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From the Dean

Collaboration is an attitude

The definition of public health is “what we do as a society to assure the conditions for people to be healthy.” That is a huge job that can’t be accomplished within a single sector or by a single organization. Today’s public health challenges are multi-layered. Emerging infections are often resistant to antibiotics. Diseases like cancer and AIDS challenge us to find a cure or to implement successful prevention efforts. New threats from SARS to bioterrorism require a vigilant preparedness and readiness.

How do we begin to approach these challenges in a world where the globalization of economies has increased our interdependence? It takes nonprofits, government, academics, and volunteers working together. The longer you work in public health, the more you realize how important it is to partner with others. Partnerships are fundamental to public health. Today more than ever before, we have a growing realization that to succeed, we need each other.

In Atlanta, my colleagues and I in The Robert W. Woodruff Health Sciences Center are fortunate to have many important public health organizations working in different sectors but working together. From my office, I can see the CDC and the national headquarters of the American Cancer Society. Nearby are The Carter Center and the Task Force for Child Survival and Development. In downtown Atlanta are colleagues at the Georgia Division of Public Health, CARE USA, and the Morehouse School of Medicine. Atlanta increasingly has become a center for public health, and the Rollins School of Public Health (RSPH) is a part of that partnership.

Collaboration doesn’t just happen. It is an attitude that permeates organizations starting from the top. That’s why our cover article talks with Atlanta’s public health leaders about the role of collaboration in their organizations.

Partnerships work best when they work at all levels, and in fact, when people start to take them for granted. Our proximity to the CDC, for example, naturally leads to hundreds of our graduates and students working at the nation’s premier public health agency. Likewise, more than 100 CDC staff regularly teach in RSPH classrooms, work on joint projects, serve on doctoral committees, co-author papers with our faculty, or attend seminars at the school.

The same relationship holds true with other health organizations in the city. I serve on the board of directors for the Task Force and consult on health issues at The Carter Center, as do many RSPH faculty. Our students, like the newly arrived William H. Foege Fellows in Global Health, bring their energy to organizations such as CARE, learning tried and true lessons from the field that in turn will give back to the greater public health community. With the American Cancer Society, we share expertise in evaluating programs through the Collaborative Evaluative Fellows program. Our faculty and staff in the Academic Center for Public Health Preparedness work closely with the Georgia Division of Public Health to help train the state’s workforce for emergency responses.

You’ll read about these programs in this special issue. We haven’t been able to include everything about our partners here. But I hope you get some insight into how we’re working together in Atlanta to do the work of public health. This issue of Public Health is dedicated to our partners.


James W. Curran, MD, MPH
Dean


Fall 2003 Issue | Partners | Next-Door Neighbors | "An Illness Like Any Other" |
G-Training in Progress | Resisting Superbugs | Foege Fellows | Cancer Collaboration |
County Connections | Class Notes & Alumni News | Rollins School of Public Health

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