For the sixth successive year, the HSPH community gathered in the Kresge cafeteria to hear about the School’s recent accomplishments and future goals. The State of the School Address, delivered by deans Barry Bloom and James Ware, took place on Oct. 11, to a crowd of more than 300 members of the HSPH community.
“We all know that public health and the kind of work that we do isn’t done by one person whose picture made it into the paper [or] who gets an award,” said Bloom, dean of the Faculty of Public Health. “It’s done by teams and groups of people, and that is the community that is in this room and in these buildings.”
Ware, dean for academic affairs, provided an overview of the School and announced the creation of a new Office of Diversity, led by Deborah Prothrow-Stith as associate dean for diversity.
The Office for Educational Programs, which has a broad mandate to improve the educational experience of students, was also established this year, headed by associate deans Nancy Turnbull and Nancy Kane. To complement that change, the Office of Academic Affairs was renamed the Office of Faculty Affairs.
Both Bloom and Ware said that the number one academic priority at HSPH is to be able to increase the percentage of resources given to financial aid. Bloom also mentioned three areas of interdisciplinary research that he expects will keep HSPH at the forefront of science: genes and environment; quantitative health sciences and bioinformatics; and global health.
