The name of our school is a clear indicator that we are a distinctive school of public health. Public health is more than restaurant inspections, flu shots and managing health departments. It is identifying emerging health threats and risks, monitoring health factors and status, understanding how people seek and respond to health information and preparing responses to events that can affect the public's health.

While we embrace the traditional tasks and roles of public health specialists, we recognize that protecting the public's health today requires much more. It requires a new approach that integrates how information about the public's health is acquired, evaluated, acted on and disseminated, and how these affect the public and its health. It requires preparing our students for careers in the 21st century by using 21st century knowledge and techniques.