Texas A&M University School of Public Health supervising professor Jennifer Griffith has been named the recipient of the 2024 Riegelman Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Education by the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH).
This prestigious national honor is awarded to a faculty member who has demonstrated exemplary efforts in starting or sustaining an undergraduate program, working with community partners and other disciplines, and earning respect and enthusiasm from students. Mr. Griffith will receive the award, including cash, at the ASPPH Annual Meeting on March 21 in Arlington, Virginia.
“It is a great honor to be recognized by ASPPH as the recipient of the 2024 Riegelman Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Education,” Griffith said. “Watching undergraduate students realize their passion and love for the field of public health has been, and continues to be, the most rewarding aspect of my career. I am grateful and fortunate to be surrounded by like-minded colleagues who continue to support, guide and challenge me on this journey to develop the hygiene profession.”
main architect
Griffiths was one of the principal architects of the School of Public Health’s first undergraduate program, launched in 2014.
“As a founding faculty member of the Bachelor of Public Health degree program, Dr. Griffith had a tremendous impact on establishing the culture, identity, structure, and curriculum of the program,” said Sean Gibbs, dean of the School of Public Health. “Her work has created a rich and fertile ground to support the growth, quality and sustainability of this degree program as well as the degree offerings of the School’s subsequent undergraduate programs. ’s body of work makes her worthy of this award.”
Griffith’s leadership has been instrumental in the growth of the school’s undergraduate programs over the past decade. At its inception, the school's one undergraduate program enrolled her 18 students. As of the 2023-24 academic year, the school offers three undergraduate degree programs with 2,303 students studying.
strong program foundation
Griffith’s efforts focused on building a strong, student-centered academic foundation built on excellence, health equity, and inclusion. She led faculty in initial curriculum and competency mapping to ensure the program met Council on Public Health Education standards. She also helped develop the program's early state-of-the-art evaluation system. The system helped faculty identify and address student learning gaps while also serving as a programmatic assessment tool.
While serving as the school's associate dean for academic affairs from 2019 to 2023, Griffith was instrumental in supporting faculty in new undergraduate programs by championing initiatives such as the Public Health Learning Exchange (PHLEx). . The initiative used semi-formal discussions, networking, and mentoring to share best practices. In addition, she secured funding to support certain teachers so they can participate in educational professional development that strengthens the school's focus on teaching excellence.
excellent education
Griffith is dedicated to providing quality education in our undergraduate courses. She uses her platform to share with students the wide range of professional pathways available in the public health field, opening their eyes not only to careers but also how public health intersects with an individual's daily life. It is also open to the public.
In the classroom, Griffith strives to create an active learning environment where students are valued and engaged in rich, interactive, and diverse experiences, including both high-tech and no-tech approaches as appropriate. Her “high-touch” teaching approach has garnered attention, and she was selected to teach in the first semester of Texas A&M’s Innovative Learning Classroom Building operation.
Griffiths incorporates a modeling approach into the course so that students can practice applying concepts in low-stakes assessments before developing higher-stakes products later in the coursework. In this approach, Griffiths teaches core concepts, models the concepts through everyday examples, and demonstrates application of the concepts and knowledge transfer.
She intentionally teaches bookend courses in her degree program, where she can see her students' progress. Most first-semester freshmen enroll in Griffith's one-hour seminar course, “Concepts of Public Health.” There, Griffith introduces the vast field of public health and emphasizes the expectation of student participation and problem-solving.
Students enroll in capstone courses as upperclassmen. In this course, she and her fellow instructors use a case-to-case competition format that requires students to create intervention proposals and have them evaluated. Griffith also incorporates team teaching in this course, where she gives students the opportunity to learn how to deal with convergent and divergent input and feedback from multiple instructors. This experience helps students mimic what they experience professionally and learn to weigh and evaluate feedback progressions.
Her commitment to teaching excellence has been recognized over the years. She was named a Service Her Learning Faculty Fellow (2014-2015), and she received the Texas A&M Former Student Association's 2017 Outstanding Achievement Award at the university level. In 2021, Griffith was honored by Texas A&M students as the namesake of Fish Her Camp, the university's new student orientation experience.
Teacher training
Griffiths is committed to her own professional growth and regularly uses data for continuous improvement through an end-of-semester reflection process that combines student assessments with course performance goals. . This combination of data provides actionable ideas to incorporate into future course offerings.
Wanting to prepare the next generation of faculty for success, Griffiths advocates for doctoral students to serve as lecturers of record in some undergraduate courses. She strives to provide formal guidance and mentoring support to these new instructors.
make connections
As the school's former associate dean of public health practice, Mr. Griffith maintains many relationships with community practice partners and encourages their participation in undergraduate programs and classes. These partners provide inspiration for students' capstone cases, provide insight to stakeholders, and serve as judges for capstone courses.
She has also built interdisciplinary bridges with other Texas A&M schools and universities through her work on the Faculty Council. She has been involved with her Center for Teaching Excellence and the university's former dean's office.
Griffiths' dedication to the School's undergraduate education has earned him respect from current and former colleagues alike.
“In the 10 years since stepping up from her faculty role to help conceptualize, launch, build, lead, and improve the undergraduate public health program at Texas A&M, she has dedicated herself and her career to the entire enterprise in undergraduate education. I have dedicated myself to it,” Gerald said. Mr. Carino is the former chair of the school's School of Health Policy and Management and currently chair of the Julia Jones Matthews School of Population and Public Health at Texas Tech University. “She has used most of her research, classroom and laboratory, and professional development resources wisely and systematically to build and improve undergraduate programs as well as develop her own ability to grow university programs.” “We've dedicated ourselves to expanding from 18 students to 2,300 students and providing each student with the same high-touch, personalized experience.”