Terri Wright
Terri D. Wright is the director of the newly established Center for School, Health & Education Division of Public Health Policy and Practice at the American Public Health Association. She will provide leadership to the strategic development and integration of public health in school-based health care and education.
She recently retired from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek, MI where she served for 12 years as a program director for health policy. In that capacity Terri developed and reviewed the Foundation’s health programming priorities and initiatives, evaluated and recommended proposals for funding, and administered projects and initiatives. She also assisted in public policy analysis and related policy program development, as well as provided leadership to the Foundation’s school-based health care policy program.
Previously, Terri was maternal and child health director and bureau chief for Child and Family Services at the Michigan Department of Community Health in Lansing, Michigan. In that role, she managed policy, programs and resources with the goal of reducing preventable maternal, infant, and child morbidity and mortality through policy and programming.
She received her bachelor’s degree in community and school health, as well as her New York State certification in secondary school education from the City University of New York and her master’s of public health degree in health planning and administration from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She is currently a doctoral student in public health at the University of Michigan.
Terri takes an active leadership role in several professional associations and community organizations including the American Public Health Association and the Institute of Medicine’s Roundtable on the Promotion of Health Equity and the Elimination of Health Disparities.
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Unpacking Poverty: Three Steps to Ensuring Educational Success for All
Step One: Call It Out
Education has been labeled the “civil rights issue of our time.” Dropout factories––high schools where no more than 60% of the students that start as freshmen make it to their senior year––has become a common-day term. These low-performing public schools tend to be in the poorest zip codes across our country. The negative impacts of poverty on the health and education of students is well documented, mostly affecting kids of color who tend to live in lower-income communities.
Preventing High School Students from Dropping Out: Different Solutions for Boys and for Girls
Although boys and girls who drop out of high school sometimes do so for similar reasons, there are also some clear gender differences in what drives them to drop out. If we are to make progress in supporting all students to graduate, we need to understand these different causes for boys and for girls, and create solutions tailored to anticipate, prevent and respond to them.
Gaps in Graduation Rates Persist: New data underscore the economic and health imperative of supporting students to graduate
Graduation from high school is not only a rite of passage, it is the ticket to economic prosperity and quality of life. The formula is simple: High school graduates are more employable, healthier and more likely to have health insurance, all of which positively contribute to our economy.
But here’s the flip side of that formula: New graduation data show glaring achievement gaps for students of color and economically disadvantaged students.
Following Morocco’s Lead: Empowering Our Young People to Create Change
Arif, a young nurse working in a remote Moroccan village, is saving lives with education, a pit latrine, and a group of curious, engaged students. Meeting Arif and seeing his program in action inspired me to think about the power of simple solutions, the things we take for granted in the United States, and the potential of young people to change the world.
The best teachers and schools cannot compensate for poor health, hunger, fear and sadness, violence, bullying or poverty. When students wrestle with these and other social barriers, they are more likely to miss school, do poorly on tests and drop out.
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