Bison Trailblazers | Howard Team Wins Award in the DC Public Health Challenge

by Imani Cabassa-George

A team of Howard students recently won the award for Best Community-Centered Intervention for addressing women at risk of homelessness in this year's DC Public Health Case Challenge, hosted by the National Academy of Medicine. Led by faculty advisors, Dr. Monica Ponder and Dr. Pamela Carter-Nolan, the group included Sommore Robinson (second-year Doctor of Pharmacy student), Brooke Solomon (senior undergraduate Health Science major), Carys Carr (senior undergraduate Political Science major with a minor in  Maternal and Child Health), Alex Wheeler (second-year Master of Social Work/Master of Public Health), Ayomide Ogunsakin (first-year, School of Medicine) and Bukky Babalola (third-year doctoral student focused on health communication in the Communication, Culture, and Media Studies program). 

The DC Public Health Case Challenge aims to promote interdisciplinary, problem-based learning around a public health issue that faces the local Washington, DC, community. Universities in the DC area, like Howard, form teams of 3-6 members from at least three disciplines.​ The teams are given a case built by students from the participating universities, which includes background information on a local public health issue. The teams have a limited amount of time to propose an intervention and present it to an expert panel of judges. Each team is judged on the interdisciplinary nature of their response, feasibility of the implementation, their creativity, and practicality. 

In an interview with The Sway, the Howard group discussed their project entitled Reaching Equity Access and Championing Health Outcomes (REACH OUT), which “focused on the reproductive health needs of cis and trans women experiencing homelessness and designed a mobile reproductive health care clinic intervention that was community-centered and partnered with a local HBCU,” according to the National Academy of Medicine.

The Sway: What inspired you to come together to form a team for the DC Public Health Case Challenge?

REACH OUT (RO): To highlight the need for interdisciplinary approaches to improve the health outcomes of historically marginalized communities. We all have a vested interest and passion for providing public health resources in our communities and understand how race, gender, culture, or economic (social determinants of health) affect it, specifically the community that we currently reside in, Washington, DC. All of our disciplines will affect public health in the future. 

TS: What was it like to work/collaborate with an interdisciplinary team? What do you think are the hallmarks of an effective interdisciplinary team? 

RO: It was a rewarding experience to work as an interdisciplinary team. The most interesting part was we all had different perspectives and plans that led to the same goal. In our discussions and meetings we found ourselves explaining the same concepts in different ways, or improving upon a previously discussed idea because of these different routes to the same goal. The two most important hallmarks for us were that people were willing to listen and learn because all of us added something to the team that another member may not have thought of.

TS: What are the benefits to collaboration on multiple levels (meaning, between undergrads, grads)? 

RO: In graduate school, you work solely within your discipline, so your perspective may be slightly narrower. The undergraduate level allows for a broader spectrum of thinking and having multiple areas to pull from. A collaboration of undergraduate and graduate students allows for there to be potential gaps filled as a plan develops. In a project like this, there was much need to pull on resources that are available locally or within the region and both levels aided the process.

TS: Please tell us a bit about your winning proposed intervention. 

RO: The problem of this year’s case challenge was to create a public health intervention that addressed women, including trans women facing or at risk of facing homelessness in Washington, DC. Our winning intervention, REACH OUT proposed a mobile health clinic that would serve Wards 5, 6, 7, and 8 in the District. Organized as a multifunctional clinic, our target population of both women and trans women, hoped to provide reproductive health care services along with guidance to additional resources needed to gain permanent and sustainable housing while participating in the program. The mobile clinic team proposed a program, an outreach coordinator, attending physicians, a registered nurse, a social worker, a translator, and a vehicle operator all trained with cultural competency. Our main goal was to provide comprehensive care through three main areas of partnerships including government agencies, community organizations, and mainly a local HBCU, like Howard. Our main partnership was to be situated close to an HBCU so as to leverage resources such as student clinics, pro-bono pledges, and community services initiatives already vital to the institution. From here, our clinic hoped to utilize student volunteers as the program rotated physically between our community partners and on supplies resourced by government agencies. 

TS: Together you won for Best Community-Centered intervention, why did you choose to use a community-centered approach to your health intervention? 

RO: The decision to employ a community-centered approach was less a choice and more an unintentional reflection of our values and positionality as Black women. It took some time for us to decide on a specific direction for our intervention, but we all agreed very early on that whatever direction we chose it would center people like us and have a robust foundation of cultural competency and social justice. Our emphasis on reproductive and sexual health services came from our knowledge of the Black maternal health crisis, and the need to focus on the needs of our community in everything we do. So even though unintentional, there would have been no other way for our group - community is at our center so logically, it would also be for anything we created together. 

TS: What advice would you give to someone who is interested in learning more about participating in the DC Public Health Case Challenge? 

RO: Be dedicated and show up for your team. The most important part is developing the plan and sticking to the goals of the case. However, without your team seeing eye-to-eye, none of that gets done. While working on the project everyone is going to get stressed and feel overworked, but that is when it’s important to try and understand each other. Asking how you can show up for each other, if additional support is needed, reaching out to advisors and communication all play a very important role. 

TS: How did this challenge impact your other academic priorities? Is there anything that was useful that you plan to use in the future? 

RO: This Challenge called for a lot more time management, especially due to the short time frame. Our graduate teammates often had class in the evenings so our team meetings would be late. It was a long two weeks for all of us and it caused some extra academic stress. The most useful things for the future are preparation and diligence. We had team meetings until 11:30 PM some days, so making use of daytime between work, course work and classes for this project was a meticulous skill we all further developed. 

TS: Will there be an upcoming collaboration amongst your team, or future participation in another public health case challenge? 

RO: As of now, there is no concrete future for participating in another public health Case Challenge or anything related. However, if an opportunity arises most of us would rise to meet it. Some might even return for next year’s group as participants (if allowed) or advisors to support. Additionally, our futures lead to public health careers so it would be no surprise if we continue to do similar work and come together again in the future either at Howard or elsewhere.