How does the founding of the Georgia State School of Public Health fit into the larger story of public health education and research in America?
The public health workforce, especially in state and local health departments, is at near crisis levels. Except for Congressional earmarks addressing national disasters (e.g. the recent Covid-19 pandemic), the public health infrastructure is severely underfunded. As a special CDC assignee in 2004-2005, it was an exceptional honor to spend a year at GSU’s Institute of Public Health, the precursor to the 10-year-old School of Public Health. I am humbled to have been on the GSU team that secured the earlier program’s first accreditation, and proud of the well-known urban cornerstone of public health education and research the GSU SPH has become!
From your perspective, what are some of the attributes that set the Georgia State School of Public Health apart?
The urban location of the GSU SPH offers its students three distinct advantages: 1) they encounter public health challenges in downtown Atlanta—from homelessness to opioid addiction—on their way to school rather than having to learn about them as a theoretical construct; 2) social determinants of health are embedded in their curriculum from the birth of this institution; and 3) the diversity of the faculty and student body offers them built-in assets to embark on community-engaged research benefiting vulnerable urban communities locally, regionally and nationally,
Is there anything else you’d like to say about the Georgia State SPH as it celebrates its 10th anniversary?
Congratulations to Dean Lynn and his team on this hallmark achievement!