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Jay Noren, M.D. |
“The College of Public Health will add an important element to the UNMC mission, namely population health science education, research and outreach to improve the health of the population of Nebraska and beyond,” said Jay Noren, M.D., MPH, the college’s founding dean. “Population science approaches complement the existing high quality individual patient approaches already provided by the Colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Dentistry, Pharmacy and the School of Allied Health.”
The college will add new dimensions to UNMC, Dr. Noren said, including increased expertise in health promotion and wellness, community health education, surveillance methods to detect infectious disease epidemics, analysis of trends in major chronic diseases and rural health issues.
It also will focus on environmental health, education of health system leaders, health services research, workplace health and safety and accident prevention.
Since beginning at UNMC on July 15, Dr. Noren has held more than 60 one-on-one meetings with experts – at UNMC, in Nebraska and nationwide – about the keys to building the best college possible. He also has appointed a 15-person Design and Implementation Task Force to assist with the college’s formation.
The UNMC College of Public Health will become the 39th accredited public health college in the United States, and the only one in the northern half of the country between the University of Iowa and the University of Washington. The formation of the college will facilitate the university’s competitiveness for federal and philanthropic funding of public health research and education.