Let me extend to you my warmest welcome to the 2006-07 academic year. We enter fall with reinvigorated energy and enthusiasm, and I hope you all enjoyed a fruitful summer.
I would like to take this opportunity to describe just a few of the priorities and collaborations to which we look forward this year.
Within the next few weeks, HSPH will initiate a self-study for our formal Council on Education in Public Health (CEPH) accreditation. This is a time of great opportunity for the School. CEPH is an independent agency that is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education to accredit schools of public health in the U.S. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the process, CEPH requires that schools undertake a self-study at the end of each accreditation cycle, and the self-study is then reviewed. In preparation, HSPH has been working assiduously to review new competencies for public health, teaching approaches, and curriculum and degree programs.
I am also pleased to note that, in keeping with the global nature of public health, the School has undertaken important collaborations with the two most populous nations in the world. HSPH has just hosted a three-week visit by 28 Chinese government officials in the central and provincial ministries of health. This is the first step in a broader set of programs launched last year.
Last spring, I traveled with alumni, faculty, and friends of the School to India to help launch the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), a public-private partnership to create schools of public health in that country. India currently graduates some 375 students each year from its schools of public health and institutions, for a country of one billion people.
This fall brings several public health leaders to the School with new appointments. I would like to welcome Dr. Jim Yong Kim as Director of the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights. Many of us already are fortunate to know Jim and his truly groundbreaking work with the WHO's 3x5 program and with Partners In Health.
I would also like to welcome Dr. Jack Shonkoff as Professor of Child Health and Development here and at GSE. Jack chaired a committee of the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council that produced the report, From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development.
Dr. David Williams is joining our faculty as the Florence Sprague Norman and Laura Smart Norman Professor of Public Health in the Department of Society, Human Development, and Health. David's research examines the nexus of socioeconomic status, discrimination, and resulting health effects.
Dr. Kenneth Olden, former director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, will be coming to HSPH as a Yerby Visiting Professor in Environmental Health. Under his leadership, the NIEHS research portfolio expanded to include significant large-scale human studies seeking to find both environmental and genetic influences on disease.
Dr. Dean Jamison has a new appointment as the T & G Angelopoulos Visiting Professor in Public Health and International Development in the Department of Population and International Health and at KSG. His research focuses on public health policy and global health.
The School will also welcome several junior faculty this academic year, including Theresa Betancourt and Marcia Caldas de Castro in PIH; Sarah Fortune and Matthias Marti in IID; Judith Lok and Guocheng Yuan in Biostatistics; and Jane Kim in HPM.
And, a quick reminder that the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association will take place in Boston this year from November 4 to 8 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. HSPH is developing plans and a web site to help our School members make the most of this opportunity.
My sincere wishes for a terrific academic year.
Yours sincerely,
Barry R. Bloom, Dean
Copyright, 2009, President and Fellows of Harvard College
