Laura Magaña, PhD, MS

Dr. Laura Magaña is the President and CEO of the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH) in Washington, DC, and the Founding President of the Global Network for Academic Public Health (GNAPH) – an alliance of seven regional associations representing schools and programs of public health around the world.

Under her visionary leadership, ASPPH has harnessed the collective power of its members to drive excellence and innovation in public health education, research, and practice. During her tenure, the Association has launched several landmark initiatives, including the Academic Public Health Leadership Institute (APHIL), the Center for Public Health Workforce Development, and the Institute for Innovation, Discovery, and Excellence in Academia (IDEA).

Dr. Magaña has expanded ASPPH’s global reach, doubled its membership base, and championed advocacy efforts that shape public policy. She leads strategic initiatives that address some of the most pressing challenges of our time as part of ASPPH’s Strategic Plan 2030, including dismantling racism in academic public health, climate change and health, reimagining education for the future, preventing gun violence, promoting healthy longevity, and advancing the responsible use of artificial intelligence in education and practice.

Before joining ASPPH, Dr. Magaña dedicated more than 40 years to advancing and transforming public and private universities in Mexico, as well as educational organizations in the United States, United Nations programs, and non-governmental organizations across Central America and Europe. She served as Dean of the School of Public Health at Mexico’s National Institute of Public Health.

Her scholarly work includes over 100 publications, many focused on learning environments, educational technology, and public health education. Dr. Magaña also serves on numerous boards and professional committees worldwide, contributing her expertise to strengthen the global public health community.

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Recent Articles Published in Scientific Journals

Joshi A, Magaña L, Jha N, Otok R, Kapologwe NA, de Almeida Sampaio L, Kastrup E, Amde W, Surenthirakumaran R, El-Mohandes A, Reis R, Kim SY, Kane C, Mackey TK, Yotive W, Barros H, Kaledine R, Figueras J, and Brown MD (2025) Health diplomacy training, pedagogical approaches, and skills assessment: a scoping review. Front. Public Health 13:1729728. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1729728

McKee M, Figueras J, Kalediene R, Joshi A, El-Mohandes A, Otok R, Magaña L, Marchandise C and Barros H (2025) An Agenda for Public Health Diplomacy in an Age of Populism. Public Health Rev. 46:1609089. doi: 10.3389/phrs.2025.1609089

Fitzpatrick, S., Magaña, L., Haywood, J., Kerswill, C., Tabche, C., & Robinson, P. (2025). Development of the World Health Organization Global competency and outcomes framework for the Essential Public Health Functions. Education for Health, 38(2), 91–102. https://doi.org/10.62694/efh.2025.341

Joshi A, Magana L, Tsai K-H, Maddah D, Mitchell K, Ruggiero D, Hawkins WB, Dharamsi S, Makhoul J, Reis R, Kim SY, Low WY, Amde W, Nja G, Jeu M, Kelly B, Saliba B, Jha N, Kalediene R, Scarpetti G, Kastrup E, Surenthirakumaran R, Kane C, Yotive W, Brown M, Yu X, Peterson G, Tsacoyianis B, Ofori MA, Levy M, Chirwa S, Karimi M, Geron K, Patel S, Biberman D, Taylor M, Longuevan A, Shular S and Mackey TK (2025) Public health diplomacy: summary of the methods and outcome of the 1st University of Memphis School of Public Health Diplomacy Summit. Front. Public Health 13:1564709. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1564709

Sorensen, C., Magalhães, D., Hamacher, N., Sullivan, J. K., Weinstein, H. N. W., Pinho-Gomes, A.-C., Biberman, D., Donaldson, H., Gómez-Duarte, I., Middleton, J., Magaña, L., Urbina, M., Kaseje, M., Cascante-Flores, N., Surenthirakumaran, R., Ivers, R., Sáenz, R., Chen, T. T.-W., Lopez, W., Romanello, M., & Zhang, Y. (2024). Climate and health education in public health schools worldwide during 2023–24: A survey. The Lancet Planetary Health, 8(12), e1010-e1019. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(24)00284-5/fulltext

Magaña, L., & Burke, E. M. (2024). Bridging the Gap: Aligning Education for Public Health With Emerging Workforce Demands. American Journal of Public Health, 114(12). Bridging the Gap: Aligning Education for Public Health With Emerging Workforce Demands | AJPH | Vol. 114 Issue 12

Kedia, S. K., Entwistle, C., Magaña, L., Seward, T. G., & Joshi, A. (2024). A narrative review of the CEPH-accredited bachelor’s public health programs’ curricula in the United States. Frontiers in Public Health, 12, 1436386. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2024.1436386/full

Magaña, L. (Ed.). (2024). Competency and outcomes framework towards the delivery of the Essential Public Health Functions. World Health Organization. https://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/376577/9789240091214-eng.pdf?sequence=1

Lisa M Sullivan* , Elizabeth M. Weist, Wendy E. Barrington, Amy L. Fairchild, Wenke Hwang, Marc Todd Kiviniemi, Shan D. Mohammed, Victoria A Wyant, Linda A Alexander and Laura Magaña. Education for Public Health 2030: Transformation to Meet Health Needs in a Changing World. Frontiers in Public Health. Volume 11 - 2023 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1269272. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1269272/full

Katarzyna Czabanowska, Pablo Rodriguez Feria, Ellen Kuhlmann, Polychronis Kostoulas, John Middleton, Laura Magana, Gabriella Sutton, Julien Goodman, Genc Burazeri, Olga Aleksandrova, Natalia Piven, Professionalization of the public health workforce: scoping review and call to action, European Journal of Public Health, 2023;, ckad171, https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckad171 https://academic.oup.com/eurpub/article/34/1/52/7288968?login=false

Suárez Conejero JE, Suárez Conejero JE, Listovsky G, Magaña Valladares L, Duré MI, García Gutiérrez JF, van Olphen M. Competencias esenciales para la docencia en salud pública: marco regional para las Américas. Rev Panam Salud Publica. 2023;47:e137. https://doi.org/10.26633/RPSP.2023.137

Kedia, S., Entwistle, C., Lee, G., Magaña, L., Burke, E., & Joshi, A. Expectations of employers in the United States for entry-level public health job skills with a bachelor’s degree: an analysis of the positions advertised in an online job portal. Frontiers in Public Health, 11, 1218509. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1218509/full?utm_source=F-NTF&utm_medium=EMLX&utm_campaign=PRD_FEOPS_20170000_ARTICLE

Perry N. Halkits, Laura Magaña. (2023). A crisis in Public Health- Addressing the Exodus From Our Essential Workforce. Rugrets. School of Public Health. Contributor: A Crisis in Public Health—Addressing the Exodus From Our Essential Workforce (ajmc.com)

Abdalla, S. M., Rosenberg, S. B., Cohen, G. H., Ettman, C. K., Magana, L., Nsoesie, E. O., ... & Galea, S. (2023). Disruptions to the social determinants of health and mental health indicators during the pandemic in eight countries. SSM-Mental Health, 4, 100249. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666560323000646

Barbara Maria Bürkin, Pete Milos Venticich, Philip Baba Adongo, Naomar De Almeida-Filho, Laura Magaña, John Middelton, Luis Eugenio Souza, Katarzyna Czabanwska. “Revolutionizing the Public Health Workforce- A Policy Brief in Retrospect of the of the World Congress on Public Health Rome”. Public Health Reviews. 2023. https://doi.org/10.3389/phrs.2023.1604807

Salma M Abdalla, Mark Hernández, Shaffi Gazaludeen Koya, Samuel B Rosenberg, Grace Robbins, Laura Magaña, Eliane Okanyene Nsoeie, Lora Sabin, Sandro Galea. “What matters for health? Public views from eight countries. BMJ Global Health. 2022;7:e008858. https://gh.bmj.com/content/7/6/e008858

Magaña-Valladares L, Penniecook T. The future of Public Health education. The post COVID-19 Era. Salud Publica Mex. 2022.

Magaña, L., & Biberman, D. (2022). Training the Next Generation of Public Health Professionals. American Journal of Public Health, 112(4), 579-581. https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/full/10.2105/AJPH.2022.306756

Cynthia Rosas-Magallanes, Ana Basto-Abreu, Tonatiuh Barrientos-Gutiérrez, José Luis Ramírez Martínez, Héctor Osiris Gutiérrez, Laura Magaña-Valladares, Marcela Tamayo-Ortiz, David Barros-Sierra Cordera, Carmen María Santamaría- Guasch, Mauricio Hernández-Ávila. (2022). CLIMSS online platform as a health literacy tool during the health crisis of COVID-19. Salud Pública de México.Vol.64, no.3. Pp.320-327.

https://www.saludpublica.mx/index.php/spm/article/view/13103/12243

Laura Magaña, Lorena E. Castillo. “Resiliencia en la nueva normalidad: aprender a convivir con la COVID-19. En: Investigación y Metría de la Información sobre COVID-19: diversos enfoques de la pandemia. Pp.373-340. Instituto de Investigaciones Bibliotecológicas y de la Información UNAM. 2021. https://ru.iibi.unam.mx/jspui/handle/IIBI_UNAM/227

John Middleton, Dorothy Biberman, Laura Magaña, Rocío Sáenz, Wah Yun Low, Philip Adongo, Gregory S. Kolt and Rajendra Surenthirakumanaran. “Global Governance for Improved Human, Animal and Planetary Health: The Essential Role of Schools and Programs of Public Health. Public Health Reviews. 2021. Volume 42. DOI=10.3389/phrs.2021.1604610 https://www.ssph-journal.org/articles/10.3389/phrs.2021.1604610   

Magaña, Laura. “The Importance of Fieldwork Experience in Public Health Education”. Volume 7, Issue 1_suppl of Pedagogy in Health Promotion 2021. https://journals.sagepub.com/eprint/HSAYW5P7UNYNUCZVMG8K/full

3-D Commission (Magaña L, Commissioner). Data, social determinants, and better decision-making for health: The report of the 3-D Commission. Boston: 3-D Commission; 2021. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5e2ca08b9fdf240fb1abb55b/t/614641793f8fc159fab38ac4/1631994251503/3DCommission_Report_SDoH_Sep17_final.pdf

Treviño-Reyna G, Czabanowska K, Haque S, Plepys CM, Magaña L, Middleton J. Employment outcomes and job satisfaction of public health professionals: Survey of the public health graduates. Employment outcomes of public health graduates. International Journal of Health Planning and Management. 2021. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/hpm.3140

Plepys C, Krasna H, Leider JP, Burke E, Blakely C, Magaña L. First-destination outcomes for public health graduates: focus on employment, American Journal of Public Health. 2021. https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/10.2105/AJPH.2020.306038