The Public Health Post website pulled up on a laptop screen. Photo: Mike Saunders
Public Health Post Expands in Celebration of SPH’s 50th
Over the past decade, PHP has built a reputation as a both a wide-ranging and dependable resource for the public and a unique educational opportunity for students at the School of Public Health. The digital publication is currently recruiting MPH students to join its largest-ever cohort of fellows.
In 2026, Public Health Post (PHP) welcomed its 11th cohort of student fellows—four MPH students who joined the digital publication at a celebratory moment as the School of Public Health marked its 50th anniversary and PHP turned 10 years old. In honor of these milestones, PHP plans to expand the 2027-2028 fellowship class to include up to seven students.
“We are thrilled to be able to offer this experience to more students than ever before,” says Mallory Bersi (SPH‘19), PHP’s managing editor. “We’ve seen a lot of interest in the fellowship in years past, so we want to build on that momentum and welcome more voices and perspectives into the next cohort. We’re at a time in public health where collaborating and sharing diverse ideas are essential to moving the field forward.”
Produced by the School but editorially independent, PHP is a unique online population health magazine with two complementary aims: to surface critical intersections in public health and social justice across the United States and to train the next generation to be effective public health communicators.
“We are here to uplift the stories of public health and to remind readers that social conditions matter. Health is individual, but it is also communal—we are connected to other people in buses and planes, at work, in school, and through the air we breathe.”
Michael Stein, PHP executive editor and chair and professor of health law, policy & management
The selective, year-long PHP fellowship empowers on-campus MPH students to bring their individual passions to the national conversation on public health. Writing fellows shepherd dozens of pieces each from pitch to publication—explaining the latest health research, interrogating striking data visualizations, and profiling influential leaders and changemakers.
The fellowship’s curriculum blends craft and community through weekly writing workshops and editorial meetings. Under the mentorship of SPH faculty and staff—including Michael Stein, executive editor and chair and professor of health law, policy & management; Jennifer Beard, senior editor and clinical professor of global health; and Bersi—students translate dense academic jargon into accessible, engaging narratives that can deepen public understanding of complex challenges and raise awareness of underreported, evidence-based solutions.
“Public health is a brand that needs help,” says Stein, author of several public health books considered “required reading” by health leaders nationwide. “We are here to uplift the stories of public health and to remind readers that social conditions matter. Health is individual, but it is also communal—we are connected to other people in buses and planes, at work, in school, and through the air we breathe.”
Five days a week, the student writing fellows and a variety of expert guest authors publish articles to publichealthpost.org, covering scientific advances, policy developments, and other newsworthy topics in clear, engaging language aimed at everyone from other students and practitioners in the field to journalists, policymakers, and the wider public. Their stories fall into several broad categories—mental and behavioral health, health equity, the environment, sexual and reproductive health, and disease— but cover a myriad of distinct subjects from AI-generated depression to Bitcoin’s toxic footprint.
“Nurturing a robust community of writers at SPH is a key component of the School’s Public Health Writing Program, and PHP is a major part of that,” says Beard. “We hope that the expansion of the program allows more students to dive into the writing process and refine their public health communication skills.”
Since its founding in 2016, PHP has supported over 40 student fellows and more than 900 guest contributors. Each cohort expands the publication’s reach: once a week, PHP’s newsletter is sent to more than 13,000 subscribers across all 50 states and more than 100 countries. With the help of a student fellow specializing in multimedia production—a new track introduced in 2024—PHP reaches tens of thousands more on Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn.
“We are particularly excited that PHP’s upcoming expansion will allow the publication to further embrace multimedia production, since we know people are increasingly turning to social media to get their health information,” says Bersi. An additional one to two fellows in the 2027 – 2028 cohort will focus on creating multimedia content.
“We also hope that by adjusting the weekly commitment from 15 hours per week to 10 hours per week, the students who participate will retain the bandwidth to engage in research opportunities and extracurricular activities on and off campus as they wish,” says Bersi.
The impact of students who accept PHP fellowships goes beyond readership and views during their year in the program. Alumni have gone on to hold roles as professional writers, attorneys, communications managers, data analysts, technical advisors, and community organizers—carrying forth the skills they honed at SPH and the storytelling mission they dedicated themselves to at PHP into diverse sectors of public health.
Read more from the PHP fellows—past and present—at publichealthpost.org and in PHP’s weekly newsletter.
Applications to the 2027-2028 PHP Fellowship are open now through October 2, 2026 at 11:59 pm. Interested on-campus MPH students graduating in or after January 2028 are encouraged to apply, regardless of whether they have prior writing experience.
Source: https://www.bu.edu/sph/news/articles/2026/public-health-post-expands-in-celebration-of-sphs-50th