In the first legislative sessions following the historic voter turnout in the 2020 election, lawmakers in 47 states introduced bills making it harder to vote, according to New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice. These and other efforts are widely viewed as disproportionately affecting communities of color.

When Dr. Malia Jones (MPH '08, PhD '12) sent an email to friends and family on March 5, 2020, with her insights about a looming pandemic, she couldn’t have known what would follow.

Latinos constitute 39% of California's population, and since March 2020 they have held many of the essential jobs that kept Californians well fed and functioning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, according to research led by two UCLA Fielding School faculty members, their “reward” has been the highest rate of COVID-19 infections and deaths in the state, with significant disparities between Latinos and non-Hispanic whites across all age groups.

When COVID-19 first began to spread across the U.S., Fielding School MPH student Tram-Elayne Nguyen worried about her parents, first-generation immigrants from Vietnam. “They were getting a lot of confusing information about what they should do and whether or not the pandemic was serious,” Nguyen recalls. “I could see that there was no clear, digestible, unbiased information for members of the Vietnamese community.”

Long overlooked and underfunded, public health moved into the spotlight last year, as COVID-19 demanded expertise and solutions while underscoring the importance of investing in infrastructure to prepare for future outbreaks. But while COVID-19 captured much of the focus, other problems festered.

HOW HAVE MORE THAN 66,000 HOMELESS people in Los Angeles fared during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic?

AS THE FOG BEGINS TO LIFT on the most deadly pandemic in more than a century, we in public health are left to confront the reality that at home and abroad, communities face unprecedented challenges to their health and well-being — challenges that transcend a pandemic that has taken millions of lives while inflicting devastating physical and mental health impacts.

XHANA THOMPSON SAYS SHE KNEW LITTLE ABOUT PUBLIC HEALTH when one of her professors at Tougaloo College informed her of an opportunity to participate in a new summer program offered by the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health in partnership with Tougaloo, a historically Black liberal arts institution in Jackson, Mississippi.