Cornell’s Master of Public Health (M.P.H.) program has received full accreditation from the Council on Education for Public Health.
The recognition is the result of five years of work building the program, including planning, hiring faculty, designing and delivering the curriculum. The program is in its third academic year; it graduated its first class last year.
Members of the Cornell Master of Public Health program’s inaugural graduating class are pictured at their commencement ceremony last year.
“(Accreditation is) a demonstration that we’ve met the highest bar for our curriculum, faculty, students, facilities and resources – and that the education we’re providing is meeting the needs of the public health workforce,” said Alexander Travis, program director and associate dean for international programs and public health. “It’s an important recognition and milestone for our program’s growth.”
“I want to congratulate all members of the M.P.H. team for this great accomplishment and thank them for all their work that made it possible,” said Lorin Warnick, D.V.M., Ph.D. ’94, the Austin O. Hooey Dean of Veterinary Medicine. “The university, college and most importantly, our graduates and the communities they serve, will benefit from this recognition.”
The program encompasses 17 new courses and 23 faculty and staff members; its 12 graduates to date have gone on to work at the World Health Organization, the ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Milk Producers Federation and other organizations.
Administered by the College of Veterinary Medicine and run through the Cornell Graduate School, the program’s two concentration areas (infectious disease epidemiology; food systems and health) both matriculate 20 students per year.
With the program accredited, “it allows us to be even more explicitly a part of a national group of schools who are really working to transform and advance public health in the U.S. and globally,” said Gen Meredith, associate director of the program. Graduates of accredited M.P.H. programs also have greater access to scholarships, fellowships and employment opportunities.
“We’re thrilled that the Cornell M.P.H. program has received this recognition,” said Barbara Knuth, dean of the Graduate School. “It opens up even more possibilities for our graduates and promises to attract the best and brightest of the world’s future public health professionals.”
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Lauren Cahoon Roberts is assistant director of communications at the College of Veterinary Medicine.
