DIP-IN featured as signature program at ASPPH site visit

Thursday, May 29, 2025

Each year, public health schools and programs across the country submit applications to the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH) for the Harrison C. Spencer Award for Outstanding Community Service.

ASPPH is “the voice of academic public health” and has the vision for “improved health and well-being for everyone, everywhere”—a vision that very much aligns with DIP-IN.

In early 2025, the Fairbanks School of Public Health (FSPH), where DIP-IN is housed, was chosen as one of the two finalists for the ASPPH Outstanding Community Service Award. As described in the name of the award, the award focuses on institutions that have displayed outstanding community engagement. In FSPH’s application, DIP-IN was featured as a signature program of the school that is demonstrating community-engaged work.

As a finalist, the school hosted ASPPH site visitors on February 18. The full day was focused on highlighting students, faculty, staff, and the greater FSPH community that are engaging in community-based public health work.

DIP-IN was allotted a two-hour slot to demonstrate our impact, and DIP-IN partners ranging from organizational representatives, Community Health Improvement Project partners (CHIPs), and resident Steering Committee members, joined us to highlight the impact of DIP-IN’s community engaged work in their organizations and communities through panel discussions.

Additionally, the DIP-IN team worked to provide what we called an “immersive experience” for the site visitors to creatively display our community-engaged work. One of the most exciting ways we did this was through the Gallery Wall of all CHIP projects through that point in time.

Site visitors and DIP-IN attendees were able to pass by the Gallery Wall on their way to lunch and see all the partners the DIP-IN Steering Committees have supported either through funding or other support, through the years.

While attendees enjoyed their lunch, they were also able to view custom-made placemats featuring quotes from DIP-IN partner interviews and complete a word search that contained words that were themes from these interviews. Both of these interactive pieces once again highlighted DIP-IN’s community engagement approach.

While the school was not chosen as the 2025 awardee, we are incredibly proud of the work everyone put into the site visit. We want to thank every resident and organization who has been a collaborative partner in bringing DIP-IN to where we are today.

We also want to extend a special thank you to all our community partners and internal team members who agreed to share their unique experience as a panelist: McKenzie Altman, Jama Bennett, Ellie Hansotte, Pam Hardy, Tedd Hardy, Faith Jackson, Alisha Jessup, Asuka Nakamura, and Ron Rice. Thank you for your time in speaking about the impact of DIP-IN.

DIP-IN featured as signature program at ASPPH site visit

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