Academics spotlight

Enrollment has grown substantially, especially within the residential and online Master of Public Health (MPH) programs.

• Students from underrepresented communities now comprise 24.1% of all students in the school, up from 23.5% last year.
• Nearly 35.7% of MPH@UNC students are from underrepresented communities, up from 32% last year.
• Our Assured Enrollment program has helped increase enrollment in Bachelor of Science in Public Health (BSPH) degree majors.

Faculty who teach in the Gillings MPH Core assess their syllabi annually to strengthen equity frameworks, content, class discussions and skills development. Other Gillings programs are also strengthening equity content and skills development. The academic affairs and inclusive excellence teams are collaborating on strategic planning to expand these efforts.

• We instituted a new online applied epidemiology concentration and are welcoming our first students this fall.
• Established joint MPH degree program between UNC Asheville and UNC Gillings on the campus of the Mountain Area Health Education Center (MAHEC), with a concentration in place-based health.

Future goals include:

• Launching a new Bachelor of Science in Public Health major in global and community health,
• Establishing a peer faculty mentoring program or teaching fellow academy,
• Securing more financial resources for students,
• Establishing student recruitment partnerships with local institutions that serve underrepresented communities,
• Pursuing more online options to improve flexibility for students, and
• Continuous quality improvement to strengthen public health training at the school.