Course Highlight: The Wellness Industry and Public Health

HBS alum, Shauna Harrison, PhD ’11, reflects on pursuing a career at the intersection of public health and fitness and creating her HBS Summer Institute course: The Wellness Industry and Public Health.

Q: How did you first get involved with fitness and public health?

A: I got into fitness first. I started doing VHS workout tapes in my bedroom and going to the YMCA to take step aerobics classes while in high school, in addition to playing sports. I always say that, unfortunately, I got into fitness for all the wrong reasons, but I stayed for the right ones. I was drawn to fitness as a way to achieve an unachievable aesthetic ideal that led me to an eating disorder. But, later, it was actually fitness that helped me work out of my disordered patterns. Now, movement is my anchor.

On the public health side, I started my MA program at UCLA in Latin American Studies, which is what I had one of my undergraduate degrees in as well. As part of that program, I chose public health as one of my focus areas, hoping to be able to enroll in the dual master’s (MA/MPH) program.

So, I sort of swerved my way into public health and did end up graduating with both degrees. While I was there, I explored a range of health topics, including nutrition, obesity, eating disorders, body image, and media, within Latin American populations. When I came to Hopkins in 2006 for my PhD, I focused on health communication regarding obesity and chronic disease within the Latino population here in the US.

Q: What inspired you to transition your focus to fitness after earning your PhD from Hopkins?

A: After I graduated from Hopkins, I was super burned out. I spent three years completing my master’s programs and another four and a half years finishing my PhD. I felt like a had to step back. I couldn’t even think about applying for postdocs or faculty positions. I just couldn’t.

So, I came home and just took a break. I had been doing fitness since I was a freshman in college and kept it up through UCLA and Hopkins. So, when I went back, I was teaching fitness classes. I happened to be working with the right networks at the right time, which led to a sponsorship from Under Armour.

Everything just kind of snowballed from there. Although I’m no longer with Under Armour, I now work with a bunch of different brands. I started as a contributing writer for SELF magazine and now have my own column. Lately, I’ve begun to move my way back into academia. This upcoming course is the beginning of really pulling all those different elements of my journey together.

Q: Your HBS Summer Institute course is called The Wellness Industry and Public Health: Partners or Adversaries in Health Promotion? How did the idea for the course first arise?

A: I imagined this class as an incredible opportunity to bring these two worlds of wellness and public health together. Sometimes, I do think they communicate and overlap, but so often, there is so much public health missing in fitness. I also think there are things within the fitness world that public health could learn from and embrace.

Q: How has the pandemic shaped your approach to the course?

A: The pandemic and its accompanying behavior changes really bring to light a bunch of the overlap between public health and fitness. It’s a public health crisis that has changed the way people engage in healthy behaviors, the way fitness and yoga businesses have to run, and also provided incredible perspective on some of the issues of privilege that emerge. I think it’s a great jumping off point to discuss the intersection of these worlds.

We were just a few months into the pandemic when the course met last year. We now have more experience with stay-at-home orders, social media influence on public health beliefs and action, political unrest, social unrest, and more. There are so many more relevant themes to include this year. 

Q: What element of the class most excites you?

A: I think it’s so exciting to bring these conversations into a multidisciplinary academic setting. The critical thought that happens in that type of environment is unmatched. Getting the perspectives of people who are coming from different parts of public health, from epidemiology or policy or even a different school or field altogether, that’s how things happen. When you bring together all these different minds with all these different backgrounds, they’re going to point out things that you haven’t thought about.

Students may take HBS Summer Institute courses on a for-credit and non-credit basis. Registration for HBS Summer Institute courses is open to non-degree students, as well as current BSPH students enrolled in a degree or certificate program at the Bloomberg School. 

Learn more about the HBS Summer Institute, including our course offerings, tuition rates, and more.  

Views expressed are the subject's own. This interview has been edited and compressed.