Building a school of public health
What should a new school prepare its students to do? A conversation about how experience in public health informs the work of building a school and preparing its graduates.
The Scholars Table with Dr Banda
The people, ideas, and decisions shaping our lives.
Join physician and epidemiologist Dr Banda Khalifa for conversations with scholars, leaders, and practitioners about the work they do, the choices behind it, and what their experience can teach us.
From choosing a graduate programme to leading an institution or responding to a health emergency, each conversation offers a closer look at how people think and act when the answers are not obvious.
Conversations on health, ideas, and public life.
Start with these conversations
Meet the people behind the work. Choose an episode below, or browse the collection by topic.
Leading the next chapter in public health education
A conversation about the priorities of a new dean, the responsibilities of a school of public health, and its relationship with the people it serves.
Preparing for the next health emergency
How do we strengthen preparedness across Africa? A discussion of health security, the potential uses of artificial intelligence, and the human judgment that emergency response requires.
What to expect at the table
There is often a gap between someone’s public biography and the experience behind it.
These conversations make room for that experience: a difficult career choice, a research finding that challenged an assumption, or a leadership decision made with incomplete information.
Dr Banda asks guests to explain their thinking and reflect on what followed. For students and professionals considering their own next steps, those details can be especially useful.
Find a conversation for you
Education and careers
Choosing further study, finding mentorship, and making career decisions. Hear from people who have faced these choices and those who help others make them.
Leadership
The responsibilities that come with leading an institution, developing colleagues, and deciding what needs to change.
Research and ideas
How questions become research, how evidence changes thinking, and what it takes to put knowledge into practice.
Health and technology
Conversations about public health, emergency preparedness, and the opportunities and questions raised by emerging technology.
All episodes
Institutional leadership
Six deans discuss setting direction, building new programs, developing talent, and leading through change.
Johns Hopkins
Emory
WashU
Boston University
VCU
McGillEduardo L. Franco
Interim Associate Dean & Director at the time of this conversation
McGill School of Population and Global Health
ListenAffiliations reflect each guest’s role at the time of recording. Institution names are text labels, not endorsements.
Your host
Dr Banda Khalifa is a physician and epidemiologist whose work spans clinical practice, research, and public health policy.
That experience informs his questions. He is interested in how guests reach a judgment, what their work requires of them, and what they have learned that could help someone else.
At the table, he brings the same interest to an established leader’s decisions and a younger scholar’s experience of finding their place.
Part of a wider community
The Scholars Table is shared through Dr Banda’s wider online community, connecting conversations with people interested in education, health, and professional life.
Watch or listen your way
Watch full interviews on YouTube, or listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Find selected excerpts on LinkedIn and written features in Meridian Letters.
Who would you like to hear at the table?
Recommend a guest and tell us what you would like to ask them. Include a brief introduction and a link to their work.
Suggest a guest podcast@drbandakhalifa.comWork with the show
We welcome enquiries from universities, professional associations, and organisations interested in supporting conversations relevant to our audience.
Contact us to discuss a proposed series or partnership and request audience information.
Guest selection and editorial decisions remain with Dr Banda. Any financial or other support is disclosed.
Discuss a partnership podcast@drbandakhalifa.comFind your next conversation
Choose a subject you care about, meet someone whose work interests you, or follow the show on your preferred platform.