Above, Gabriela Gonzalez, who is part of the inaugural class of the Urban Public Health Department, chats with Mayor Michelle Wu after Monday morning’s announcement. Cassidy McNeeley photo
Mayor Michelle Wu visited UMass Boston’s Dorchester campus on Monday to launch a partnership between the school’s Urban Public Health Department and the city’s Public Health Commission (BPHC) that is aimed at improving the health and well-being of all Boston residents— particularly its teenagers.
The collaboration is part of “Boston SPHERE” (Strengthening Public Health-Academic Partnerships in Education, Research, and Equity), a coalition of more than 30 local academic and research institutions.
Over the course of two semesters, UMass Boston students will work alongside BPHC staff and other experts as part of a senior capstone project that will eventually bring them into the city’s high schools to teach teens about health issues.
“They’ll receive hands-on training from public health professionals, then bring that knowledge into our high schools, teaching, mentoring, and helping spread that knowledge in communities across Boston,” Wu said. “It is one more example of how we continue to bring the smartest people together to solve the biggest problems that really matter.”
UMass Boston’s chancellor Marcelo Suárez-Orozco said the campus is “exceptionally well positioned to help prepare Boston’s next generation of healthcare professionals.
“We expect this initiative to be a win for the healthcare system, ensuring that early-career healthcare professionals are trained, set up for success, supported, and scaffolded moving forward,” he said.
This fall, the students will receive training in adolescent health, community engagement, and public health practices. Come spring, under BPHC supervision, they will put their knowledge to work at Roxbury Prep, Boston Prep, and Academy of Pacific Rim.
UMass Boston seniors Althea Laci, 23, and Trinity Stinson-Salmon, 21, are participating in the program. “Right now we’re in the training phase of it,” Laci said in an interview with The Reporter. “Next semester we will be going into classrooms and teaching the students and connecting with them. The training so far is great.”
Bo Fernhall, the dean of UMass Boston’s Manning College of Nursing & Health Sciences, said that the partnership is a “wonderful opportunity” for students to make a difference in their own communities.
“Our students live here,” Fernhall said. “They grow up here. Their families live here. They’re intimately familiar with all the issues that we encounter in public health and healthcare in the City of Boston. They will make a big difference, and that’s why we have this new program.”
Dr. Bisola Ojikutu, Boston’s Commissioner of Public Health, said the partnership is one of SPHERES’ first workforce initiatives. Through it, not only are students like Laci and Stinson-Salmon learning about public health, but “they’re actually practicing it,” she said. “They’re sharing knowledge, and they’re showing younger students there’s a place for them in this burgeoning field.
He addressed UMass Boston students, saying “You are not only the future of public health, you are shaping its future right now. Your communities need your knowledge; our institutions need your perspectives; and Boston needs your leadership. Together, we can build a Boston with a stronger public health system, and where every single resident, in every single neighborhood, has the opportunity to live long and live well.”
Gabriela Gonzalez, another senior enrolled in the capstone project class, said she and her classmates are eager to serve the community.
“To be a scientist of public health means to observe, analyze, report, and to teach,” she said. “Through this senior capstone, we will work directly with public health professionals, learning to teach sexual health education and relational health in a way that is medically accurate, equitable, and comprehensive. These skills are of great value to us as we grow as advocates and future public health scientists.”
Copyright © 2026 Boston Neighborhood News, Inc. This content may not be re-published or re-used without written permission.
