Teaching Public Health

The need to train public health professionals with knowledge and skills to address complex problems is greater than ever. There are more schools and programs of public health than ever with growing numbers of faculty coming from an ever-broader range of disciplines. Yet, there are few resources to support these dedicated faculty in teaching.

Public health faculty who are engaged in teaching face challenges that are relatively unique. Public health must be responsive to contemporary social issues that influence the health of the public. Effective public health teachers must then continue to embrace emerging issues, incorporate new educational strategies and technologies, and engage with a highly diverse student body that is passionate about issues of contemporary concern. Public health faculty need easily accessible strategies and exemplars of best practices in course design, active learning, group and collaborative learning, and the ever-challenging evaluation of learning that can rise to meet these challenges.

Teaching Public Health is designed for faculty teaching public health, bringing together a state-of-the-field collection of contributions from faculty experts in the field. This book provides teachers of public health and leaders in academic public health with a cutting-edge primer on the state of teaching public health and with resources that can inform and guide pedagogy in public health programs globally. The book provides leaders and faculty with the conceptual underpinning and framing needed to advance curricula, and with the resources to train and support faculty in innovative teaching methods. It builds on emerging trends in the field, and anticipates where the field is headed, grounded in an appreciation of the importance of interdisciplinary teaching, lifelong learning, and the demand for practical skills-based training called for by a pragmatic discipline. The book summarizes the evolution of public health teaching over time, discusses challenges faced by public health teaching, addresses the principles and practice on state-of-the-science for the teaching of public health at each level of education, elevates innovations in public health education, and looks to the future, anticipating where trends in public health education are headed, aiming to offer a resource that stands the test of time. Teaching Public Health offers practical guidance on how to teach new material in new ways. 

Lisa M. Sullivan is a professor of biostatistics and the associate dean for education at Boston University's School of Public Health. She is the author of Essentials of Biostatistics in Public Health. Sandro Galea is the Robert A. Knox Professor and the dean of Boston University's School of Public Health. He is the author of Healthier: Fifty Thoughts on the Foundations of Population Health. Together, Sullivan and Galea are the editors of Teaching Public Health.