The UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, formerly known as The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) School of Public Health, holds a unique position among the top-tiered public health schools in the United States. As part of a highly regarded state university system, the Gillings School is rooted in the strengths and needs of North Carolina's mostly rural communities, yet has significant global reach and impact.
Through research and programs based around the world, and both residential and online training of international students as future public health leaders, the Gillings School has focused on the interconnections of global and local health. Discovering local solutions and applying them globally - and vice versa - is at the heart of the School's research, teaching and service. Accelerating those solutions - transforming them more quickly from the academy to the community - is central to the School's mission.
The UNC Gillings School has been ranked the top public school of public health by U.S. News & World Report since the magazine began its evaluations. The School has remained consistently in the top three of all public health schools. Most recently, the 2016 edition of U.S. News & World Report graduate school rankings listed the school as tied at second place overall, after the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and tied with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Several of the school's departments and programs have been recognized as among the best in the country.
The Gillings School of Global Public Health is accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health and offers undergraduate and graduate programs both in traditional classrooms on the Chapel Hill campus and online. It is named for donors Joan Gillings and Dennis Gillings, a former UNC professor and the founder of Quintiles.
Video UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health
History
The UNC Division of Public Health was organized in 1936 within the UNC School of Medicine. Separate status as a school of public health was granted in 1939, making the School the first school of public health established within a state university. The school awarded its first graduate degrees in 1940.
Milton Rosenau, often called the "Father of Epidemiology," who had recently retired as dean of the Harvard School of Public Health, became the first director of the Division of Public Health in 1936 and served as the first dean of the School from 1939 to 1946.
In 1949, both the UNC School of Dentistry and UNC School of Nursing were added. Along with the Schools of Public Health, Medicine and Pharmacy, the five schools formally became the University's Division of Health Affairs. The Gillings School is one of only a few public health schools in the U.S. to be located on a single campus with four other health-profession schools. Dreaming of a Time, a published history of the first 50 years of the School, is available online.
Through the years, the School has grown into a collection of seven different departments and a Public Health Leadership Program. The Departments of Epidemiology, Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Health Policy and Administration (now Health Policy and Management) and Public Health Nursing (now the Public Health Leadership Program) were in place when the school was founded. The Department of Health Behavior and Health Education (now Health Behavior) was added in 1942, Nutrition in 1946, Biostatistics in 1949 and Maternal and Child Health in 1950. The Gillings School's Department of Maternal and Child Health (MCH) is thought to be the only such department within a public health school in the country.
Seven deans have led the School, from Rosenau to Edward G. McGavran, MD (1947-1963); Fred Mayes, MD (1963-1972); Bernard Greenberg, PhD (1972-1982); Michel Ibrahim, MD, PhD (1982-1996); William L. Roper, MD, MPH (1997-2004); and Barbara K. Rimer, DrPH (2005 to present).
In 2007, the School received a pledge of $50 million from Dennis Gillings and Joan Gillings to fund:
- Innovation Laboratories, intended to focus concentrated, interdisciplinary efforts to solve public health problems;
- Visiting professorships and executives-in-residence to facilitate leadership development for faculty and for leaders from other institutions;
- Student support to develop the next generation of public health leaders; and
- Strategic investments such as the Water Institute at UNC.
The Gillings School of Global Public Health continues to award doctoral, masters and undergraduate degrees and certificates to students who take courses on campus in Chapel Hill or via the internet as digital learners.
Maps UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health
Academic Departments
The UNC Gillings School has eight academic units (seven departments and one program) that offer masters and doctoral degrees with specialized training in a variety of research areas. Four (marked here with asterisks) also award undergraduate degrees.
Primary research areas and degree programs of specific departments:
- *Biostatistics: Bachelor of Science in Public Health (BSPH), Master of Public Health (MPH), Master of Science in Public Health (MSPH), Master of Science (MS), Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Doctor of Public Health (DrPH)
-
- Bayesian Methodology
- Categorical Data Analysis
- Clinical Trials
- Empirical Processes
- Generalized Linear Models
- Longitudinal or Dependent Data
- Medical Imaging
- Missing or Mismeasured Data
- Semiparametric or Nonparametric Methodology
- Statistical Genetics and Computational Biology
- Survey Sampling
- Survival Analysis
- *Environmental Sciences and Engineering: BSPH, MPH, MSPH, MS, PhD, DrPH
-
- Air Quality & Atmospheric Processes
- Human Exposure & Health Effects
- Sustainable Water Resources
- Epidemiology: Master of Science in Clinical Research (MSCR), MPH, MSPH-PhD, PhD
-
- Cancer
- Cardiovascular
- Environmental
- Genetic
- Infectious Diseases
- Injury
- Pharmacoepidemiology
- Reproductive
- Social
- Health Behavior: MPH, MSPH-PhD, PhD
-
- Adolescent Health
- Cancer Prevention
- Diabetes Management
- Eating Disorders
- Health Communication
- Injury and Violence Prevention
- Medical Decision-Making
- Mental Health
- Minority Health and Health Disparities
- Obesity, Diet, and Physical Activity
- Sexual Health
- Substance Abuse
- Worksite Health and Safety
- *Health Policy and Management: BSPH, Master of Health Administration (MHA), MPH, MSPH, PhD, DrPH
-
- Cancer Care
- Comparative Effectiveness
- Financial Management and Performance
- Health Outcomes
- Organization Design and Change
- Quality of and Access to Care
- Maternal and Child Health: MPH, MSPH, MPH-PhD, MSPH-PhD
-
- Reproductive Health and Women's Health
- Infant, Child, and Adolescent Health
- Health Inequities and Health Economics
- *Nutrition: BSPH, MS, MPH, MPH-RD, PhD
-
- Cancer
- Cardiovascular Disease and Metabolic Syndrome
- Diabetes
- Health Behavior
- Immune Function and Infectious Disease
- Maternal and Child Nutrition
- Obesity
Degree tracks offered by leadership program:
- Public Health Leadership Program: MPH
-
- Global Health
- Health Care and Prevention
- Leadership
- Occupational Health Nursing
Centers and Institutes
In addition to academic departments, several centers and institutes operate within the School, providing additional contributions to public health research and practice. The School's service and outreach arm, the North Carolina Institute for Public Health, brings public health scholarship and practice communities together across the state. Research and Innovation Solutions, a unit funded by a $50 million gift from Dennis Gillings and Joan Gillings, enables the School to anticipate new public health challenges, quickly find solutions and accelerate the delivery of best practices to improve people's lives. The Gillings Global Gateway(TM) advances the School's global health activities in research, service and teaching through partnerships, internships, outreach and communications.
The School also collaborates with many external centers and institutes specializing in health care research and practice and works with other schools within and beyond UNC. Among these are the Carolina Population Center, the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and the Injury Prevention Research Center, all of whose directors are faculty members at the Gillings School.
Centers affiliated with the school include:
- Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute
- Counter Tobacco
- North Carolina Institute for Public Health
- UNC Breast Cancer and the Environment Research Program
- UNC Center for Environmental Health and Susceptibility
- UNC Nutrition Obesity Research Center
- UNC Program on Ethnicity, Culture and Health Outcomes
- The Water Institute at UNC
References
External links
- UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- "UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health: Meeting the Public Health Challenges of the 21st Century", an online exhibition
Source of article : Wikipedia