An Anti-Racism Public Health Graduate Program: Mentoring of Students and Igniting Community

Abstract

Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC) are underrepresented in the public health workforce. Strengthening the public health pipeline through graduate institutions of public health is a necessary anti-racist approach to address health disparities. Programs that provide effective mentoring are one strategy for evidence-based anti-oppressive instructional practice, proven to help racial and ethnic students historically targeted by oppression in propelling career trajectories, professional development, and overall institutional experience in graduate school. The Mentoring of Students and Igniting Community (MOSAIC) program was founded in 2019 as a comprehensive and anti-racist faculty-to-student mentorship initiative for BIPOC and first-generation students. Through a scoping review of mentorship programs at schools of public health and an iterative feedback process that included faculty, students, and staff, the MOSAIC model was created. Built on the tenets of successful mentorship approaches, MOSAIC focuses on increasing equity and educational justice with a focus on professional development and academic success through faculty-to-student mentorship. The growth of MOSAIC has demonstrated it fills a critical gap for students of color and first-generation students in a school of public health. MOSAIC intends to act as a programmatic model for replication at other schools of public health to provide necessary support and mentorship for BIPOC students.

Message from the Editor-in-Chief: Celebrating 10 Years of Pedagogy in Health Promotion: The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

“…The critical role of mentoring in supporting students from diverse backgrounds is discussed in several other papers. A graduate-level mentoring program for underrepresented groups is described in detail by Samari et al (2022). The authors based their program on principles of successful mentorship, and note the importance of focusing on professional development and academic success through faculty-to-student mentoring.…”

When it “Feels Like We’re in This Together”: Toward a Trauma-Informed Public Health Pedagogy Drawing on Lived Experiences

“…The need and desire for expanded course offerings in public health that respond to the challenges of this period, and for racial equity curriculum review are also widespread (Fleming, 2020; Seiler et al, 2022). Finally, calls abound to increase the diversity of the public health workforce in order to “enrich health professions” with their perspectives to more effectively combat public health problems (Merino, 2019, p. 238; Samari et al, 2022).…”

“…In response to COVID-19, students have called for an “institutional ethic of care” in public health education that recognizes the traumatic effects of the pandemic on students, and have written about their perspectives on new directions for public health education (Jenei et al, 2020; Watts Isley et al, 2021). In response to the need to better address racism, schools have experimented with new mentoring programs for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and first-generation students, and calls abound for moves toward antiracist curriculum and faculty training programs in anti-oppressive pedagogy, among other efforts (Aqil et al, 2021; Samari et al, 2022).…”

Effects of a Mentoring Program for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color and First-Generation Public Health Students

“…20 However, comprehensive faculty-to-student mentorship programs at the graduate level for historically oppressed groups, including BIPOC and first-generation students, are uncommon. 12,19,21 Mentorship of any kind can positively affect graduate student mental health and well-being. [22][23][24] Although the benefits of mentorship for minoritized racial and ethnic graduate students have been reported, 21,24 no previous studies, to our knowledge, have considered the effects of a graduate-level mentorship program on the wellbeing of first-generation and BIPOC students at a school or program of public health.…”