Lisa Grant Ludwig, Ph.D., Department Chair

The mission of the Department of Population Health and Disease Prevention is to create, integrate, and translate population-based knowledge into preventive strategies to reduce the societal burden of human disease and disability through excellence in interdisciplinary research, education, and service. This is a forward-thinking mission that acknowledges and complements traditional discipline-based research and training in public health. It is a specific mission that is consistent with the “Framing the Future” exercise of the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health, and increasingly recognized by eminent organizations such as the Institute of Medicine’s Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice, and by agencies that fund public health research and education.

New sources of funding for research and education are firmly established, including the NIH’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, to support this multidisciplinary framework of population health sciences and public health. The societal challenges facing health care and the burden of diseases at the community, national, and international levels have increased the demand for experts capable of researching, developing, and implementing strategies to prevent disease and to improve population health. The Department hosts activities that bridge disciplinary perspectives, methods, and practices to nurture new leaders in public health through research and training on risk factors that render people vulnerable to diseases in their communities and the development of intervention approaches for preventing disease by separating risk factors from specific vulnerable populations.

Faculty provide guidance on curricular and programmatic activities for the M.P.H., and the Ph.D. in Public Health, with its two concentrations: 1) Global Health and 2) Disease Prevention. Both concentrations are administered jointly by the Department of Population Health and Disease Prevention, and the Department of Health, Society, and Behavior.