The Educated Citizen and Public Health

The Educated Citizen and Public Health Initiative aims to fulfill the Institute of Medicine’s recommendation that “…all undergraduates should have access to education in public health.” Developed in part by the Association for Prevention Teaching and Research (APTR) and AAC&U, the project creates and organizes publications, presentations, and resources to assist faculty to develop public health curricula in all our nation’s colleges and universities.

The initiative aims to connect and inform, to bring undergraduate study of integrative public health to all baccalaureate institutions, to foster interdisciplinary and inter-professional collaboration, and to link to other initiatives that address human health and environmental sustainability.

NEWS

AWARD RECEIVED FROM JOSIAH MACY, JR. FOUNDATION
The Educated Citizen and Public Health is proud to announce a new grant to further our initiative. This support from the Macy Foundation will back research on approaches to incorporating public health into the undergraduate curriculum and the dissemination of findings through a special issue of Peer Review, to be published in 2009.

UPCOMING SUMMER FACULTY DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE
Participants have been selected for The Educated Citizen and Public Health: An Undergraduate Curriculum Development Institute, to be held July 14-15, 2008 in Crystal City, Virginia.

Dr. David Fraser, former president, Swarthmore College, and Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology, University of Pennsylvania, will be the keynote speaker for the institute’s opening lunch. Fraser is also the author of “Epidemiology as a Liberal Art.” We are also pleased to report that funding for the project has been secured through APTR from its cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

THE CURRICULUM GUIDE 2.0 IS NOW AVAILABLE
Curriculum Guide for Undergraduate Public Health Education version 2.0
This Curriculum Guide is being developed The project is designed to help faculty members create and teach undergraduate courses that engage students with the world’s major questions through the lens of public health.

See the public health article in the Fall 2007 issue of Liberal Education: Back to the Pump Handle: Public Health and the Future of Undergraduate Education
By Susan Albertine, Nancy Alfred Persily, and Richard Riegelman
Integrative public health programs in the liberal arts and within a liberal education can produce the informed citizenry we need for the twenty-first century.

The full report of the Undergraduate Public Health Education Consensus Conference is now available. CDC published the essential findings of the Consensus Conference in a recent issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly.