What is the One Health Concept and why is it important to understanding and achieving optimal health outcomes around the globe? Listen in as Anya explores the topic with Marianna Cota and Sarah King, two University of Iowa students involved in the One Health student group.

Follow the UI One Health Student Group on Instagram at uionehealth.

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Anya Morozov:

Hello everyone and welcome back to From The Front Row. If you’ve listened to our past few episodes, you’ll know that keeping communities healthy involves more than only focusing on the people in those communities. We also need to consider a lot of external factors that ultimately influence people’s health. In celebration of the seventh Annual One Health Day, which is the day this episode airs, we’re going to discuss one framework that helps us think about human health in a broader context. If you’re new here, welcome. I’m Anya Morozov and I’m joined today by Marianna Cota and Sarah King, members of the University of Iowa’s One Health Student Group. We’re going to chat about what One Health is, how to use the One Health approach in public health work, and if you’re here at the University of Iowa, how to get involved in the One Health Student Group. Welcome to the show, Marianna and Sarah.

Marianna Cota:

Awesome. Thank you, Anya, for having us.

Sarah King:

Yeah, thanks.

Anya Morozov:

So before we get into the topic at hand, can you just tell me a little bit about yourselves?

Marianna Cota:

Yeah, so my name is Marianna and I’m actually the president of the One Health Student Group.  I am a graduate student and I am pursuing my MPH and I’m in the Department of Community and Behavioral Health. So I’m super excited to be here with Sarah.

Sarah King:

Yeah, so I’m Sarah. I am the Vice President of the One Health Student Group. I am a third year undergraduate majoring in biomedical sciences on the pre-med track, and I’m also working towards a sustainability certificate and I’m also very excited to be here.

Anya Morozov:

That’s great. So we’ve got the undergrad and grad representation and somebody doing more community based work, somebody who wants to go into biomedical, which seems to be a theme in One Health. So in your own words, can one or both of you talk about what exactly One Health is?

Sarah King:

Yeah, so One Health is the concept that it recognizes the ways in which the health of people are inextricably connected with the health of animals and the environment. And so the goal of One Health is to promote education and interdisciplinary collaboration to solve global health issues associated with those concepts, people, animals and the environment.

Marianna Cota:

For me, I identify as indigenous, and so One Health is very much close to my heart and so my conception of One Health definitely aligns with that relationality between humans, the earth and all of its species. And so for me it really is just emphasizing uplifting indigenous knowledge as well as part of One Health and just bringing honor and value to that.

Anya Morozov:

So how did you each become interested in One Health then?

Sarah King:

So I learned about the One Health concept through an elective class that I took my freshman year of undergrad where the class was “Finding Patient Zero.” It’s a class that provides a really good introduction to infectious disease transmission and some of the ways we can respond to pandemic threats, one of them being the One Health approach. So I got an introduction into what it was and the history of how it got started, and I thought that this concept combined things that were extremely important for solving health problems, which is something that I’m interested in for my future career. And it just combined a lot of my passions, which are related to humans, animals, and the environment. So I thought that it was a great concept and getting involved in a student org related to that concept was really exciting to me.

Marianna Cota:

I could definitely echo Sarah and all of those sentiments. I think for me, One Health has always been embedded throughout my life and my educational experiences. I would say I’ve had an eclectic range of experiences. I’ve been a wildlife rehab intern and I’m now currently working in food systems. So really just seeing the integration of human health with animal health and planetary health too, I think it’s very exciting just to see those connections and how we can build a more sustainable world. But yeah, I think One Health definitely brings together so many people.

Anya Morozov:

Yeah, you’re right, it does. I mean in doing a little bit of reading about One Health before this, yeah, you have all these stakeholders and veterinary medicine and people medicine, and then people in agriculture of course valuing the indigenous perspectives as well. You need to have a lot of stakeholders at the table to do One Health work. So one thing I’m also curious about, Marianna, did you start the Club, the One Health Student Group?

Marianna Cota:

So I was part of the initial leadership group that did start the club. So we did begin this during the pandemic era. So a lot of our work has been primarily online type of events. And so now that we’re in person now and able to do more events, we’re really excited to expand and get more members. But yeah it was really fun to be able to connect during the pandemic with people who were interested in this topic. That was very salient at the time in terms of COVID and it being [inaudible] disease and just learning about the pathways of how it came to be in our populations now and globally.

Anya Morozov:

Yeah, I know I’ve seen, there was one time where you guys got posters all around the entrance area for the college and I thought that was really cool. So we talked a little bit about stakeholders already, and I think I listed off a few stakeholders, but who are some stakeholders that you both think should be at the table when taking a One Health approach?

Marianna Cota:

So for me, I truly believe that everyone has a responsibility to be at the table when it comes to One Health approaches. And so that can include a range of individuals from those in advocacy groups, in community organizations, non-profits, obviously public health practitioners, agricultural workers, educators, anthropologists, policymakers especially, veterinarians, wildlife conservationists, doctors, nurses, last responders, first responders, engineers and city planners. It really is an all-encompassing approach that can be utilized in all disciplines, especially because our systems are very much interconnected and I think we tend to silo things and One Health is really about breaking down those silos, those invisible arbitrary distinctions between things. So I think it’s also important to note that depending on what issue you’re looking at, a One Health approach really requires honing in to the context and which stakeholders actually hold power and assets to be leveraged to tackle the issue at hand. So yes, everybody should be involved, but we need to also be very cognizant of how we can collaborate because everybody brings something different. And just finding those points of coordination, it’s really integral and part of the One Health Approach.

Anya Morozov:

Yeah. And I like how you brought up power and the stakeholders who have leverage in decision making might not always be the ones who get the information from all the people who should be at the table. So trying, as you mentioned, trying to break down those silos and make sure that first of all, the decision makers are more representative of all of the people who are affected by those decisions. And then also making sure that the decision makers have the information from the stakeholders, I guess is concept that might be helpful. I’m just thinking because last, the episode that’s actually being released as we’re recording was with Dr. Cristina Poleacovschi, who has talked about an app that they have a concept for to get, I’m not going to explain it as well as her, the app is supposed to be in the hands of refugees so that they can take pictures of their built environment and then those can get communicated to people like urban planners, boards of supervisors and things who are actually making those decisions.

Marianna Cota:

Sounds really awesome.

Anya Morozov:

Yeah.

Marianna Cota:

Definitely some fun public health approaches. That definitely reminds me of Photo Voice and letting individuals share their actual lived experiences and getting that information to decision makers because those hold a lot of power. They held a lot of narratives, so I really… That’s super cool and definitely something that can be done with a One Health approach.

Anya Morozov:

Yeah, yeah. So besides who should be at the table, are there any other important concepts to consider when implementing a One Health approach in public health work?

Sarah King:

Yeah, I would say, as we touched on One Health is largely a systems based approach. So that offers a lot of flexibility in its implementation. I think including the stakeholders that we mentioned is of course extremely important as well as just improving awareness and education about the One Health approach. And that serves as a great first step or a great starting off point. Additionally, I feel like a lot of the times when One Health is talked about, it’s often in a global context, whereas I think sometimes it’s important to talk about One Health locally and finding ways in which these approaches can be implemented for smaller scale issues is really important.

Marianna Cota:

So adding on to what Sarah already mentioned, I think another set of important concepts to think about with the One Health approach is equity and sustainability. And those come into play because we’re looking at creating these larger system level changes and it’s important to acknowledge many of the marginalized and often unseen populations that are impacted most directly by these type of issues. And we’re talking about our agricultural workers who faced a lot of concerns, particularly in terms of exposure to carcinogens and other harmful substances to the body in terms of just their occupational job and then how that reverberates throughout the food system too when it comes down to food safety. So yeah, I think it’s just really important to think about those who are often unseen, our unsung heroes and different levels of our systems.

Anya Morozov:

Yeah, that’s so true. So I’m getting, thinking about One Health not only is this big picture idea that, oh, somebody out there is using this approach to tackle global problems, but also thinking, how can we implement this in our daily work here in our own communities? And then as you mentioned, thinking about equity and sustainability. So equity, again, making sure we’re thinking about the most marginalized people in the community who are often the ones who are the most affected by environmental impacts. And then also sustainability, yeah a lot of times, especially in public health, I think grant funding is a thing. And so sometimes you have projects that are really, really great and our grant funded, but then what do you do when the funding runs out and how can we design funding that’s more sustainable for initiatives that take this really important approach?

Marianna Cota:

Yeah, for sure. And there’s this one concept that I recently was reading about is about thinking forward in terms of the long path. We know a lot of these issues that we’re talking about now aren’t going to be solved in the next day. So just being optimistic and realistic about the changes that can occur, but knowing that all this work is not being done in vain. And I think that’s really important for a lot of us in public health and a lot of our issues around social justice, environmental justice and human rights, just recognizing the work that is being done is intricately important to our progression and addressing and uplifting so many concerns in this world.

Anya Morozov:

Yeah, that’s so true. Our work today is not in vain. Even if it seems like it’s only a small drop in a really large pool or something, it’s still a drop that wouldn’t be there otherwise. So we’ve talked about broad concepts to consider when thinking about public health. Now let’s think a little bit more practically, what are some examples of the One Health approach in action?

Marianna Cota:

I guess I can go off of the other example that I started to talk about in terms of our food system. During undergrad, I was actually a biology major, so I was very much interested in ecosystem health. And one thing that’s really intricately important is soil health. And people forget that it is a living thing. Soil has so much biological activity, but currently our agricultural practices is not conducive to the health of the soil. And so there’s a lot of move towards different agricultural practices and that also has a huge impact on agricultural workers, especially when you think about industrialized agriculture, as I mentioned, the exposure to carcinogens, but then also just the operations of food, food operations and how our food system relies on mass production.

And so how that translates to what foods are getting out to people and also the affordability of foods and how that trickles down to individual health in our diets. And so you can take a lot of these different systems and see a lot of points of where a One Health approach becomes very important because soil health also really impacts the nutrient content of the food that we’re having. So if our current agricultural practices are not addressing that, we’re were consuming foods and produces that are not as nutritionally dense as they used to be. And so I think that’s also really important to think about. Things that you may not even realize, yeah.

Anya Morozov:

Yeah, yeah. The soil health is a good point. Somebody might have that as something that doesn’t really have a big impact, but you showed how it has this chain reaction that does end up having a big impact. Even though at the point in time where decisions about soil health are happening, people might not think of that as a decision that’s going to have those ripple effects.

Marianna Cota:

And then I think from an economic point too, taking care of the soil health really allows for more sustainable food production that also mitigates disease. Because I think that’s also an important thing to think about too, that like you said, the soil health can be an afterthought, but when you really think about it does have those ripple effects on the plants but also on us at the end of the, I guess the system cycle.

Anya Morozov:

Yeah. Sarah, anything to add?

Sarah King:

Yeah, I guess to expand on the idea of food systems and their connection to health, there’s also, as we touched on the connection to food safety and food borne illness, and that’s a really huge One Health concept. The idea that food is a really important vehicle for zoonotic disease where food can be transmitted or foodborne illness can be transmitted to livestock and also to people. It’s interesting to think about how the globalization of the food system has definitely increased the risks of outbreaks and the spread of things like new antibiotic resistance genes. And there’s a wide variety of topics related to One Health that I think are important to talk about in terms of food system. So that’s another example of how the One Health approach can be considered in something as integral to our survival as food. There are also some, I guess more environmental justice type concepts that I think are really relevant to the One Health idea.

For example, we had a meeting during the spring that was talking about a podcast episode that we listened to where we talked about tree cover in urban areas and how this is definitely an environmental justice concept because we talked about how inequality, especially income inequality, results in certain populations of people who are disproportionately affected by climate risk. And so this particular concept is talking about how in low income urban areas there’s less tree cover, which results in higher average temperatures, which results in things like increased risk of heat stroke or increased exposure to air pollution because there is not trees sequestering those emissions and how exposure to air pollution and vehicle exhaust can result in things like asthma. And it’s just like, it’s a very complex thing. And it was really interesting talking about that in our club meeting and just considering that One Health isn’t just something to think about for global pandemics or for huge agricultural systems, but also just your neighborhoods and your exposure to your natural environment.

Marianna Cota:

Yeah, I think that’s really important because along with that, when we were discussing that podcast, we also touched on the social and mental health effects that occur because of trees being in neighborhoods and how having outdoor spaces allows people to come into community and experience those benefits of nature. Because there’s a whole literature on that as well. And that’s something that the One Health approach definitely, there’s just the role that nature can play in our health and obviously the health of the ecosystem.

Anya Morozov:

Yeah, I like that you brought up mental health as well because I think that is something that often gets overlooked, but we also find when we overlook it in our own lives, it usually doesn’t go very well. So that’s important to consider. And it sounds like that entire meeting where you talked about that podcast was just an exercise in systems thinking, which as you mentioned is a really big part of One Health as well. So that’s really great that you’re doing that. And I guess just in general, I’m really glad that there are folks at the college who are really trying to look at public health issues from this lens through your student group. So can you tell us a little bit more about the One Health Student Group here at the University of Iowa?

Marianna Cota:

Yeah, so this club started back in the spring of 2020 and the goal of our club was really just to connect students, faculty and staff of various backgrounds who are passionate about One Health. And so as we shown we are both graduate and undergraduates, so we’re open to all students of any level and all disciplines because as we mentioned, it very much is a very inclusive approach that wants that coordination and collaboration to occur. So anyone can join at any point of the year and our meetings typically consist of things that are related to One Health. So we do, do a lot of podcast listening, journal article discussions. We bring in some guest lecturers from various research and professional backgrounds. And then we also try to do some fun social events like One Health Movie Nights and Sustainable Craft nights. And I guess Sarah can talk about some of our previous events.

Sarah King:

Yeah. One event that we’re really proud of is last year we were able to collaborate with the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History to put up the outbreak exhibit, which is actually what you might have seen in the public health building. So this is a popup DIY exhibit. So the official title of the project is Outbreak Epidemics in a Connected World, which covers a lot of fundamental One Health concepts and the posters go through interactive activities as well as just information about One Health and about the spread of disease.

So in the spring of 2020, we had the opportunity to speak to two curators from the Smithsonian Museum, Dr. Sabrina Sholts and Dr. Daniel Lucey, who gave a lecture about the creation of this exhibit as well as their careers with the Smithsonian. And so it was a really amazing opportunity to talk to them and hear about the ways that they implemented One Health in the ways that they drafted this education initiative. So as I mentioned, we displayed this in the College of Public Health Building and we also displayed it briefly in the Iowa City Public Library. And we also have plans to continue working with this exhibit and bringing it to other places in the community because it’s a really great resource for One Health education. So that was a really exciting thing that we got to do.

Anya Morozov:

That’s awesome. I love that you also brought it to the Iowa City Public Library as well. So it’s good to get that knowledge out to the community.

Marianna Cota:

Yeah. And we’re actually looking forward to further collaboration with them this upcoming January for One Health month. And yeah, so tune in and hear out for those activities.

Anya Morozov:

I’ll be excited to hear, yeah. And it sounds like it might also be a good opportunity for leadership. I think you both have probably experienced that to some extent.

Marianna Cota:

Yeah, I would definitely say so. It’s been great being able to be in conversation with individuals who are thinking about this concept and want to bring awareness to it. So I’m really trying to develop those partnerships with those in the community who may benefit from learning about One Health and just trying to uplift the concept as students and sharing our passions is something that we really enjoy and hope others can enjoy with us.

Sarah King:

Something that I really like as well as an undergraduate is that this club gives me the opportunity to talk to people from different disciplines. As a science major especially, I feel like I live in this bubble where I see the same people and we often have the same interests. And so having this club that I’m involved in is really awesome because we have English majors and we have graduate students and business majors and there’s a wide variety of people who are passionate about this and it’s fun having conversations with them, especially because it’s, I guess almost a breath of fresh air because it is such a integrated and diverse concept.

Anya Morozov:

That’s awesome. So before we get into our last questions here, is there anything you’re looking forward to for the One Health Student Group?

Marianna Cota:

Yeah, so I think I already mentioned our future collaborations with the Iowa City Public Library again, we were really hoping to provide opportunities also for volunteer service hours for our members. And currently looking at some partnerships with the Grow Johnson County and their efforts to address foods insecurity in our community here. So on getting people out on the earth, working with their hands and getting food into the hands of people who need it. So yeah.

Sarah King:

I think another thing that we are really looking forward to is increasing education opportunities, ways for our members to get out into the community and talk about why they’re passionate about One Health. And so we have some ideas for say, K through 12 education initiatives that we might be pursuing. And we also have a lot of information on our Instagram, so you should look at our Instagram at UI One Health.

Anya Morozov:

Okay. We’ll put the Instagram in the podcast description.

Marianna Cota:

I guess I think another thing that way I can mention is that we’re also looking forward for new members and potentially new leadership because we’re actually in a transition right now and we’re operating as a smaller executive board right now and would love for individuals who are interested in the leadership position and exploring the One Health topic more to contact us and just get involved to be, We’d love to have you.

Anya Morozov:

Yeah, it seems like there’s already a good foundation built up in this club to do some really awesome things going forward. So hopefully you can get some more exec members. Because just hearing about it sounds like you do a lot of really, really awesome work. I’m excited too about the potential for K through 12 education about this concept because yeah, we’re all undergrad and master’s level and even with things like public health too, I didn’t know public health was a thing until college probably. So it’s good to get the word out about all of the amazing things that up and coming students can do.

Marianna Cota:

Yeah.

Anya Morozov:

Anything else to say about One Health before we go to our final question?

Marianna Cota:

Yeah, I think I wanted to touch back on the idea of mental health and One Health because I think one thing that also gets, and maybe not necessarily not as recognized, but the role of service animals and the connection between humans and animals and how that bond also translates to benefits in health. So yeah, I just wanted to plug that in there too.

Anya Morozov:

Yeah. Okay. So what was one thing you thought you knew but were later wrong about? And this can be related to One Health or just life in general, but we like to ask it to everyone who comes on our podcast.

Marianna Cota:

Yeah. So I think for me, I thought I knew all the ways that One Health can manifest in people’s work, but I was wrong about this because I learned about an initiative recently. I forget what group it was, but their way of touching on One Health was through the arts, which I thought was really interesting and important, especially in terms of the human aspect of One Health, but learning and leveraging ways to connect with others and that are non-traditional and non-scientific, so it’s more accessible for people to understand and really connect with. And so what they did was, so oceans are polluted, so they took what they could from the oceans and used all the plastic bags and straws and stuff of that nature and created art out of it. And it was by, I think it was younger students and grade school. And so just finding ways for community to do that and uplift One Health is really interesting and something that I haven’t really thought about before. And so definitely something that I think is exciting and has lots of potential and reaching larger audiences. But yeah.

Anya Morozov:

Yeah, I think sometimes, especially at a research institution, research is important, don’t get me wrong, but we have talked in previous episodes, I think how it does have some limitations, just the methods that we have. And there’s a lot of other ways to gather knowledge and learn from communities besides the most traditional epidemiologic studies or something. I’m a little biased because I think about epi studies a lot, but I know they’re important, but they’re not all there is. Alright. Sarah, what was one thing you thought you knew but were later wrong about?

Sarah King:

I guess to keep it related to the One Health concept. I, upon entering college, I was surprised to see that One Health wasn’t already integrated into a lot of our systems, especially in the US. I feel like a lot of us are raised with an intrinsic appreciation for nature and for animals, and so it makes sense to think that these concepts would be considered when tackling problems, especially health problems. So I feel like that is something that I was surprised by coming to college is to see how much work there is yet to be done for raising awareness for these systems based approaches. So yeah.

Marianna Cota:

I think I can definitely echo Sarah on that and definitely excited to continue doing that work.

Speaker 4:

That’s it for our episode this week. Big thanks to Marianna Cota and Sarah King for coming on with us today. This episode was hosted, written, edited and produced by Anya Morozov. You can learn more about the University of Iowa College of Public Health on Facebook, and our podcast is available on Spotify, Apple Podcast and SoundCloud. If you enjoyed this episode and would like to help support the podcast, the best thing you can do is share it with your colleagues, friends or anyone interested in public health. Do you have a suggestion or question or idea for our team? You can reach us at cph-gradambassador@uiowa.edu. This episode was brought to you by the University of Iowa College of Public Health. Until next week, stay healthy, stay curious, and take care.