Wiesman brings more than three decades of experience in governmental public health practice and policy.
In September 2022, Professor of Practice John Wiesman, DrPH, MPH, was named the Gillings School’s associate dean for practice. In this role, he will provide guidance to achieve the school’s vision and goals for practice.
Last year, the school began development of a 2028 Strategic Plan and started creating one for public health practice in October 2021. A task force, co-chaired by Wiesman and Professor of Practice Leah Devlin, DDS, MPH, was charged to “define, organize and operationalize practice to achieve a 21st century vision of practice at Gillings.” The Dean’s Council formally approved the plan at the end of July.
The practice vision for 2028 calls for Gillings to elevate and support practice so we can help communities meet public health opportunities and challenges and help our students gain on-the-ground experience. In doing this work, we are committing to being community centered, equity driven and local-to-global.
Four exciting initiatives for implementation:
- Identifying a small number of geographic areas with critical equity challenges and low resources in which we will create and sustain 5-10 year public health partnerships.
- Developing a public health collaborative to help communities address challenging public health practice issues.
- Partnering with other university public health programs in North Carolina, historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and DHHS to create a system of academic partnerships with health departments and other health organizations across the state to improve the workforce.
- Assessing the Gillings School’s emergency preparedness and response work to prepare for the next public health crisis.
