Commencement 2014: “A New Standard for Public Health Education”

On Tuesday, May 20, more than 600 students will be awarded masters and doctoral degrees from the Mailman School of Public Health. The graduates include the first students to have completed the School’s innovative Master’s in Public Health curriculum, a groundbreaking new approach to public health education that launched in the fall of 2012 to reflect the interdisciplinary demands public health professionals now face.

The Mailman School ceremony, which takes place at the National Track & Field Hall of Fame at the Armory, will also include a keynote speech from John Rowe, MD, former CEO of Aetna, the Chair of the School’s Board of Overseers, and a member of its Health Policy and Management faculty.

“We introduced a new standard for public health education: a rigorous, interdisciplinary curriculum that prepares our students to address the most pressing public health challenges of the 21st century,” said Linda P. Fried, MD, MPH, Dean and DeLamar Professor of Public Health. “All Mailman School graduates are poised to become leaders in the field and make great strides ensuring the health of the public.”

With a need for many more professionals in the U.S. over the next decade, public health draws double the number of students it attracted ten years ago. But according to a series of studies, including a 2010 report in The Lancet, the way the discipline had traditionally been taught failed to reflect the realities of the current workplace.

The Mailman School introduced a number of innovative elements to its course of study, including a program in leadership and innovation that focuses on teamwork and leadership skills, and hands-on courses that use case studies to integrate public health theory with practice. For the first time students had the option to select from more than 20 certificate programs for further specialization in fields such as climate and health, health of an aging society, and public health, and humanitarian assistance.

Although the School is still studying the effect of this program, the new curriculum appears already to have paid dividends. On-campus recruiting this year increased by more than 125%. Graduates of the class of 2014 have already accepted positions at Fortune 500 healthcare companies, global organizations and think tanks, and government agencies, many of which recruited on campus for the first time.

John Rowe, MD is a nationally recognized healthcare leader whose career spans academia, industry and the not-for-profit sector. Dr. Rowe is the former CEO of Aetna and previously served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Mount Sinai NYU Health. A geriatrician and founding director of the Division on Aging at the Harvard Medical School, he has been a powerful voice on aging and currently leads the MacArthur Foundation's Network on an Aging Society. Dr. Rowe is also an outspoken proponent for increasing utilization of practitioner nurses to expand health services to more people while easing dependencies on general practitioners.

Delivering remarks on behalf of the Mailman School graduating class of 2014 is Noe' Romo, MD, MS'14, who will earn a Master of Science in Epidemiology. Dr. Romo received his MD degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and is a graduate of the University of California, Riverside. In addition to his MS in Epidemiology, Dr. Romo is currently completing a Primary Care Research Fellowship in Community Health at Columbia University Medical Center. Upon graduating, he will be an attending Pediatric Hospitalist at Jacobi Medical Center and Medical Director of the Pediatric Violent Trauma Follow-Up Clinic. He will also help lead the hospital's Violence Prevention Initiative and continue to pursue his research interest in community violence prevention.

WHEN and WHERE:     

Tuesday, May 20, 2014
4:00 p.m.                                              

School Ceremony & Reception, Health Sciences Campus: The National Track & Field Hall of Fame at the Armory, 3rd Floor, 216 Fort Washington Avenue

Members of the media must RSVP:
Stephanie Berger
212-305-4372 (ofc), 917-734-8973 (cell) or sb2247@columbia.edu.