Priorities & Partners
We support our communities thanks to the generous help of organizations and individuals
The CUNY SPH Foundation operates at the intersection of the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, building partnerships and securing investments that train and support our students to become highly effective public health professionals, sustain community programming through capacity building and technical assistance, and create interprofessional solutions within public health.
We are committed to supporting the school, its students, and community partners to create a better-prepared public health workforce for our city, state, and country.
CUNY SPH Students
We endeavor to create a better-prepared, more diverse, and dynamic public health workforce by addressing opportunity gaps that persist for students of color and those from underserved backgrounds. Our vision is to build the public health workforce with leaders with lived experience facing health inequities and a commitment to social justice and health equity.
Below we have outlined some of our core programming:
Student Resiliency Fund
Launched in 2020, through this Fund, the CUNY SPH Foundation issues three types of grants to mitigate financial hurdles that may prevent current students from continuing and completing their education:
- Emergency grants to overcome episodic financial crises
- Continuing scholarship awards to alleviate the burden of tuition due to economic hardship
- Tuition debt relief grants to ensure students who finished their degree can receive their diploma despite lingering account balances
The Fund is led by Dr. Lynn Roberts, Associate Dean for Student Affairs and Alumni Relations, and managed by a committee of CUNY SPH staff. This body ensures that all emergency grants are responded to rapidly through a fair and objective lens.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE STUDENT RESILIENCY FUND
If you are a student in need of emergency financial support, please click here to learn more about the application process.
Current & Prior Partners
William Randolph Hearst Foundation
Josiah Macy Foundation
Dr. Richard Park
CUNY SPH Foundation Annual Fund Donors
Career Skills Academy
The Career Skills Academy (CSA) is a groundbreaking program that offers a cohort-based model and comprehensive curriculum designed to prepare CUNY SPH students for career success in public health. CSA addresses disparities in professional development opportunities, equipping students—particularly those from underserved backgrounds—with the skills practice, coaching, and networks needed to thrive.
Through an application process, CSA selects students with limited access to professional development experiences. Participants engage in monthly seminars and workshops that build key career competencies, complemented by interactive masterclasses led by senior leaders from the private, nonprofit, and government sectors. The program is led by the Office of Career Services at CUNY SPH and supported by a volunteer Advisory Committee.
Visit our website to learn more about the Career Skills Academy.
Current & Prior Partners
BNY Mellon
KKR
Dr. Lyndon Haviland
Gramercy Surgical Center (Career Skills Academy Presenting Sponsor)
The Career Skills Academy Advisory Council
Student Scholarship & Fellowship Opportunities
The CUNY SPH Foundation is committed to supporting student success by offering a range of scholarship and fellowship opportunities that foster academic and professional development. These initiatives enhance students’ educational experiences and introduce them to new domains of study. A full list of current scholarship and fellowship opportunities can be found here, and profiles of our students and fellows are available here. Some of our recent opportunities are featured below.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE STUDENT SCHOLARSHIP FUND
“Being a recipient of the Apa Scholarship has had a huge impact on me. I’ve always had a passion for public health and dentistry, but I’ve never known a real-world way to apply those ideas. This program has allowed me to explore paths that I never knew existed and is giving me the tools that I need to make a real impact for those who need it most.”
— Mark Makiling, DDS (MPH ’25 candidate)
“I will always be grateful to both Dr. Haviland and CUNY SPH for the Haviland Fellowship. The fellowship’s focus on migrant health addresses an unmet need and has prepared me well for this work in my future career. This was a valuable opportunity that opened doors to many unique and diverse experiences. Throughout my time at CUNY SPH, I was able to present at conferences across the country, work with accomplished faculty, and hone essential research skills with real-world application.”
— Erinn Bacchus, MPH, PhD ’24
“My overall goal in working with Latino/Hispanic and vulnerable populations is to limit health inequities and ensure everyone receives quality medical care. This fellowship has significantly impacted my career/education in a positive way and has brought me one step closer to achieving this goal. It has helped me to understand that the work I do does not go unnoticed. It has also contributed to my academic development by alleviating the financial burden I was facing as a first-generation Latina starting graduate school.”
— Mariana Barajas, MPH ’24
Harlem Health Initiative Fellowships
The Harlem Health Initiative is led by Deborah Levine, LCSW, ACSW, a respected leader in health equity with over 30 years of experience in coalition-building and community outreach. As part of HHI, we offer fellowships to students, providing them with opportunities to engage directly in health equity work in Harlem. These fellowships support students’ involvement in community-driven initiatives, further fostering the collaboration between the school and local organizations while developing the next generation of public health leaders.
Endowed Harlem Health Fellowship Award in Health Communication for Social Change
CUNY SPH students in the Health Communication for Social Change track completing their Capstone project, a culminating requirement of their degree program, are matched with local organizations as consultative and strategic partners to address communications challenges.
Gil Addo Harlem Health Fellowship
This fellowship provided two CUNY SPH students with the opportunity to conduct their experiential learning within the school’s Harlem Health Initiative to support crucial community activities including cannabis equity, a voter registration drive, and several chronic health conditions facing Harlem.
Deborah Levine, LCSW, ACSW
Current & Prior Partners
Ruth Wooden
Gil Addo
Health Equity and Literacy Program
The Health Equity and Literacy Program (HELP) harnesses an effective model of community partnership and co-design employed throughout the pandemic by the Foundation-funded Vaccine Literacy Campaign (VLC).
HELP collaborates with community organizations and leaders to identify and address pressing health communication needs through iterative design processes. Working across community-engaged programs as part of the Harlem Health Initiative while offering project-based fieldwork placements for CUNY SPH students, activities include promoting knowledge about immunity and the importance of routine vaccinations, raising awareness of mental health concerns and resources, and offering operational support and technical assistance to community-based organizations around navigating new health information, recommendations, and policies.
Current & Prior Partners
Booth Ferris Foundation
New York Community Trust
BIO
New York Health Foundation
Altman Foundation
Samuel Freeman Charitable Trust
Food Justice Health Communication Fellowship
The Food Justice Health Communications Fellowship successfully paired two students with strong interests and experience in food justice to work with a community-based organization over two semesters.
Karla Ignacio and Yanir Cedano were awarded the fellowship and partnered with the Rockaway Development and Revitalization Corporation (RDRC) to create a food justice curriculum for their Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP). Two groups of 40 youth, ages 14-15, participated in workshops addressing food justice in their communities. The Fellows developed a comprehensive curriculum, complete with a facilitator’s guide for RDRC to use in future SYEP programs. This project set the stage for ongoing collaborations with RDRC and serves as a model for addressing health communication needs through academic-community partnerships.
Karla Ignacio (left) and Yanir Cedano (right).
Current & Prior Partners
CVS Health Foundation
Prevention is Power (PIP) Health Care Screening Program
PIP is a 3-year national campaign of the Henry Schein Cares Foundation.
In partnership with the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC), CUNY SPH students in the Dr. Michael Apa Oral Population Health Scholarship Fund design health materials for clinical settings at CHCs nationwide, collect data to evaluate the program’s impact and produce reports on best practices for promoting integrated preventive health care. The first year focused on the connection between heart and oral health, while the second year, currently underway, is supporting the integration of diabetes and oral health care.
The health education materials created focus on the fact that oral health and heart health are closely related.
Current & Prior Partners
Henry Schein Cares Foundation
National Association of Community Health Centers
Health Business Innovation Fund
This groundbreaking fellowship prepared CUNY SPH students with business and entrepreneurial skills at the intersection of health business and public health.
Students participated in an extra-curricular seminar under the mentorship of visiting professor Bunny Ellerin, co-founder and CEO of Digital Health New York. Students were encouraged to participate in specific coursework at the school focused on entrepreneurship and completed their fieldwork in partnership with a New York City-based health business.
Bunny Ellerin, Co-Founder and CEO of Digital Health New York
Current & Prior Partners
Bunny Ellerin
Michael Meng
Ciba Health
Firefly Innovations
Firefly Innovations is the premier public health entrepreneurship platform based at CUNY SPH.
It is a global community of entrepreneurs, academics, innovators, and investors working to develop, fund, and incubate solutions to the most pressing public health challenges. Firefly’s programs provide entrepreneurs mentorship, education, exposure, and opportunities to build partnerships and support. It also connects entrepreneurs and investors to bring solutions to the market.
Learn more at firefly-innovations.org
Current & Former Funders
Ciba Health
