The winners of the 11th annual D.C. Public Health Case Challenge were announced on Oct. 18, 2024. This year’s challenge topic was “A Public Health Approach to Address Substance Use and Mental Health Concerns Among Emerging Adults in the DMV Area.”
Vivek Murthy, the U.S. surgeon general, has highlighted a growing public health crisis of loneliness and isolation, especially among young people entering adulthood. This period is marked by significant life transitions, increased independence, and stress from major decisions, leading to higher reports of loneliness and substance use compared to older adults. Nearly half of young adults ages 18 to 25 had a mental illness or substance use disorder in the past year.
The 2024 challenge focused on emerging adults (ages 18-29 years) in Washington, D.C., and on developing broad-based, population-level approach to respond to their mental health needs. The seven competing teams from D.C.-area universities — each with up to six members from at least three disciplines — were given approximately two weeks to develop a solution to this complex challenge with a hypothetical $1.5 million budget to be used during a three-year span. The teams presented their solutions to a panel of expert judges who evaluated the interdisciplinary nature of the proposals, feasibility of implementation, creativity, and practicality.
The 2024 Grand Prize winner was the team from University of Maryland, Baltimore, which included Alex Boldin, JaNýa Darionna Brown, Amanda Saikali, and Erika Shook, with faculty advisers Greg Carey, Byron Cheung, Sara Devaraj, and Rebecca Hall. Their solution, “Guiding Resilience and Offering Wellness” (GROW), addresses mental health and substance use in the community college population. Their proposed plan has three prongs: a wellness leadership workshop and certification program; a case-management team; and an interactive screening program to increase student engagement, mitigate loneliness, and support long-term mental health and wellness. The program’s aims include increasing health insurance coverage and access to mental health treatment providers for community college students in the Washington area, increasing their mental health literacy, and reducing their experiences of loneliness and isolation.
Three additional prizes were awarded:
The Harrison C. Spencer Interprofessional Prize was awarded to the team from Howard University for “Support. Equip. Enrich. Nurture. (SEEN).” SEEN focuses on providing support to those aging out of foster care who may have had adverse childhood experiences, which have a strong correlation to substance abuse. The program aims to provide mental health and substance abuse support through community training, in-person support groups, a virtual community, and emergency kits accessible via vending machines that can be located through a web application developed for the program. Team members were Summer Ford, Jadyn Hamer, Antonio Mercurius, and Brianna Watson, and their faculty advisers were Pamela Carter-Nolan and Monica L. Ponder.
The Practicality Prize was awarded to the team from George Washington University for their proposed solution “The Third Space Collective,” which focuses on first- and second-year queer college students in Washington, D.C. The team’s mission was to empower queer students by creating inclusive, substance-free environments that address alcohol misuse, prioritize mental well-being, reduce marginalization, and build strong support networks both on and off college campuses. They proposed creating fully functional Third Spaces online and in person to increase community connectedness, use near-peer mentorship, develop and implement a Safe Space Toolkit to train university staff, and develop a Queer Empowerment Council. Team members were Anisa Amiji, Taylor Berek, Morgan Crotta, Noelle Herrier, John Russell, and Stephanie Sawicki, and their faculty advisers were Gene Migliaccio, Karla Bartholomew, Jill Catalanotti, Sydnae Law, Ric Ricciardi, Sonia Suter, and Mary Warner.
One Wildcard Prize — for “Community Heart” — went to the American University team for a project titled “DANCE” (Developing Accessible Networks for Community Empowerment), which focuses on the LGBTQ+ population. The program integrates art and exercise therapy with traditional methods in partnership with a local D.C. organization. Other aspects of the program included connecting D.C. queer communities to recovery communities, developing seminars and guest lectures in D.C. universities to engage participants, and collaboration with local LGBTQ+ organizations to host quarterly community events (for example, at D.C. ballrooms, which are rooted in D.C. culture and foster self-expression and belonging in a safe, affirming, sober space). Team members were Aidan Deneen, Sadie Gray, Maya Porter, and Kayla Randall, and their faculty adviser was Ali Chrisler.
The 2024 Case Challenge judges were:
- Margarita Alegria, chief, Disparities Research Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital; professor, Departments of Medicine and Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School; NAM member
- Jean Harris, interim volunteer executive director, National Alliance on Mental Illness of Washington, D.C. (NAMI DC)
- Jessica Roark, senior officer, Pew Behavioral Health Programs
- Nailah Russell, program specialist, Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC)
- Wendi Schweiger-Moore, director, Global Capacity Building, National Board of Certified Counselors (NBCC)
- Lindsey Queen, founder and chief executive officer, Parlay Strategies
The D.C. Public Health Case Challenge, launched in 2013, aims to promote interdisciplinary, problem-based learning around a public health issue of importance to the Washington, D.C., community. The challenge is co-sponsored by the National Academy of Medicine’s Kellogg Health of the Public Fund and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Roundtable on Population Health Improvement, with additional support from the Global Forum on Innovation in Health Professional Education.
