Pitt’s School of Public Health ranked third of 45 in the nation

Pitt is it for a public health education. Well, almost.

Pitt’s Graduate School of Public… Pitt is it for a public health education. Well, almost.

Pitt’s Graduate School of Public Health was ranked third out of the 45 schools of public health in the United States, in the federal fiscal year 2002. Pitt’s GSPH also received the third-largest financial award for research-grant funding given by the National Institutes of Health for the second year in a row.

“The continued funding is a reflection of the school acting on the cutting edge of health problems,” said Janice Dorman, Associate Dean of Research at Pitt’s GSPH.

More than 118 full-time faculty members, as well as about 500 other staff workers at Pitt’s GSPH, communicate closely with local, state, national and international agencies in the public health field. The collaboration between these agencies and the school contributes to the quality of its education, teaching and research programs.

GSPH is the only school with full accreditation for public health in Pennsylvania, and it is one of only 14 schools that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recognizes a national Public Health Training Center.

The research grants funded 62 programs at GSPH, while research at the school funded by the National Institutes of Health reached almost 44 million for the 2000 fiscal year. Harvard and Johns Hopkins universities led the NIH funded research with Harvard at about $78 million and Johns Hopkins at close to $73 million. The NIH awarded a total of more than $12.6 billion in 2002 for research grants to U.S. colleges and universities.

There are seven departments under the GSPH umbrella, as well as nine centers and institutes for public health. The programs are internationally recognized for their contributions to better public health. Among the seven departments are Behavioral and Community Health Sciences and Biostatistics and Human Genetics. A grant in 2001 from the Centers for Disease Control funded the creation of The Center for Health Aging.

Pitt’s GSPH is one of the original sites for the national Women’s Health Initiative, a joint project of the NIH and the National Heart, Blood, and Lung Institute for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The Pitt Men’s Study is the longest-running national history of AIDS. The program is designed to help researchers improve their understanding of and treat HIV infection, according to the GSPH web site.

The GSPH was founded in 1948 with a grant of $13.6 million from the A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust. It’s located in Parran Hall, which was named after Thomas Parran, M.D., a U.S. Surgeon General for 12 years and the first dean of the GSPH.