How the School of Public Health cultivated two legacies

休斯顿公共卫生学院的乌西卫生学院成立于1967年，当时是德克萨斯大学公共卫生学院，已教育8,000多名学生以重塑人口健康。他们的教育工作者努力地培训了多样化的全球公共卫生领导者网络。

学校的第一个十年中的两个杰出的校友，现在是夫妻和妻子 - 夏琳·亨特·詹姆斯（Charlene Hunter James），MPH和安德鲁·詹姆斯（Andrew James），MS，DRPH - 为其成长和进化做出了巨大的贡献。这些鼓舞人心的公共卫生专业人员是大学的一小部分少数学生。夏琳（Charlene）和安德鲁（Andrew）的50年个人和公共卫生旅程始于1970年代，当时两人正在涉足持续研究生工作的挑战，以及影响少数人口的更广泛的社会和文化问题。

夏琳（Charlene）对公共卫生的兴趣源于她在菲斯克大学（Fisk University）的时间以及在田纳西谷管理局（Tennessee Valley Authority）和田纳西州结核病协会的实习期，该协会与菲斯克（Fisk），田纳西州立大学（Tennessee State University）建立了一个财团，田纳西州立大学和梅哈里医学院（Meharry Medical College）。

“I was one of the first students to express an interest, and I had the opportunity to get hands-on experience in rural health and exposure to rural health care challenges in both northeastern and southwestern Tennessee,” Charlene said.

Andrew’s journey began in Mississippi, working with his mentor, researcher H. Jack Geiger, MD, MS. Their research focused on Mississippi’s high infant and maternal mortality rates — a problem that persists today. In 1970, the infant mortality rate in Mississippi was among the highest in the nation (Singh, 2019). Andrew’s work identified that access to clean and safe drinking water greatly reduced the mortality rates of infants and women.

“Women had to walk for miles to collect clean water,” Andrew said. Geiger and Andrew’s work in Mississippi started their legacy of examining systems of health care aimed at improving health in underserved communities. Geiger established the Delta Health Center, the nation’s first rural community health center. Andrew initially served as the first Black sanitarian specialist in Mississippi where he identified risks and enforced environmental, health and safety regulations. He would later serve at the Delta Health Center as an environmental engineer, environmental improvement director, and center director.

Andrew and Charlene met for the first time in 1973, at a conference of allied health schools in downtown Houston. While pursuing his doctorate at the School of Public Health, Andrew actively worked to recruit more minority students after noticing a stark lack of racial and ethnic representation in Texas and public health across the nation.

Charlene, a Fisk University senior at the time, vividly recalled that first meeting.

“Andrew talked to me about how the school was relatively new and was recruiting students of color,” she said.

夏琳（Charlene）一直都知道她会攻读研究生学位，该学位依靠弱势社区，并促进获得医疗保健的机会。夏琳说：“他询问了我的兴趣，考虑了我的回应，后来给我写了一封推荐信。”

Andrew recognized that Charlene and he shared the same ambitions. The two leaders sought to enact small shifts in public health, hoping their work would benefit the low-income communities that did not have access to health resources.

在美国历史上充满挑战的时期，当一个人的皮肤的颜色经常确定社会期望和治疗时，夏琳和安德鲁与同龄人一起面对学术界的磨难，考试和压力作为有色人种。每个人都希望毕业并颁布改变，以帮助公众，并将其不同的观点带到该领域的最前沿。

完成他的博士学位之后,安德鲁孔蒂nued to advocate for access to health care and essential public health needs, a pursuit that would define his career in public health. His work in Houston included positions as the first fair housing administrator, assistant director of the Houston Health Department, and associate professor at Texas Southern University College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. Andrew’s dedication to the improvement of the population’s health would reunite them through his own postgraduate research.

Andrew’s and Charlene’s lives continued to converge. Research projects, friends, and other instances of fate would consistently bring them together. Andrew recruited Charlene and another colleague to help him collect data for a study on immunization rates in children under the age of 3 while she was still a student. She remembered knocking on doors in the summer heat of Houston. After collecting information, Andrew would call at the end of each day and say, “How many babies did you get for me today?”

Public health, at its core, is aiding people. In this research, they worked tirelessly; this memory served as one of the early pieces of their history together, shifting from being classmates to a new stage in their lives together. They married a few years after Charlene completed her MPH. They would both enter new experiences in public health, continuing to advocate for the underserved. Together they championed the benefits of public health and instilled their devotion into the child they welcomed into the fold. They will celebrate 42 years of marriage in 2023.

After graduating, Charlene worked alongside one of her professors, Hardy Loe, MD, MPH, retired associate professor and associate dean for community health, by providing technical assistance, health planning, and access to health care services across the state. Charlene spent 32 years at the Houston Health Department, with 15 of those years as the director of the Harris County Area Agency on Aging.

Charlene’s graduate studies allowed her to view health impacts holistically.

“It made me realize that I could not look at just health services,” she said. “You have epidemiology and environmental health; it all comes together. Especially with health disparities, and public health policies, you must look across all disciplines. I just could not look at only medical services in public health; there’s a broader field of health services.”

Charlene was also a devoted advocate through volunteering and served as the state volunteer president of AARP Texas, the nation’s largest advocacy organization for older adults. Charlene said she views the elderly as an often overlooked population. Using her background in health administration, continued her devotion to creating an impact in Texas through these planning agencies.

夏琳（Charlene）和安德鲁（Andrew）在公共卫生方面拥有不同的重点，但了解每个人如何创造转变以弥补影响人口的因素。

“Being people of color gave us a broader perspective in understanding issues impacting the quality of life of people of color — prevailing public health issues, access, availability of care, rural and urban health issues, infant mortality, and environmental impact,” Charlene said.

夏琳（Charlene）和安德鲁（Andrew）致力于为公众提供帮助。通过公共卫生学院的高等教育，他们能够专注于可及性，获得终身朋友，帮助读少数族裔学生，并倡导对弱势社区的健康成果。今天，学校进行了同样的追求。

年代ince its doors opened in 1967, the School of Public Health has cultivated a learning environment to develop future leaders and foster the field of public health, while contributing to the formation of lasting relationships.

While Charlene and Andrew spend their lives together in retirement in Houston, they continue to advocate and promote the field they helped revolutionize. Fifty years after meeting at a conference in Houston, the hum of their service to public health continues within the walls at the School of Public Health and in their family.

During the summer of 2022, they welcomed their first grandchild. When asked what legacy they would like to leave in public health for their future generations Charlene responded, “I’d like to see the visibility of public health soar — focusing on education, the role of public officials, adequate funding of public health, and policy issues.”

An aspiration well worth the effort.