At the USC, public health students not only study leadership – they imagine daring and innovative alternatives to the status quo. This semester, students signed up in PM 564: the leadership and public health management course followed some of the most urgent health challenges in the world, demonstrating the power of innovative and strategic thought.
“The applied learning foundation of this course promotes a practical approach and focused on the solutions of leadership in public health,” explains Ans IRFAN, MD, EDD, DRPH, SCD, MPH, MRPL, Director of Digital Apprenticeship and Innovation and Associate Professor of Population and Public Health at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. “In this course, students have embarked on complex and community projects designed to break systemic barriers and create a lasting change.”
Thanks to an iterative model and the reflection group, students have developed daring interventions based on evidence that exceeds academic discussion with a real impact. Their work resulted in the symposium on social innovation of spring 2025, a dynamic space where future leaders of public health presented exploitable solutions which mixed research, ethics and strategic implementation.
“We are not only forcing public health professionals; We cultivate visionaries who challenge broken systems and innovate for justice, as you can see reflected in very in -depth and detailed approaches to take daring ideas and transform them into exploitable organizations. This course testifies to the way in which emerging leaders can stimulate systemic change – not in the distant future, but right now, “explains Irfan.
Student projects have addressed a wide range of pressing but often ignored problems, including traps of digital health in the health system, housing as a structural determinant of health, dependence on substances and disproportionate chemicals.
“It is not only a question of accredited education – it is about transformation through a leadership objective,” explains Irfan. “Our students go as leaders, ready to stimulate real changes and propose solutions that eliminate barriers in communities with the greatest need.”
Here, we invite you to take advantage of the presentations of the Social Innovation Symposium:
Spring 2025 Social innovation symposium
Bridging Digital Healthcare
Researchers: Brenda Carranza, Leslie Carrasco, Bashir Alizada, Katarina Conpices, Clarice Ariaga
Insecurity and public health solutions (hephs)
Researchers: Evan Hird, Geolina Ibrahim, Safiya Farah, Olivia Estrada, Natalie Estrada
Research and recovery of dependence on substances (SDRR)
Researchers: Megan Makepeace, Chiara McCartney, Alejandro Morgana, Diana Morvey, Janet Ngallo
The exhibition laboratory
Researchers: Christy Sidhu, byul Sharma, Rushni Wickramasinghe, Alicia Thoe and Ritu Thakker