   Dean James Curran October 28, 1995 Spring 1996 Commencement 1996 1996 |
These preeminent scientists form a tree of knowledge in many health disciplines, from education to policy, from anthropology to international health. What they share in common is their membership in the faculty of the Rollins School of Public Health. M ore specifically, what they represent, says Dean James Curran, is the school's maturity. Curran came to lead the school in the fall of 1995, leaving a successful post at the CDC, where he was assistant surgeon general of the United States and where he led the government's efforts to prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS. In the first years of his deanship, he liked to describe the school as the new kid on the block, and he saw it "poised for the next move up in distinction." The School of Public Health was young, but Curran saw it as "already one of the better schools in the country." Under Greenberg, it had tripled in the size of faculty, students, and external funding. Curran's challenge was to stabilize the growth, to s upport the newly hired faculty, and to help the school find the right balance in its teaching, research, and service missions. With the help of the administrative team, faculty, and staff, he has done so, and much more. Now for the fifth year in a row, the school has operated in the black. Its research funding now approaches $25 million, with $11.6 million coming from the NIH. That gives it an 11th-place ranking nationwide among schools of public health for NIH research dollars. Applicants for the student body for the most recent class came to the school in record numbers from 43 countries, showing Emory to be competitive with the best schools of public health in the nation. Young, promising faculty have since risen to prominence not only in the school but also in their fields, spreading Emory's reputation in international public health circles. For one example, Howard Frumkin who was hired to chair the Department of Envir onmental and Occupational Health is now an internationally sought consultant on toxic waste clean-ups, environmental border issues, and pesticide contamination. To add to that core, Curran, working with the department chairs, has successfully recruited many stars of public health to the faculty. In 1997, Bill Foege, who had served as director of the CDC, executive director of The Carter Center, and the founder of the Task Force for Child Survival and Development, joined the Rollins School of Public Health as Presidential Distinguished Professor of International Health. Renowned health psychologist Ralph DiClemente, who designs innovative AIDS intervention programs for women and adolescents, came t o Emory in 1998 as the Charles Howard Candler Professor and chair of the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education. Just last year, Ken Thorpe, a well-known expert in health care financing, joined the school as the Robert W. Woodruff Professo r of Health Policy and chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management. This fall, Claire Sterk, an internationally known expert on the effect of the AIDS epidemic on women and who came to Emory in 1996, will begin her tenure as chair of behaviora l sciences and health education. These days, Curran no longer talks about the school as "the new kid on the block." These days, his description is "maturation. Our school has grown into a mature tree of public health knowledge," he says. "But we can't stop there. We have to continually reinvent ourselves to meet the complex public health challenges of the 21st century." |
 August 1996 Fall 1997 1997  Giselle Corbie-Smith |
 hen asked to pinpoint one of the most significant accomplishments of this maturation, Curran quickly answers the establishment of the Office of Student Services in 1996.
While the old system worked for a small student population, once enrollment grew, more than good will was needed to meet the needs of a diverse student body. The school now trains students straight from four-year colleges, mid-career professionals, fel lows from around the globe, those who need the flexibility of a distance-learning curriculum, and others seeking doctoral programs in epidemiology, biostatistics, and nutrition. Directed by John Youngblood, the office pulls together admissions, academic advising, enrollment, school merit-aid, and career services under one umbrella. One of the efforts of which Youngblood is especially proud is the development of career services , an area that was nonexistent when he was hired. In career strategy sessions, the school's counselors give students advice on resumé writing, interviewing techniques, networking, cover letters, and negotiating salaries. The office also assists alumni by sponsoring workshops, career fairs, and Web fairs. In addition to offering a full complement of student services, the school has created new programs to give students opportunities to tailor their studies. The Career MPH is a new degree program designed for working professionals who wish to pursue a de gree but who are unable to study full-time. Through the Internet and distance-learning technology, these students can keep their full-time jobs and do much of their coursework on-line. In 1998, the school developed an International Master's degree, which connects the completion of classes with subsequent fieldwork in the Peace Corps. In collaboration with Emory's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the School of Medicine, the School of Public Health also has developed a Masters of Science in Clinical Research (MSCR) to train clinical researchers. Emory's MSCR is in part a resp onse to an alarming national trend documented in the 1997 Nathan Report, issued by NIH, which revealed a significant drop in the number of skilled clinical investigators and a decline in applications for NIH clinical research grants. Physician Giselle Corbie-Smith, one of the first MSCR students, is a clinical educator at Grady Memorial Hospital and has an interest in minority health issues. Working with mentor Stephen Thomas, an associate professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education, she has recently won a competitive and prestigious NIH investigator award and is one of the up-and-coming physician researchers. As needs change, the creation of new programs continues. |
 Spring 1998 Fall 1998 Fall 1998  Michael M. E. Johns |
 hese collaborative programs are examples of the continuing interdisciplinary nature of the school, Curran says.
Michael M. E. Johns, director of The Robert W. Woodruff Health Sciences Center, agrees. "The School of Public Health is a great interdisciplinary catalyst for the health sciences," he says. "In the research strategic plans now being implemented, the He alth Sciences Center identified interdisciplinary and translational research as critical to building centers of excellence. The School of Public Health is a natural intersection where we can enhance this component. In fact, having a strong School of Publi c Health in the Health Sciences Center is critical to our success and health." "Public health doesn't exist in a vacuum," says Curran. "Our school recognizes the importance of drawing on multiple perspectives from many disciplines to solve complicated health challenges." In addition to offering joint degrees with business, law, medicine, and nursing, the school has many faculty who hold appointments in other departments and schools at Emory. Curran himself holds an appointment in nursing, as likewise does Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing Dean Marla Salmon with public health. Randall Packard, Candler Professor of History and International Health, directs an interdisciplinary fellowship program, the Center for Health, Culture, and Society, that links history, anth ropology, and public health. Richard Levinson is not only public health's associate dean of academic affairs but also a faculty member in sociology. Arthur Kellermann, who directs the school's Center for Injury Control, serves as chair of Emergency Medici ne in the medical school. Many of the public health epidemiology faculty - John Boring, William Eley, and John McGowan - hold appointments in both medicine and public health. Colleen DiIorio is another faculty member with cross-disciplinary interests in p ublic health and nursing, serving on both faculties. The Emory CFAR is another example of how public health is lending its expertise to collaborations on campus. With Curran as its principal investigator, the NIH-designated CFAR is a collaboration among academic, public health, government, and private AI DS researchers and clinicians -- bringing together more than 100 investigators in the Atlanta area to tackle the intricate questions posed by this complicated disease. Behavioral scientists such as DiClemente and Sterk are contributing to the attack on AI DS with a variety of intervention studies with at-risk populations, including women and adolescents. Thomas has taken his AIDS interventions to African-American churches, and Ronald Braithwaite is studying the epidemic in prisons. DiIorio is leading a tri al on adherence to antiretroviral drugs that draws on the expertise of researchers in public health, medicine, and nursing. With a new nursing building rising next door to the Grace Crum Rollins Public Health Building and the medical school's Whitehead Research Building, under construction nearby, the stage is being set for more opportunities for closer affiliations among the schools and further interdisciplinary research. |
 Academic year 1998-1999 1999 1999 2000 Commencement 2000  Commencement 2000 (left to right) : the Gangarosas, Tom Sellers, the Greenbergs, Curran, and Dick Levinson. |
hile the research component has grown dramatically in the last five years, the school continues to value teaching and community service, Curran says.
"It is so important that these elements fit together. You can't support strong graduate teaching without well-known researchers who bring in additional money. You can't do research without subjects from the community and community participation and that t
ies into applied public health practice."
Associate Dean for Applied Public Health Kathy Miner believes "there has to be a link between academic research and on-site practical skills for public health to work. So many schools run the danger of becoming irrelevant to practice." Miner's role is to keep the Rollins School of Public Health on the front line and relevant. "My job is to make sure we hold hands at both the research end and the practice end, training graduates who have the relevant skills for practice." This striving for balance mirrors that of Emory University. In recent university reports, the offices of the President, Chancellor, and Provost have reaffirmed the value of teaching throughout the institution, the importance of building community, and the encouragement of interdisciplinary scholarship. "The Rollins School of Public Health is an exemplar of the university's commitment to a balance of teaching, research, and service," says Emory President William Chace. "Its solid teaching, its growing r esearch, and its service in the Atlanta community as well as the world community fulfills Emory's mission to improve human well-being." The School of Public Health's growth and maturity over the past 10 years has kept pace with the university's evolution. Emory as a whole has been on the move, building a university community that is among the best in the country. The Health Sciences C enter, too, has been reaching ever higher to become one of the preeminent academic health sciences centers worldwide. This seeking is not an aspiration to be No. 1 on a list, says Curran. Rather, it shows that "we don't want to do anything that isn't among the best in the country. We want to hire the best people in the country, to attract the best students. We aspire to be the best, and we don't want to settle for less than that." One example of the school's forward thinking is its distance-learning master's program. The Career MPH allows working professionals to earn a degree without leaving their full-time employment by teaching most of his coursework over the Internet. Such a program is necessary at the nation's premiere public health schools, says Miner, particularly as overseas demand for training continues to grow. Another example is a newly created executive training program in health policy and management for mid- to senior-level analysts in the pharmaceutical and hospital industries. Now, more than ever, when the United States has more people without health in surance despite its longest sustained period of economic growth during peacetime, when the gap in health status is widening between the haves and have-nots, training experts in public health policy is a critical priority. The Executive Master's in Health Policy will ground students in medical health outcomes research so they can produce sound studies that will influence how to best deliver medical care. It will also prepare students to manage change in health care organizations. With the Balanced Budget Act severely cutting the supp ort the US government gives to teaching hospitals, whose patients are often more costly to treat than those at nonacademic centers, new ways to make up the shortfall will have to be devised to insure public health for everyone in our society. "The Rollins School of Public Health is poised at the beginning of an extraordinary time," says Curran. "We are witnessing medical advances nothing short of miraculous. Yet, we must work to insure that those advances are available to everyone in our co mmunity and world. We face the challenges of making sound public health policies, of sharing the wealth of our country's knowledge with developing nations around the globe, of empowering our communities for health, of designing and implementing programs t o prevent devastating diseases such as AIDS, of making statistically sound studies that give valid judgments of new technologies, of preventing injuries from car accidents to youth violence. "It is an extraordinary time," the dean concludes. "And we're taking it on. We have grown a tree of public health knowledge, and our branches are reaching out to create healthy shade for our world." |
Summer 2000 Issue | Dean's Message
The Seeds of a School | A Sapling Takes Root
New Growth | Tree of Knowledge
Class Notes
WHSC | RSPH
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