Contributions to Public Health.

Significant Contributions to Public Health – Part I

For your final project, you will be researching an individual and their contribution to community and

public health. Because of the size of this project, you will be doing the first part of this project in

Week 3 then adding the final portion in Week 5. You have the option of writing a paper or putting

together a presentation. Details are below the outline. Overall, you will be researching an historical

figure in the public health world, their contribution to public health, and how their work helped shape

the public health system. Furthermore, you will be analyzing how their contribution from the past

continues to contribute to today’s public health system and how it might guide future work within the

industry.

Follow this outline to help formulate your paper or presentation:

ACTION: Select one of the historical figures and their associated public health topic

Margaret Higgins Sanger/Reproductive health
 Rachel Carson/Environmental health
 Franklin D. Roosevelt/Health care administration
John Snow/Communicable and infectious disease
 Luther T. Terry/Smoking
 W. E. B. DuBois/Social determinants of health
 Larry Kramer/Health activism
 An individual of your own choice: YOU MUST OBTAIN INSTRUCTOR APPROVAL IN
ADVANCE
ACTION: Research the individual’s background
 GRADED ELEMENT: Describe your selected person’s biographical background (i.e.experience).

o HELP: This can include resume elements such as birthdate, location, education, and

brief statement of their contribution to public health. (Reminder: biographical

information can be easily plagiarized. Please do not copy from your biographical

websites. Paraphrase and/or quote and cite everything according to APA.)

ACTION: Research the barriers and issue of the time

GRADED ELEMENT: Analyze the climate of the time period in terms of political,

socioeconomic, environmental and technological context in which this person worked

o HELP: Think about whether this person was up against resistance or was their work

welcomed. [For example, if you were writing on Abraham Lincoln and the abolition of

slavery, you would note that slavery was prevalent and accepted at the time and the

change was welcomed by some and rejected by others]

GRADED ELEMENT: Examine the personal beliefs of your person that prompted this work.

o HELP: You are basically addressing the question: “Why did this person get involved

with the issue at the time?” [In continuing the Lincoln example above, you would note

that black people were considered property, not people; yet Lincoln believed

everyone had equal rights regardless of skin color].

Instruction Files
Significant Contributions to Public Health.docx
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