mounjaro/tirzepatide, and Saxenda/liraglutide) in addressing metabolic health challenges. Students will examine the pharmacological mechanisms, clinical applications, and broader societal implications of these medications from a public health perspective. The curriculum balances scientific understanding of these medications with practical assessment of their community-level impacts, including accessibility challenges, healthcare resource allocation, and potential long-term population health outcomes. Through case studies, data analysis, and community engagement activities, students will develop frameworks for evaluating how
these innovative treatments might reshape local approaches to metabolic disorders. By course completion, students will be prepared to contribute meaningfully to public health initiatives related to GLP-1 therapies, with particular attention to equity, sustainability, and integration with existing health promotion strategies.
Winter 2026
The rise of physical inactivity and its impact on health – a personal or societal responsibility?
Matthew A. Romero, Professor
This course explores the role physical activity (PA) plays in human health, both at the physiological and socioeconomic level. Students will examine how PA impacts human physiology in health and disease as well as the role broader society plays in determining our ability to achieve appropriate PA levels. The curriculum will balance physiological understanding with societal impacts of PA as well as accessibility of PA itself. Through case studies, data analysis and interpretation, and community engagement opportunities, students will develop the appropriate framework for evaluating how PA can be used as a tool to improve overall health and develop strategies to implement these into the broader public.
Food Systems and Health
Cindy Wong, Lecturer
This Task Force examines health challenges related to Food Systems and Health. Food systems are foundational for sustaining global and community health as well as supporting planetary ecosystems. They include the production, processing, distribution, preparation, consumption and disposal of food, which influence dietary patterns and nutritional status of populations. The pervasiveness of processed foods that are calorie-dense and nutrition-poor, contributes to undernutrition and the prevalence in obesity and non-communicable diseases worldwide. Food scarcity and malnutrition are associated with social determinants of health and systemic factors that include food availability and affordability. Anthropogenic ecological changes are also contributing to the complexity of the health impact of food systems as both a cause and effect on the levels of production, safety and nutrition in foods. Addressing food insecurity, promoting sustainable agriculture, and ensuring food access are crucial to health status. The furtherance of environmental health and sustainability within complex, interconnected food systems represent challenges that can significantly impact global and community health. By the end of the course, students will gain a deeper understanding of the intersections between food systems and health by working in Task Force teams to define, investigate and propose ways of addressing the associated problems of food insecurity and promoting justice in food and health systems.
Advancing global affordable access to essential medicines with science & policy
Matt Sparke, Professor
This GCH Task Force will be focused on the global challenge of advancing affordable access to essential medicines. Students will bring together their expertise from the sciences and social sciences to investigate how different national and regional mixes of science and policy can deliver on the promise of opening access to life-saving pharmaceuticals and diagnostic tools to everybody. The Task Force will be divided into a set of subgroups composed equally of both BS and BA students with each group tasked with investigating how innovative pro-access mixes of scientific research and public policy are being put together in different ways in different parts of the world. Wherever possible these groups will leverage the language skills, regional knowledge and organizational expertise of individual students, including both personal family ties to different countries and involvement in pro-access advocacy organizations such as UAEM. Each group will consider the ways global advances in science offer new opportunities for treatment innovation ranging from the use of AI for drug discovery to immunotherapies for cancers to mRNA platforms for vaccine development. And each group will also investigate how particular national and regional policies around the promotion of bio-pharmaceutical investment, intellectual property, philanthropic partnerships and public-sector procurement and production can variously inhibit and advance affordable access to life-saving medicines. All this work will be conducted with a view to identifying alternatives to the massive challenges that now also menace open science and affordable global access due to cuts to university research and funding for foreign aid and public health.
Spring 2026
Tuberculosis – A global and a local challenge
Martha Zúñiga, Professor
Most tuberculosis (TB) in humans is caused by the bacterium Mycorbacterium tuberculosis. According to the World Health Organization, TB remains a major health problem because of it high global prevalence, barriers to treating it, and the development of multidrug resistance. In 2023, approximately 10.8 million people developed TB-caused disease. TB is the world’s leading cause of death from a single infectious pathogen. It also is the leading cause of death of HIV-infected individuals. Although TB can be cured with antibiotics, multidrug resistant variants of Mycobacterium tuberculosis are a major cause of death. Another worrisome feature of TB is its ability to infect latently. Individuals who are latently infected with TB have a positive TB test but typically have normal chest X-ray results and do not feel ill. However, over time they can become ill, at which point they can spread TB to other individuals.
We usually think of TB as being a problem of impoverished nations. But it thrives wherever people have substandard living conditions, and so it does exist in the US. In the US, most TB cases are in California, New York, and Florida. Of these three states, California ranks highest, with 25% of the US’s TB cases occurring here. Even so, the number of TB cases in California is low by worldwide standards, averaging ~2000 cases per year. This is good. But thus far, it has been impossible to reduce the number of TB cases, largely because of the presence of latently infected individuals who go untreated and then develop and spread disease.
In this course, we will discuss TB biology, molecular biology, and evolution, the interactions of Mycobacterium tuberculosis with the immune system, TB latency, the diagnosis and treatment of TB, multidrug resistance and efforts to overcome or circumvent it, TB vaccines, and social and economic barriers to treating and eradicating TB. Students will read research papers in these areas and create a symposium volume on all these facets of TB. They also will make PowerPoint presentations on specific areas of interest to them. Students will meet Dr. Adam Readhead, senior epidemiologist at the California Department of Public Health, whose work is focused on TB in California. Dr. Readhead also will share with us his own fascinating career trajectory, which included work on HIV-AIDS in South Africa prior to turning his focus to TB in California. If possible, we will have other speakers as well.
Food Systems and Health
Cindy Wong, Lecturer
This Task Force examines health challenges related to Food Systems and Health. Food systems are foundational for sustaining global and community health as well as supporting planetary ecosystems. They include the production, processing, distribution, preparation, consumption and disposal of food, which influence dietary patterns and nutritional status of populations. The pervasiveness of processed foods that are calorie-dense and nutrition-poor, contributes to undernutrition and the prevalence in obesity and non-communicable diseases worldwide. Food scarcity and malnutrition are associated with social determinants of health and systemic factors that include food availability and affordability. Anthropogenic ecological changes are also contributing to the complexity of the health impact of food systems as both a cause and effect on the levels of production, safety and nutrition in foods. Addressing food insecurity, promoting sustainable agriculture, and ensuring food access are crucial to health status. The furtherance of environmental health and sustainability within complex, interconnected food systems represent challenges that can significantly impact global and community health. By the end of the course, students will gain a deeper understanding of the intersections between food systems and health by working in Task Force teams to define, investigate and propose ways of addressing the associated problems of food insecurity and promoting justice in food and health systems.