Dean's Message

Welcome back to another exciting year at the School of Public Health!

As I completed my two years as Dean of the School of Public Health, I wanted to take this moment to thank all the faculty, staff, students, our alumni and community partners for their support towards the vision of making University of Memphis School of Public Health as one of the most impactful schools of public health in the nation.

Prior to my arrival, I had laid out an aspirational plan of making SPH a glocal (local and global) model that will be an engine of social, economic and health impact here in the city of Memphis, state and beyond.  Over the last 2 years, SPH has shown nearly 20% increase in enrollment and has significantly expanded its research portfolio from $2 million to about $27 million.

As I look back upon these two years, I wanted to share with you all some of the exciting things that have been initiated based on the SPH CARES (Community Engaged, Anchor Institute, Research-based solutions, Entrepreneurship and Innovation and Student Centeredness) approach "Reimagine Public Health Through the lens of IDEAS"

Some of the key SPH Highlights

Community engagement

• Developed meaningful and impactful partnerships with Shelby County Health Department and established the first federally funded Center for Public Health Informatics, Data, Equity, Analytics and Systems in collaboration with Shelby County Health Department.
• Establishment of a second federally funded center by EPA "Memphis Climate Health Environmental Equity Research" in collaboration with 8 other regional partners.
• Community partnerships were established with Juvenile and Criminal Court, Neighborhood community centers, Veteran Affairs, Tennessee Department of Health and other community-based organizations.

Research Accomplishments

• Significant expansion of research portfolio from about $ 2million 2 years ago to about $23 million at present.
• Created new Office of Research and Innovation with an appointment of new Director of Research Dr. Maryam Karimi

Entrepreneurship and Innovation

• Launched nation’s first public health dual enrollment program where high school students could take undergraduate public health coursework.
• First School of Public health to establish Public Health clubs in high schools both here in Memphis and globally towards advancing good health and well-being among youth.  
• SPH University of Memphis is now a United Nations Academic partner.
• Public Health in Action, a public health dual enrollment and an undergraduate experiential learning program approved by IEARN network  will be available globally to students through IEARN network spread across 140 plus countries, 55,000 teachers and 2 million youth

Student centeredness  

• Initiated for the first-time SPH scholarships for new incoming graduate students in public health and so far, 45 scholarships have been awarded.
• Offered each student School of Public Health membership of the American Public Health Association.
• New Office of Experiential learning and career services established at the School of Public Health to support students with their practicum, capstone, placements and job opportunities.
• Had our first public health internship and job fair with participation from 13 amazing community organizations.
• We have initiated interdisciplinary inaugural Doctoral Colloquium.   

Expansion of Faculty and Student resources

• We have also hired new staff to support our faculty and students with its newly created offices of recruitment and admissions, student engagement, experiential learning and career services, office of Communication and events and SPH facilities.
• The school hired 10 new faculty expanding its expertise across different areas of public health. We welcome our newest faculty additions- Dr. Ilias Kavouras, Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs, Dr. Angelia Sanders Division Director of HSMP,  Dr. Dale Sanders, MHA Program Director and Professor in the Health Systems Management and Policy division, Dr. Maryam Karimi,  the SPH Director of Research and an Associate Professor in the School of Public Health, Dr. Fanta Gutema , Assistant Professor of Research in the School of Public Health and Dr. Alex Parkhouse , Assistant Professor in the Division of Social and Behavioral Sciences in the School of Public Health.

Alumni Engagement

• SPH Alumni engagement and social media presence was established.        

Recognizing Faculty, Staff and Students
Initiated inaugural SPH faculty, staff and student awards .
SPH was the recipient of the prestigious ASPPH 2024 Harrison C Spencer Award for its outstanding work in community engagement.

SPH has Launched Nation’s first public health diplomacy lab and an inaugural public health diplomacy summit is planned for September 25-27 in collaboration with ASPPH and Global Network of Academic Public Health. Public health experts from more than dozen countries will be coming to University of Memphis School of Public Health to discuss key public health diplomacy curriculum competencies and resources existing to advance this field.  

I keenly look forward to another productive year of academic excellence, innovation, sustained growth, opportunity and success. I welcome innovative ideas and community partnerships that can help advance the school of public health towards becoming an engine of social, economic growth with a significant health and well-being impact on individuals, their families and the communities not only in Memphis but beyond. 

With warm greetings,
Ashish Joshi PhD, MBBS, MPH
Dean and Distinguished University Professor
UofM School of Public Health