The Importance of the Pipeline:  Development of an Urban Undergraduate Public Health Training Program



Public health programs primarily focus on prevention and health promotion (rather than treatment), and on whole populations (rather than individuals). Public health is an essential component of the US health system.  Its infrastructure and prevention-based programs, together with clinical health systems, work to improve population health and reduce health care costs.  Unfortunately, the country’s public health system has been historically underfunded. Despite spending more than twice what most other industrialized nations spend on health care, the US ranks 24th out of 30 such nations in terms of life expectancy. A major reason for this disconcerting fact is that the US spends only 3% of its health care dollars on preventing diseases (as opposed to treating them), when 75% of health care costs are related to preventable conditions.  This projects will work to develop a newly proposed Bachelor of Science program in public health with a concentration in community health education.  In addition to meeting national accreditation requirements for undergraduate programs in public health through the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH), the program will not only prepare students for graduate study in public health (through exposure to curricula and fieldwork experiences) but also to enter the public health workforce. 

 

Funding Source:  Office of the CUNY Dean for Health & Human Services

Co-Principal Investigator:  Nicholas A. Grosskopf, EdD, MCHES

Co-Principal Investigator:  Debra B. Glaser, EdD
Status:  Funding period has ended but work continues.