“Public health helps us understand hidden drivers of health and wellbeing for all members of society.”

Berkeley Public Health: Tell us about your research.

Sean-Darling Hammond: I seek to expand social belonging and well-being by identifying k-12 policies and practices that help schools become inclusive, psychologically safe spaces for students of all backgrounds. My research explores the long-term cognitive health impacts of exposure to exclusionary discipline; the persistence and pervasiveness of racial disparities in exclusionary discipline; and the promise of relationship-oriented practices like Restorative Practices (RP), Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), and Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS). I think, and hope, that my research has the potential to highlight schools as a critical arbiter of youth wellbeing, and to empower educators to become drivers of expansive social belonging and health equity.

Why is public health so important right now, in April 2025?

I’ll answer this question from my vantage point, as a multi-disciplinary scholar focusing on the experiences of youth. Youth, like many vulnerable populations, are not socially and structurally empowered to communicate their experiences, their pains, and their needs. They do not have the financial or political power to make arbiters listen. Public health is, by definition, the field best equipped to understand hidden drivers of health and wellbeing for all members of a society. And it is because of the field of public health that we, as a society, have a working understanding of, and are able to work to ameliorate, what so many parents, teachers, and caretakers have felt anecdotally—children are stressed.

That stress emerges as mental health conditions and maladaptive behaviors. It is being driven by fears of school shootings, experiences of in-person and online bullying, technology addiction, direct and vicarious exposure to scholastic exclusion and punishment, and persistent worry about an increasingly unclear future. And that stress is ameliorated by caring adults and nurturing relationships at home and at school, by responsible technology use, and by the kind of support that makes the future feel manageable. As the world grows exponentially more complex, and our attention becomes increasingly more divided, we need the field of public health to continue to sift through the multiplicative possibilities and isolate what matters — what is making us sick, and what can help us thrive? It’s not just about disease spread. The field also helps us understand what afflicts our heart, our spirit, and our society, and to elevate the policies and experiences that can lead to a healthier future for all.

What do you think the biggest challenge is in public health at the moment? How do you think we can restore public faith in public health?

I’ll answer these questions together, as I feel they are inextricably linked. The biggest challenge, in my opinion, is that, despite the huge positive impact the field of public health has, it is often depicted as a solution in search of a problem. Helping to chart a collective path towards a healthier future should be a consensus priority. Yet, the field of public health is often pigeon-holed as a political operation when it is anything but. Health does not have a party ID, nor does knowledge about what is harming us and what can ensure that all of us can live longer, healthier lives.

In terms of how to restore public faith in the field, I would challenge the premise of the question—that we went from being a field that had broad public faith to being a field that now lacks broad public faith. I think we are a field that has not been, and is not now, well understood. Yes, there was a time when public health decrees were followed, and that was partially a function of the faith people placed in public decrees, but I’m not sure it was a function of the faith they placed in public health as a field.

My skepticism is born of uncertainty that we, as a society, have ever invested in efforts to broaden and deepen understanding of the importance of our field, or to empower a new generation to think in public health terms. Imagine, for example, if every middle school student was exposed to the idea that their mental, cognitive, and physical health—and, indeed, the mental, cognitive, and physical health of everybody they knew—was a function of barely hidden forces that could (and should) be considered, measured, challenged, and improved? It would upset the tacit (and pernicious) notion that the health of individuals, families, communities, and societies is mysterious and immovable.

So, perhaps, what is needed is not a campaign to reassure people that what we do we do to help society, but rather a concerted effort to help all of us think about how to develop, and marshal, knowledge to expand wellbeing for ourselves, for those we love, and for the generations to come.

How has the field changed during the course of your career?

I’m a relatively junior scholar, but even in the short time I’ve worked adjacent to and in the field of public health, I feel like I’ve seen an acceleration of two major trends.

First, it feels like more scholarship is intentionally interdisciplinary. Teams that bring together public health scholars and K-12 practitioners and policy experts seem to be more common, and they are doing such critical work.

Second, it feels like more scholarship is lifting up the lived experiences of, and working hand-in-hand with, those the field hopes to serve. Rich and deep narratives help us understand the myriad drivers of health and wellbeing that past literature (which often did not leverage methods and approaches that honored lived experiences) has failed to identify. Research-practice partnerships and research-community partnerships, meanwhile, help scholars develop research agendas designed to produce actionable insights that can immediately help chart pathways towards a healthier tomorrow. It’s an exciting time to be a junior scholar in the field.

Who is your public health hero and why?

There are too many to succinctly list! But since you asked… I would say a few that come to mind are Dr. Rucker Johnson for his interdisciplinary scholarship that blends economics, education, and public health to understand how schools can be engines of health for all and Dr. Jennifer Manly for her path-breaking research on what drives Black older adults to experience staggering rates of Alzheimer’s and her tireless commitment to nurturing the next generation of scholars studying this critical issue.