Expanding power and opportunity in public health education: the continuous learning for antiracist culture change fellowship program

Introduction There is growing student demand in graduate public health education for addressing racism as a determinant of health and educational opportunity. Antiracist pedagogy provides a framework for understanding power and opportunity in public health education and strengthening leadership capacity among faculty and staff. Methods We created a 15-week fellowship program for public health faculty and staff to learn about antiracist frameworks and practices. The program combined asynchronous learning with individualized coaching, peer support, and group activities for fellows. Fellows designed personal contracts to use their learning to effect tangible antiracist changes in their work with students. Results A total of 26 faculty and staff completed the fellowship over four cohorts from September 2023–May 2025. Pre-fellowship, post-fellowship, and one-year post-fellowship survey data revealed significant increases in fellows’ capacity to review course content, teaching methods, and other educational activities to reflect antiracist theory and practice ( p = 0.001). Fellows also reported increased expertise, knowledge of review criteria, and preparedness ( p < 0.001), and awareness of their strengths and weaknesses in antiracist pedagogy ( p = 0.004), as well as increased ability to provide concrete examples of how antiracist pedagogy works in practice ( p = 0.003) and to identify specific tools, experts, and resources in antiracist theory and practice ( p < 0.001). We observed fewer or less durable changes in other areas, such as fellows’ self-perceived contribution to a culture of self-reflection, learning and continuous improvement, fellows reporting having specific ideas for how to incorporate antiracism into public health education, or fellows being actively involved in colleagues’ and students’ learning and skill development in antiracism. Discussion A cohort-based fellowship combining asynchronous learning and coaching should be considered among the growing number of options for integrating antiracism into public health education. Other universities interested in this model should also take into account lessons learned regarding the length of the program, the degree of independence expected from fellows, participant attrition, and resources available to implement fellowship projects.