School of Public Health & Information Sciences

Founded in:

The original School of Public Health at the University of Louisville was open from 1919 - 1924, making it one of the first schools of public health in the United States. The School of Public Health and Information Sciences officially reopened as a unit of the University of Louisville in September 2002.

Enrollment:

352 students

National/State rankings:

Information needed

Accreditations:

http://louisville.edu/sphis/accreditation

Noteworthy programs based on national recognition, uniqueness or other criteria.

We’ve received grants awards with projects designed to improve health outcomes in high need communities in Louisville.

  • $5.7 million from CDC to establish a Center of Excellence in Youth Violence Prevention. The project begins September 2015 and will continue for five years. The first initiative of the Youth Violence Prevention Research Center (YVPRC) will be to develop, implement, and evaluate a community-level social norming campaign to change the norms of violence among youth using mass and social media.
  • $2.8 million from NIH to study whether children with higher exposure to fly coal ash and metals experience negative health effects. The study started in May 2015 and will continue for five years, ending in January 2020.
    • $440,000 grant from the NIH to study how specific genetic factors coupled with lifetime exposure to cigarette smoking and secondhand smoke may influence a woman’s ability to conceive.
    • The newly formed Commonwealth Institute of Kentucky was approved by the UofL Board of Trustees in January 2016. The mission of the Institute is to inform policy and practice that will improve the health of populations in Kentucky and beyond by facilitating and supporting transdisciplinary collaborations for research and data analytics. The Institute will build research infrastructure to support a variety of projects that engage academic partners, clinical partners, and community partners in improving the health of the Commonwealth. The Institute is partially supported by a three-year, $4 million investment from KentuckyOne Health.

Community Engagement:

The faculty, staff, and students are dedicated to working in partnership with public, private, and community-based non-profit groups to impact the conditions in which we work, eat, sleep, and play.

  • In 2015, the SPHIS Office of Public Health Practice (OPHP) relocated to The Old Walnut Street development at 1300 W. Muhammad Ali Blvd.  The OPHP engages residents and community groups to advance social justice, reduce health disparities, and build capacity for improved health.
  • We have longstanding collaborations with the Kentucky Department for Public Health and the Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness to improve the health outcomes of our citizens. In 2015, SPHIS worked with Louisville Metro to recruit Dr. Bandy N. Kelly Pryor as Director the Center for Health Equity and Dr. Joann Schulte as Director of Health for LMPHW and the Board of Health.

Student honors (external awards, scholarships, fellowships, etc.):

  • Caroline Chan received a STAR fellowship from the Environmental Protection Agency that supports master’s and doctoral candidates in environmental studies. The three-year fellowship pays a $20,000 stipend, plus tuition and $5,000 for expenses such as books, supplies and travel each year.
  • Lorena Canales was selected as a pre-doctoral trainee on the NIH-funded Environmental Health Sciences Training Program (T32). Ms. Canales’ appointment began Aug. 1 and includes an annual stipend, payment of tuition and fees and annual research-related travel.
  • Whitney Kirzinger, MPH, had a two-year fellowship in the Division of Health Interview Statistics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Ms. Kirzinger earned her MPH with a Biostatistics and Bioinformatics concentration.

Prominent recently recognized alumni:

  • Kent Brown, PhD, is on the faculty of Bellaramine University as the chair of the Exercise Science department.  Dr. Brown obtained his doctorate in Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences.
  • Ling Lan, PhD, is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, Georgia. Dr. Lan earned her doctorate in Biostatistics.
  • Adell Mendes, MPH, is the data analyst for the North American AIDS Cohort Collaboration on Research and Design (NA-ACCORD) in Baltimore. This follows two years as the data analyst for the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Women's Health Sciences Division. Ms. Mendes earned her MPH with a Biostatistics and Bioinformatics concentration.
  • Farida Mostajabi, PhD, is a Biostatistician at Medpace, Inc. in Cincinnati, OH. Dr. Mostajabi earned her doctorate in Biostatistics.
  • Vasyl Pihur, PhD, works for Google Inc. His first employment was at the Department of Biostatistics at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Pihur earned his doctorate in Biostatistics.
  • Herman "Gene" Ray, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Statistics at Kennesaw State University. Dr. Ray earned his doctorate in Biostatistics.
  • Tim Wiemken, PhD, works for the Division of Infectious Diseases at UofL. Dr. Wiemken obtained his doctorate in Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences.