"In the United States and around the world, we have perceived an urgent need for thoughtful, well-trained public health professionals," Penn Provost Ron Daniels said.  "Penn's sizeable strengths in genomics, informatics, community-based research, communication, global health, policy and law will help shape the activities of this important new center."

Dr. Marjorie Bowman, professor and founding chair of the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, will lead the Center with the support of a Steering Committee drawn from the schools, centers and institutes most involved in public-health activities at the University. Wendy Voet, MPH, is the Center’s Administrative Director. 

Penn's burgeoning master's program in public health will serve as an underpinning to the new Center. The degree was initiated in 2002 under the direction of Shiriki Kumanyika, an expert on obesity and health disparities.

Penn's MPH program, one of the few of its kind in the U.S., emphasizes interdisciplinary education in public health for professionals and engages faculty from the schools of Medicine, Nursing, Arts and Sciences, Social Policy and Practice, Veterinary Medicine and Dental Medicine; the Graduate School of Education; and the Wharton School.

Through the Center for Public Health Initiatives, Penn can provide innovation and leadership to meet these large public-health challenges."

Download a copy of the latest Center for Public Health Initiatives newsletter (pdf)

For more information contact cphi@pobox.upenn.edu.