From College Hill to Capitol Hill, Brown’s Pandemic Center is helping us prepare for “the next one”

New office in the Capitol

In January 2024, the Pandemic Center opened a new hub in Washington, D.C. to expand opportunities for Brown students and faculty to engage directly with public policymakers. Located in the National Press Building, just two blocks from the White House, the new office supports the center’s efforts to connect Brown students to internships, fellowships, and other opportunities with global and Washington-based organizations that are working to combat pandemics.

The center is providing mentorship for Brown undergraduates serving within the center, as well as students interning in organizations such as the Nuclear Threat Initiative and the Office of the United States Surgeon General. With a new Brown health security hub in the nation’s capital, the Pandemic Center will continue to build strategic relationships that provide students with opportunities to learn, work, and train.

In D.C., Brown faculty and staff contribute to key policy discussions and forums, including those hosted by the White House, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Council on Foreign Relations, and other policy institutions.

At the open house celebrating the launch of the center’s D.C. office, Dr. Ashish K. Jha, dean of the School of Public Health, noted, “If you want to engage with a broad range of stakeholders, Washington is indispensable. In order to do this work to make societies safer from pandemics, it has to be a multi-site approach. You can’t do it just from Providence.”

Training the next generation of public health leaders

The COVID-19 pandemic elevated the visibility of the field of public health and sparked the interest of a new generation of students who want to make a difference. Core to the mission of the Pandemic Center is equipping future public health leaders with the skills they’ll need to make the right decisions in the face of the next pandemic. 

A new course, Pandemic Game Changers, is doing just that. Launched in the fall 2023 semester and now also offered in D.C., the course brings top governmental and nongovernmental leaders from the United States and around the world into the classroom to cross-train the next generation of leaders in public health and national security.

Pandemic Game Changers is situated at the intersection of national security, health, and democratic resilience to provide opportunities for students to examine the public health and public policy issues vital to mitigating pandemic risks. Students learn how to analyze scenarios, identify and hone policy solutions, and convince decision-makers to take the steps needed to address public health crises caused by emerging biological threats. 

“We need to train the next generation of decision-makers — those who will be in the situation room — to be ready for worst-case scenarios,” says Beth Cameron, senior advisor to the Pandemic Center and professor of the practice of health services, policy and practice. “This course offers students a unique opportunity to learn the skills to fill those roles while getting real, hands-on experience.”

Yuliya Velhan ’25 MPH’26 was a teaching assistant for Pandemic Game Changers this fall. She is studying public health and epidemiology as part of Brown’s five-year undergraduate/master’s in public health program. Velhan, a Metro Detroit native, interned at the White House’s Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy last summer. 

“During my time as a TA for the Pandemic Game Changers course, I had the opportunity to work with Dr. Beth Cameron and Dr. Wilmot James, both of whom have been outstanding mentors during my time at the Pandemic Center,” says Velhan. “Assisting with the preparation of class materials, organizing lectures, and assessing students' work deepened my knowledge and understanding of pandemic preparedness and response, biosafety, and biosecurity. Engaging with the course’s remarkable guest speakers—including leaders from the Pandemic Fund and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations—gave me a unique perspective on the different approaches to addressing and solving challenges in this field. Being a TA has been an enriching experience, as it not only allowed me to sharpen my knowledge and skills, but also interact with other Brown students in the course, both in Providence and D.C., and hear about their experiences, interests, and projects that led them to take this class.” 

Nuzzo says, “Students are showing up with a deep interest in the topic and they want to roll up their sleeves. They understand that an important driver of pandemic severity is our underlying vulnerabilities, our inequalities within societies, and they want to tackle that. They’re just ready to work and to make the world better and it’s honestly incredibly inspiring.”