Description of Research Expertise

health behavior change
physician behavior
public health
women's health
health manpower
acupuncture

Description of Clinical Expertise

family medicine
general preventive medicine and public health
women's health including menopause

Description of Other Expertise

Dr. Marjorie Bowman, Professor and Founding Chair of the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, leads the Center of Public Health Initiatives, with the support of a Steering Committee comprised of individuals from the lead schools and the Centers and Institutes most involved with public health related activities. Dr. Bowman is dual board-certified in family medicine and public health and general preventive medicine. In addition to her medical degree, Dr. Bowman has a Masters in Public Administration degree, and previously worked in the Department of Health and Human Services in health policy work, and as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Public Health Services. Since arriving at Penn as the first woman chair of a clinical department in the School of Medicine, and as a founder of the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, she has led the Department to one with over 40,000 outpatient visits in two offices in West Philadelphia, and championed education and research in family, preventive and community medicine within the university.

The Provost announced this university center in early 2007. This is an important time in Public Health. There is an urgent need for well-trained public health professionals who can think broadly, considering the social, behavioral, cultural and environmental determinants of health, and who can address new areas of Public Health competencies, such as informatics, genomics, communication, cultural competence, community-based participatory research, global health, policy and law, and public health ethics, areas of particularly strength at the University of Pennsylvania. Penn has many interested faculty and a burgeoning Masters of Public Health Program as an underpinning to the new Center. There are over 100 faculty members at the University whom have been trained in or spend a significant amount of their time in research or education on public health issues.

The Masters of Public Health Degree was initiated in 2002, under the distinguished direction of its founding Program Director, Dr. Shiriki Kumanyika, a world expert on obesity and health disparities. She is a member of the Executive Board of the American Public Health Association. The University of Pennsylvania Graduate Program in Public Health Studies was established as a university-wide interdisciplinary collaboration among eight schools, including faculty from the Schools of Medicine, Nursing Arts and Sciences, Social Policy and Practice, Veterinary Medicine, Education, Wharton and Dental Medicine. The program received national accreditation by the Council on Education for Public Health in 2006.

Penn’s MPH program is unique in its structure, a collaboration of multiple schools within the University, one of the few of its kind in the United States. The program emphasizes interdisciplinary education in public health for professionals, drawing on the many strengths of the institution. The program has grown rapidly, and the University has recognized its need for a stronger administrative structure for the MPH degree while simultaneously advancing the many public health aspects of the educational, research and community programs of its multiple colleges and schools.

The expanding needs in public health are obvious. In the United States, in spite of large amounts of spending on individualized health care, the increases in life expectancy in the past century are primarily related to public health achievements, including the control infectious diseases such as typhoid and cholera through decontamination of water, widespread vaccination programs, fluoridation of water to reduce dental caries, and, more recently, through increased motor vehicle safety. Yet, our improvements in life expectancy have slowed, and we need to address our new threats and opportunities.

Many of these same advances in the United States have not been adequately addressed globally, and the world’s population continues to be challenged by many health plagues, including infectious illnesses and malnourishment. Violence affects all. Meantime, the United States is facing rising rates of chronic diseases, many fueled by the obesity epidemic, ongoing racial and ethnic disparities, poverty, and a lack of health insurance in the face of plenty. In other words, the United States spends the most of any country on health care, but emphasizes care of certain individuals over the health of the population