Dear Readers,

Thank you for taking the time to read the seventh edition of the Undergraduate Journal of Public Health. Although we are emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, its effects can still be felt in our political, economic, and social landscape. It is of the utmost importance to keep public health and scientific research at the forefront of our thinking to navigate this “new normal” and mitigate the massive impacts it has had on already disempowered populations. In an era of misinformation where some question the validity of scientific research, we feel it is important to continue to produce and promote reliable and research-backed information – in particular in the field of public health.

Given its applied nature, sound public health guidance draws from research in multiple fields. To that end, our journal authors and editors come from a variety of disciplines and are interested in a variety of prominent public health issues. Our authors come from our home state of Michigan and from institutions across the country, representing interdisciplinary public health issues at the local, national, and global levels. The articles that were chosen to be featured in this year’s edition of the journal are reflective of our goal as a publication: to highlight the issues being actively researched and discussed in the field. Based on this year’s submissions, we decided to include a special section on HIV/AIDS, with three pieces that examine the impacts of the virus within different populations.

We want to express our unconditional gratitude to our editorial team who have worked since September to make this year’s edition of the journal the best it can be. Our journal would not be possible without their dedication to producing a polished final product. We also would like to thank our faculty advisor Dr. Ella August for her willingness to help and guide us through the process and for her support in our endeavors from the start. Additionally, we would like to thank and acknowledge our Ph.D. reviewers, who brought a new breadth of experience and level of knowledge to the final stages of the editing process; our authors and their work greatly benefited from your eyes. Publishing this journal would not be possible without the guidance and support of MPublishing, and we thank them for raising our journal to a level of professionalism we could not have achieved without their guidance. Many thanks to our cover artist Yoo Young Chun for once again taking our journal’s themes and expressing them in a beautiful and artistic way for our cover. Finally, to the University of Michigan School of Public Health, thank you for your support since the journal’s first edition in 2017.

Ultimately, the people we need to thank most are our authors – without whom this publication would not have been possible. We greatly admire your dedication to your chosen fields and would like to acknowledge the great accomplishment that it is to have your work published as an undergraduate student. We know you will all go on to make significant contributions to the field of public health and that your work will continue to have an impact on readers and on the academic world at large.

We reflect on our time here with great enjoyment and are very proud to present Volume 7 of the Undergraduate Journal of Public Health.

Sincerely,