Last week, undergraduate and graduate students from the Washington, DC–Baltimore area participated in a week-long design sprint to develop solutions to a public health challenge. The ASPPH Public Health Innovation Lab culminated in a pitch competition at the 2025 ASPPH Annual Meeting, awarding a $1,500 cash prize to the winning team from the University of Maryland School of Public Health for their innovative app, Thread Lightly.
Guided by Dr. Sarah Axelson, Design Consultant, four student teams from American University, the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health (GW), Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Maryland School of Public Health were introduced to human-centered design principles and processes. Teams of two to three students worked through mapping the problem, sketching and selecting solutions, building a prototype, conducting user testing, and crafting compelling storytelling around their solution.
On March 21, 2025, the teams pitched their innovations to a panel of judges, including:
- Dr. Cynthia Harris, Associate Dean for Public Health and Director and Professor, Institute of Public Health, Florida A&M University Public Health Program
- Dr. Ashish Joshi, Dean and Distinguished University Professor, University of Memphis School of Public Health
- Dr. Brad Pollock, Department Chair & Distinguished Professor, University of California, Davis Public Health Program
- Ed Ruiz, Chief Information Officer, ASPPH
The winning team, Thread Lightly, consisted of three undergraduate students from the University of Maryland School of Public Health: Maria Lukz, Sofia Hasrat, and Dami Folorunso. Their app addressed college student overconsumption as an environmental and mental health issue. They received both the first-place award from the judges and the audience choice award.
Second place went to the GW team, graduate students Anjeli Shankar and Liz Leiser, who developed Bear in Mind, an app designed to make mental health care more accessible for college students.
Additional innovation teams included:
- Shi Min Flonna Maung, Sophia Qian, and Isaac Kim (Johns Hopkins)
- Sage Jean-Baptiste, Siena Johnson, and Eli Givens (American University)
Congratulations to all the teams who worked incredibly hard to develop their innovations throughout the week.