Strategic plan

Vision

The School of Public Health Sciences (SPHS) aspires to improve and enhance the health and well-being of individuals, communities and populations.

Our mission

The mission of the School is to provide high quality and rigorous educational programs for students and lifelong learners in public health sciences; conduct impactful, multidisciplinary and transformative research that addresses current and emerging health challenges, and foster leadership at the interface of society, health and technology. 

Our values

The School is committed to educational and research programs that motivate people to think critically and act meaningfully, to be agents for constructive change, and to pursue health equity and social justice for all. We celebrate diversity and embrace programs that engage communities from local to global. We challenge the social and structural factors that undermine health, including but not limited to structural bias, social inequities, and 'isms' such as ageism and systemic racism. We value a healthy workplace that fosters well-being for members of our School community. 

Strategic priorities

The School will accomplish its mission through implementation of five strategic priorities:

  • Strategic plan priority 1: Sustain, develop, and implement high-quality and innovative programs that prepare learners for future success.
  • Strategic plan priority 2: Continually improve conditions for positive learning and working experiences for students, faculty and staff.
  • Strategic plan priority 3: Conduct and support high-quality and impactful research across public health sciences.
  • Strategic plan priority 4: Maintain an effective, transparent, inclusive and responsive administrative infrastructure.
  • Strategic plan priority 5: Engage productively with our communities, from local to global.

Implementation plans

Each strategic priority entails one or more goals as well as specific objectives to meet these goals. Here we point to consequential or entailed actions as being guided by “implementation plans.”

Strategic plan priority 1

Sustain, develop and implement high-quality and innovative programs that prepare learners for future success.

  1. Create flexible learning pathways to accommodate students with various learning needs and circumstances.
    1. Launch and evaluate on-campus experiences for the Master of Health Evaluation (MHE) and Master of Health Informatics and Analytics (MHIA) programs, similar to the Master of Public Health (MPH) “Introductory Institute”.
    2. Create external and internal micro-credential certificate options for Lifelong Learning, drawing on our MPH, MHIA and MHE courses.
    3. Consider and develop joint programs at the graduate level in relevant areas (e.g., Health Data Science program with Computing, Health Leadership program, joint MPH-MSW).
    4. Offer a greater number of courses to students in other programs and Faculties.
    5. Consider modular courses and hybrid teaching environments to increase course accessibility.

  1. Modernise undergraduate and graduate curricula to include the following priority activities:
    1. Create health data science methods literacy and competency within SPHS (e.g., AI, machine learning, big data).
      • Review course syllabi to identify content needed for data science ‘competence’ among undergraduate students and data science ‘literacy’ among graduate students.
      • Advise/support faculty to include data science content in courses, where relevant, and review annually.
      • Develop required Year 1 data science course.
      • Develop graduate courses for adequate health data science curricula including ethics and digital transformation courses.
    2. Integrate sustainability themes across the curriculum.
      • Review course syllabi to assess inclusion of content related to sustainability (e.g., climate catastrophe, planetary health, ecological determinants of health).
      • Advise/support faculty to include sustainability content (as appropriate) in their courses.
      • Plan courses and programs that are resilient to external disruptions (e.g., pandemics, climate change).
    3. Support and expand opportunities for work--integrated and experiential learning.
      • Incorporate current and relevant real-world issues (through case- and problem-based learning, experiential focus, etc.) into course design and assessments, including in consultation with the Centre for Teaching Excellence, Centre for Extended Learning, and the Teaching Fellows.
      • Provide all students with access to diverse learning experiences including community engagement, experiential learning, practicum experiences, volunteer options, and international experiences.
      • Implement and staff laboratories (wet labs, dry labs, virtual labs or land-based labs) that are fully supported by staff and resources to incorporate hands-on learning opportunities for SPHS students.
      • Identify practicum, co-op, and service-learning opportunities and partnership arrangements with local and regional organizations and agencies.
      • Develop and expand the Health Informatics Practice Hub.
    4. Ensure ongoing relevance of programs and courses.

      • Undertake practices and indicator tracking activities required for self-study and maintain accreditation of the Master of Public Health (MPH), Bachelor of Science (BSc) and Bachelor of Public Health (BPH) programs by the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH).

      • Implement regular (every two to three years) reviews of programs by program committees and the Teaching Fellow to ensure that courses are current and meet foundational core competency requirements and/or identified learning objectives.

      • Meet annually with the SPHS External Advisory Committee to ensure that students are offered relevant knowledge and job skills, receive support for practicum and co-op placements, and solicit assistance in the design and offer of relevant professional/continuing education programs to the community.

    5. Continue to ensure that we explicate the means by which structural bias and social inequities undermine health.

      • Continue to review and modify course syllabi to ensure inclusion and meaningful delivery of content related to structural bias and social inequities, including guest speakers with lived experience and making use of resources currently available on campus.

      • Advise/support faculty to include such content in their courses through workshops and facilitated discussions.


  1. Expose PhD students to non-academic career options.
    1. Informed by the Pan-Canadian Training Modernization Task Force, provide research graduate students with skills, exposures and opportunities needed for non-academic careers.
    2. Promote existing work-integrated learning and practica (e.g., HLTH 641 and 741).
    3. Promote and engage with government programs that provide work experience .(Some examples are: Federal Student Work Experience Program, Research Affiliate Program, Canadian Institutes of Health Research Health System Fellowship, Mitacs.)
    4. Integrate non-academic career information in courses.
    5. Engage with UWaterloo graduate work-integrated learning opportunities.
    6. Expand opportunities for people with professional or lived experience to serve on thesis committees.

  1. Recruit and support diverse students.
    1. Prioritize and enhance advising methods/processes to support students with diverse needs.
    2. Improve support and mentorship for Indigenous students, international students, students from disadvantaged populations, and students with diverse learning needs.
    3. Work with advancement to garner donor support (scholarship and bursaries for undergraduate and graduate students).

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Strategic plan priority 2

Continually improve conditions for positive learning and working experiences for students, faculty and staff.

  1. Focus on health and well-being through fostering a sense of community among faculty, staff and students.
    1. Organize and support regular social gatherings.
    2. Advocate for SPHS faculty, staff, and students to be housed within one building, in order to create environment for regular casual interaction.
    3. Create common physical space for staff and faculty to gather and eat.
    4. Bring faculty and staff together by stocking kitchens with coffee/tea.
    5. Regularly revisit varied work/life balance needs for faculty and staff.

  1. Create a mentorship program that supports equity, diversity and inclusion, learning, and career development, and fosters departmental collaboration.
    1. Maintain and promote department-level teaching and mentorship award.
    2. Create staff recognition award.
    3. Continue to develop and implement processes for mentoring/on-boarding new academic staff.
    4. Develop onboarding/mentorship program for new teaching faculty.
    5. Advocate to access professional development funds for faculty (beyond the faculty package) and for staff.
    6. Create opportunities for post-doctoral trainees and graduate students to mentor undergraduate students.

  1. Advocate for and demonstrate leadership of campus and Faculty health initiatives and programs.
    1. Advocate for a healthier campus (e.g., mental health, infectious disease, sustainability).
    2. Participate in campus health promotion initiatives (e.g. Okanogan Charter).
    3. Foster and encourage research and evaluation that supports campus health and well-being.
    4. Celebrate relevant world health days with public events.
    5. Identify ways to engage with the new hospital to be built on the UWaterloo campus (e.g., research, student placements).
    6. Do more in the health innovation space, such as leadership in digital transformation and social innovation (e.g., GreenHouse).

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Strategic plan priority 3

Conduct and support high-quality and impactful research and practice across public health sciences.

  1. Foster and sustain an environment conductive to high-quality and high-impact research.
    1. Facilitate voluntary internal proposal peer-review processes and expand internal peer-review opportunities.
    2. Expand, leverage and re-brand the SPHS’s Professional Practice Centre in Health Systems to create venue for pooled resources.
    3. Build awareness among faculty and students of existing research supports on campus (e.g., Water Cooler online forum).
    4. Advocate for clinical lab spaces for School instructors and researchers. 
    5. Join and work with university stakeholders to improve access to health data (e.g., advocate to be a node for ICES).
    6. Amplify research findings through effective and integrated knowledge translation and exchange.
    7. Collaborate with external stakeholders to increase opportunities for research collaborations with policy and practice leaders locally, in Canada, and internationally.

  1. Provide opportunities for students at all levels to engage in research.
    1. Continue to encourage participation by faculty in the undergraduate honours thesis program.
    2. Provide opportunities for course-based graduate students to engage in research (e.g., research practica, HLTH 641 and 741).
    3. Continue to actively support and sponsor the student-led SPHS Research and Practice in Health Sciences Conference.
    4. Implement increased opportunities for students to learn more about research activities of faculty members and other students.
    5. Share student research activities by better promoting and making more accessible the public presentations of graduate student thesis proposals and final defenses.

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Strategic plan priority 4

Maintain an effective, transparent and responsive administrative infrastructure.

  1. Maintain a collegial governance structure based on principles of equity, social solidarity and resilience.
    1. Maintain and ensure transparency and succession among leadership positions.
    2. Ensure both equity of opportunity as well as broad and inclusive participation.
    3. Provide leadership, mentorship and shadowing opportunities for new faculty.
    4. Provide leadership, mentorship and shadowing opportunities for academic staff.
    5. Ensure smooth leadership transitions.
    6. Include academic staff as voting members, where allowed, on School governance teams/committees.

  1. Apply principles of equity, diversity and inclusiveness in our merit-based search, hiring, advancement, and leadership actions.
    1. Require all search actions and processes to adhere firmly to principles of equity, diversity, and inclusion in faculty and staff hiring.
    2. Regularly review salary structures to ensure faculty and staff are treated fairly and equitably within the School, the Faculty, and university, using all available means to prevent, identify and address salary anomalies.
    3. Regularly review, update and publish School policies and procedures to ensure transparency.

  1. Ensure that the School has adequate numbers of appropriately trained and skilled faculty members and staff to support our programs.
    1. Ensure that staffing resources are included in any academic program growth plans.
    2. Determine course and program size thresholds and plan accordingly for instructor resources. 

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Strategic plan priority 5

Engage productively with our communities, from local to global.

  1. Encourage faculty, staff, and students to engage communities in their research, teaching and service, e.g., Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA).
    1. Create certificate programs and stackable credits for professional master’s degrees for those working in our local, provincial, national and global communities, aka lifelong learning.
    2. Facilitate community connections for students through partnerships (e.g., GreenHouse, new hospital on university campus).
    3. Engage with the School’s External Advisory Committee to identify productive research and interactions with non-academic communities.
    4. Host public events (e.g., Hallman lecture, panels, tours) on health issues of relevance to individuals, community groups and other stakeholders.
    5. Include opportunities for community members, groups and agencies to participate in selected course development and teaching opportunities.

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