KHI file photo
The University of Kansas' proposal for forming a new School of Public Health was approved Thursday by the Kansas Board of Regents. Backers say the school should help meet workforce needs and attract more research dollars.
The University of Kansas is moving ahead with plans for starting the state’s first school of public health.
The initiative, on the drawing board for the past two years, was approved Thursday by the Kansas Board of Regents. The vote was unanimous.
Dr. Glen Cox, a key proponent for the school, said short-term plans call for recruiting a dean and raising the $2 million to $2.5 million needed to cover the proposed annual budget for the school.
“Obviously it’s not a good time to be looking to the state for resources and, by and large, that is not our intent at this point,” Cox said. Instead, he’s hoping that “the leadership here, including myself, the endowment association, and the folks in the private sector who have an interest and understanding of the needs for a public health (school) will step forward and contribute financial support.”
Dr. Glen Cox
Cox is director of KU’s Institute for Community and Public Health, the umbrella for several existing KU departments that will now be folded into the new school, which will have faculty and students on KU campuses in Kansas City, Lawrence and Wichita.
He said the new school would help KU secure grant funding for its operations. “As a school of public health you have access to grant agencies and resources that you simply don’t have as an individual department or program,” Cox said.
On recruiting the a dean for the new school, Cox said: “We’re optimistic that this leadership position — in a newly developing school in a state that’s never had a school of public health — will appeal to very talented and energetic leaders.”
Plans call for the school beginning the three-year accreditation process by August.
To form the school, the university will blend four existing departments:
• Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the KU Medical Center in Kansas City.
• Biostatistics in Kansas City.
• Health Policy and Management in Kansas City and
• Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the medical center’s campus in Wichita.
In recent years, KU officials have said the school would help the state respond to federal health reform and to address public health issues such as obesity, smoking and violence.
Cox said the rest of the Regents’ schools agreed and have been supportive of KU’s proposal.
There are more than 40 accredited schools of public health in the U.S. but relatively few are in the heartland or mountain west. Oklahoma and Missouri each have one. Texas has three. Colorado and Nebraska each have a school, though neither is yet accredited.
The school’s curriculum is expected to focus on improving community wellness through research, public education, and disease and injury prevention. Graduates will include epidemiologists, administrators, data and policy analysts, and experts in environmental health and industrial hygiene.