The School of Public Health has launched a dynamic new website to empower educators everywhere with the tools and best practices to train the next generation of public health professionals.

The pioneering platform, titled Teaching Public Health (TPH), hosts a centralized repository of pedagogical resources designed to support public health students and teachers at every phase of their careers. By harnessing content created by SPH faculty, their peers at other institutions, and partners across the field, TPH provides streamlined access to high-quality, evidence-based materials, including online courses, learning modules, guides, manuals, toolkits, webinars, and more.

The resource hub at TPH was created by SPH’s education team under the leadership of Amanda Velez, assistant dean of strategic educational initiatives, and builds on successive efforts at the School to advance equity and excellence in public health education.

 “Over the past decade, the field of public health has gained a lot of awareness for its role in addressing complex global problems, such as pandemics, health disparities, and environmental health hazards,” says Velez. “TPH was conceived in direct response to a growing demand for public health practitioners in the workforce, as well as an increasing interest among young people in the field.”

According to the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH) and the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH), the number of degrees awarded by accredited undergraduate public health programs in the U.S. grew by over 1000% between 2001 and 2020, overtaking master’s programs as the most conferred public health degree in the country. Fueled by the growth of existing programs as well as the introduction of new programs, the number of institutions granting undergraduate degrees without graduate public health programs has increased substantially, from 44 in 2001 to 183 in 2020.

Given the School of Public Health’s strong reputation for excellence in teaching, particularly inclusive and interdisciplinary teaching, the education team created a dedicated space to share what is now nearly 50 years of institutional knowledge.

“Teaching, in my opinion, is a great privilege and responsibility. Sharing best practices and resources elevates our field, and I am so glad that the School has invested in this site to promote so much outstanding work,” says Lisa Sullivan, associate dean of education. She hopes that the site can highlight the groundbreaking work of SPH’s faculty and help the School to continue to attract exceptional students, as well as help faculty and students around the globe in highly resource-constrained settings access reliably high-quality materials.

The TPH website contents are split into two categories: Learn and Teach. Within Learn, visitors can create an account and enroll in asynchronous online courses. While the courses do not grant academic credit, several are eligible for a BU credential, including a certificate of completion and a Credly badge that can be added to a LinkedIn profile. There are currently five courses available, from an overview of analytic studies to a practitioner’s guide to global health, with an additional course on the foundations of public health coming soon. Learners can also access a variety of step-by-step tutorials for critical public health skills under Guides and Manuals, such as tips on conducting needs assessments, creating fact sheets, and writing policy memos from Jennifer Beard, clinical associate professor of global health.

Within Teach, visitors can find a compilation of resources related to inclusive teaching, instructional strategies and support, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. The resources cite sources within the SPH community, such as a book titled “Teaching Public Health” that Sullivan co-edited with former Dean Sandro Galea in 2019, as well as sources from external partners and peer institutions, such as a checklist from Iowa State University on strategies for creating an inclusive course, an e-book from the American Public Health Association Press on race and health research, and a toolkit from the de Beaumont Foundation on communicating about public health.

The TPH website rounds out a triad of SPH-run websites focused on democratizing public health information, including Public Health Post (PHP), a daily population health magazine published by SPH students and leading public health experts, and the Public Health Conversation (PHC), a portfolio of interviews and discussions about issues of consequence in the field. The site also features an archive of TPH webinars, recordings of an annual symposium dedicated to bringing together deans, instructors, and pedagogical experts to explore topics relevant to public health teaching.

Over time, the education team intends to add more materials to the website, says Emelia Nunn, a digital learning designer at SPH and one of TPH’s main architects. For example, volume two of “Teaching Public Health” is scheduled for publication in spring 2026 and will be linked from the page on instructional strategies and support. The team also looks forward to welcoming submissions from outside SPH. In Nunn’s view, TPH should evolve with the needs of the field.

“Just on the learning side of the website, we have a pretty sizable repository of courses we plan to launch on this platform, beyond those we have already built and opened,” says Nunn. “This was part of what made this project so rewarding to be a part of, because there is not simply an ‘it’s done’ moment with Teaching Public Health. It’s a resource we get to refine and grow for many years to come.”

For more information about contributing your own resources to TPH, reach out to teachph@bu.edu.