Dr. Vaughn Upshaw was named chair of the PHLP department.
The new PHLP department aims to enhance public health leadership through education and practical solutions, fostering global health impact.
The Gillings School has launched a new Department of Public Health Leadership and Practice (PHLP). This department will unite two current units, the Public Health Leadership Program and the North Carolina Institute for Public Health (NCIPH), with the goal of strengthening and elevating the scholarship of leadership and practice.
The new department will:
- Continue training students in the Master of Public Health (MPH) degree concentrations of place-based health (a joint degree with UNC Asheville), population health for clinicians, leadership in practice and global health;
- Continue offering certificates in global health, field epidemiology and public health leadership;
- Jointly offer the Executive Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) degree in health leadership with the Department of Health Policy and Management in 2025; and
- Continue and expand the work of NCIPH, with its mission to “collaboratively lead and foster innovative solutions to public health challenges in North Carolina and beyond” by “creating systems, policies and programs that work for all.” NCIPH will continue its current work and expand to be the platform for implementing the priority initiatives within the School’s new practice strategic plan.
Amy Joy Lanou, PhD, the new director of NCIPH and professor in PHLP, brings extensive experience through her long-time work with the N.C. Center for Health and Wellness at UNC Asheville (UNCA) and the Mountain Area Health Education Center in Western N.C. Lanou was a tenured professor of nutrition in UNCA’s Department of Health and Wellness and served as chair from July 2014 to January 2020. She also served as the UNCA lead for the joint MPH concentration in place-based health.
In February, Vaughn Upshaw, DrPH, EdD, MPH, was named chair of the PHLP department. Upshaw came to Carolina in 1996. Her career has been spent supporting leaders and decision-makers who work to improve quality of life in their communities. Most recently, she led the MPH concentration in Leadership in Practice will continue to direct the Public Health Leadership Certificate program.
“I am honored to serve as chair of PHLP at Gillings,” said Upshaw. “By combining the practice-facing initiatives at NCIPH with academic programs in the School, we are positioned to connect what we know from research with what actually works in practice to improve the health of communities in our state and around the world.”
Please join the Gillings School community in celebrating this important milestone!”
