Feature Interview
John Quattrochi, ScD
Simmons University, Department of Public Health

Farewell, Professor Quattrochi

What’s your role at MPH@Simmons?

John: For the last two years, I have been the Interim Director for the MPH, and for the last six years, I have been an assistant professor in the Department of Public Health.

What kinds of changes have you made in the curricula to help advance health equity?

John: I was involved in the creation of the curriculum, so a lot of it didn’t exist prior to my arrival. Although Professor White has done a lot of work with the whole Community advisory.

We’re trying to stay on top of how the movement for health equity is evolving over time and COVID-19 would be the biggest obvious change since we started this program. I think the movement around Black Lives Matter following George Floyd’s murder – that was something that was on our radar but after his murder, it started to reach a new level in the United States. So we tried to change the curriculum to incorporate what was happening.

What has been your experience teaching at Simmons, especially during the past year?

John: My experience has been great. I’ve learned so much from the students. The students are so passionate and they bring a wide range of experiences, especially the grad students. The most exciting thing about teaching in a grad program is that many students have gone off and done other things and come back. But the undergraduates as well have a wide range of experiences up to that point. They come from a variety of different places, different socio-economic backgrounds, and different ethnic backgrounds, and they bring all of that into the classroom, and it’s great to get into a dialogue.

The cool thing about teaching public health, too, is that people usually come into class with some really strong ideas about what makes people healthy, what makes people sick

What kind of work do you do outside of teaching at Simmons?

John: My research is kinda like a second life that I lead. Studying interventions to improve health and well-being in low-income countries, particularly the Demotic Republic of Congo. So a lot of my time is either designing studies, analyzing data, or writing up the results on things like water and sanitation programs, cash-like assistance for displaced persons, and public employment schemes – looking at these different programs and policies that are trying to improve health and well-being, but oftentimes don’t. So I either want to quantify how much of a benefit they’re providing or try to figure out why they’re not working.

What learnings are you taking from this program and experience with you to your next role?

John: I taught before Simmons, but this was my first faculty position, my first time directing a graduate program, so there was a lot of learning going on.

I think one of the key things, though, is just being more comfortable with how to structure a class so that there’s participation, there’s discussion, and there’s a real give-and-take between everyone and hopefully, the faculty member is just a first among equals rather than a sage on a stage.

What made you wanna direct this program?

John: I was excited to apply to Simmons because Simmons was creating this MPH with a concentration in health equity. After 4 years when I had the opportunity to step in as the Interim Director, it was an exciting opportunity to see all the behind-the-scenes work that, if you’re not in the administration, you don’t really know about. Like the challenges of planning immersions, a student needing to take a leave of absence, needing mental health support,  and all of the unique issues that come up student-by-student. You get a much richer picture of everything it takes to run a university.

What do you wish researchers knew about health equity and the impact of racism on how we view data and interpret it?

John: There are more and more researchers taking racism seriously as a determinant of health and thinking about new ways to address that. But there are still a lot of researchers who interpret race uncritically as an unchanging characteristic of an individual, rather than a socially constructed idea and they often confuse race with racism when they’re interpreting some of the racial gaps in health outcomes.

I would encourage researchers to continue to think about racism as a determinant of health, not race.

How does this impact research?

John: They often miss the downstream causes and those are the most important causes in public health. For example, Black Americans typically have higher rates of high blood pressure than White Americans, and if you attribute that to race rather than all of the downstream policies around housing, jobs, education, and incarceration that influence those two groups differently then it’s like you’re attributing it to someone’s ancestry, rather than all of these policies that are currently impacting people’s health.

What was your favorite class to teach and why?

John: Global health and political economy – that was my baby as far as classes go. It’s such a huge topic and creates space to talk about history, geography, and broad trends of how humans have been doing. There are some really positive trends, but there are also some shocking gaps that remain. Contrasting those and talking about what can be done with all of that historical context gets me pretty jazzed.

What are your future plans? Future goals?

John: Professionally, my #1 goal is to continue doing good research and doing good teaching.

On the research side, trying to expand my program of research in Congo, in particular, in a way that really supports Congolese organizations and Congolese researchers as we try to investigate and try to find and support the ones that actually work.

On the teaching side, I would like to continue trying to be a better teacher, explain things more clearly, be there for my students, and provide meaningful learning opportunities in and out of the classroom. So I’ll be doing that at Georgetown University starting in the fall and will be staying mostly with epidemiology and global health types courses.

Any final thoughts? What haven’t I asked you that you’d like to speak about?

John: I feel so much gratitude toward all of the students for everything they brought to the table during the program, especially during the pandemic. Bringing their energy into the classroom always made it so enjoyable that I always looked forward to class.

My colleagues, Professor White and Professor Verma-Agrawal in particular, built this program and made it into a well-oiled machine so that when I stepped in as Director, it was much easier than it would’ve been otherwise.

Many other people at Simmons are working behind the scenes to make things work and I’m grateful to them all. Val Leiter, the Public Health Department Chair – now Dean Leiter, did so much to make this program happen. Professor Scott, as well. Scott and Leiter are the reasons why there’s anything public health at Simmons.

Farewell, Professor Quattrochi. Your dedication has not gone unnoticed, and your presence will be missed in the Simmons community. Congratulations on your new position at Georgetown! We all can't wait to see what you're able to accomplish!