Texas A&M Health Science Center School of Public Health reveals new name

Today, the Texas A&M Health Science Center announced a transition in the name of the School of Rural Public Health to the School of Public Health, eliminating the reference to “rural” in the official name. Although the school will continue its focus on rural public health, this change recognizes its increasingly broad role in promoting state and national public health concerns.

“As before, our efforts will continue to focus on public health issues through interventions and research that impact all 254 counties in Texas – most of which are rural,” said Jim Burdine, Dr.P.H., interim dean of the Texas A&M School of Public Health.

Founded in 1998, the Texas A&M School of Public Health’s mission is to create, translate and apply knowledge in educating public health leaders, engage in public health service and research, and transfer what is learned into public health practices and policies to improve population health. Nationally ranked by U.S. News and World Report as a top 25 graduate school of public health, the school is addressing a critical need for trained public health professionals. In fact, it is estimated that only 20 percent of the public health workforce in Texas has formal training.

With a focus on this need, the school recently launched several new degree programs, including its first undergraduate program, a Bachelor of Science in Public Health (B.S.P.H.), a new Master of Public Health (M.P.H.) in Occupational Health and Safety, and an online M.P.H. degree in Epidemiology. These new offerings add to the school’s existing graduate programs in health administration, epidemiology, biostatistics, environmental health, health promotion and community health services and health services research.

Additionally, more than 85 percent of the school’s faculty are currently investigators on funded research projects aimed at answering some of the most pressing public health issues facing the world today, providing tomorrow’s public health leaders with an optimal learning environment to work with top-notch professionals in the field.

“With the recent implementation of additional academic degree programs, these are exciting times for our school,” Burdine said. “Although we are transitioning into a new name that more accurately reflects our educational mission, we will maintain a strong focus on training the state’s public health workforce to better serve our state and nation.”

For additional news coverage, take a look at KRHD‘s newscast here.