Advocating for Michigan State University (MSU) to adopt a tobacco-free campus policy (TFCP) is the most significant and rewarding professional experience and one I am most proud of. MSU implemented the policy on August 15, 2016. This ordinance applies to all property governed by the MSU Board of Trustees and includes not only the main campus but also all MSU sites across the state, nation, and globe. This process started six years ago, during my MPH program as a passion of mine and later developed into my capstone paper outlining how to create a TFCP at MSU.
The biggest challenge that I think the public health field should be focusing on is the ability to translate/reframe/advocate evidence-based research in a way that relates to the values of the average person. Although we in public health know the evidence, the average person does not always know how to interpret or evaluate the evidence. As a field, we need to explain that public health evidence relates to where people live, work, and play.