Message from the Dean

A Commitment to Public Health

Dear Pitt Public Health colleagues,

This issue of Pitt Public Health magazine focuses on the challenges to health services faced by rural communities. It’s something that’s especially close to my heart.

When I first came to the United States decades ago, I couldn’t help but see the similarities in terms of access to care, education and just general health that existed between rural communities and lower- and middle-income countries like my native Suriname. It was those disparities that really cemented my commitment to a career in public health.

One of the smallest countries in South America, Suriname gained its independence from the Netherlands in 1975. It is rich in natural resources, including gold and offshore oil reserves. Most of Suriname’s multicultural population lives near the coast, and large tracts of tropical rain forest cover much of the rest of the country.

Since 2023, University of Pittsburgh students have been able to participate in a two-week immersive study abroad program there thanks to the generosity of Lee and Isabel “Issie” Foster, longtime fixtures in Pittsburgh business and philanthropy. See Crossing Cultures. 

The immunization rate in the interior of Suriname at the start of my medical practice was very low, yet I was able to significantly raise that immunization rate within three years—not by working with other health care professionals, per se, but by training local leaders in tribal nations and nuns to help me provide childhood vaccinations to thousands of young ones.

My second “aha moment” was when I worked with Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It was truly an epiphany to see how many hazardous waste sites were located in communities that were poor. Regardless of their ethnic makeup, these were communities that didn’t have a say—communities that didn’t have access (to health services).

The same health risk burden currently exists in rural Beaver County, where 40% of those who live there have been directly impacted by a 2023 accident when a train carrying hazardous industrial chemicals derailed just across the state line in East Palestine, Ohio.

It’s clear to me that whatever we do in local, rural communities is No. 1, not enough, No. 2, mostly in reactive mode, and No. 3, that people who live in those places must be part of the solution. It’s where my commitment to community-based participatory research began. I’m really proud of the work that we’re doing in that space—programs and projects that you’ll learn more about in this issue. I hope you’ll agree.

Read on and enjoy,

Maureen Lichtveld, MD, MPH, Dean

Jonas Salk Professor in Population Health
Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health
University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health

>>Back to Spring 2026 issue