Welcome to The Dean's Office
Dean's Message - Fall 2012-13
Some may argue, but I believe autumn is the most beautiful time to be in Florida. Yes, we have our share of heavy rains and hurricane scares but there are subtle changes in the texture of the air, the color of the sunset and the breezes bringing welcome relief from the summer heat. We have just welcomed our largest ever incoming class of graduate and undergraduate students and what an exuberant group they are! We’ve revitalized some key classrooms, spruced up the lobby and created a new undergraduate suite and the busy hallways are testament to the excitement we all feel for the new academic year.
As always, there are changes to report and to embrace. Several of our earliest faculty members have retired leaving only a few founding faculty in our midst. We have successfully recruited several new faculty who bring creative energy to build on our proud history. We welcomed Dr. Boo Kwa in his new role as our new associate dean for international programs and in his place we celebrated the promotion of Dr. Tom Unnasch to department chair for Global Health. Our faculty and students continue to build relationships and cement learning experiences that fuel our passion for global health from Ecuador to Kenya, from the West Indies to Tanzania. We have enjoyed an incredible cohort of students from Panama and visiting scholars from Malaysia, China and Iran.
We have selected three bold transformative goals that are already driving our future and are building a set of performance measures that will allow us to monitor the impact of these changes on all mission areas. These bold goals reflect our desire to create the most innovative educational programs possible, to accelerate the translation of research to the field and to enhance the capacity of the system to protect and promote the public’s health. These may sound traditional but I assure you, they are not. At the same time, we have retained our unwavering commitment to “our people”: our faculty, our staff, our students, our colleagues and our community and we will continue to support their professional development as outstanding scholars, practitioners and leaders and to celebrate the accomplishments of all the members of our public health family.
We are also thrilled to begin to communicate our brand promise through a full-blown marketing plan which not only speaks to what makes the USF College of Public Health unique but to what makes public health so vitally important to the well-being of all of us, wherever we may live around the world. We never sit still at the USF College of Public Health, which, it turns out, is good for our health.
Come see why we would be good for your health and why we are your best option for reaching your educational, personal and professional goals. Public health is your health and your chance to change the world. Visit us and learn how our practice is our passion.
Donna J. Petersen, ScD, MHSDean