To assure a broad public health perspective, the program employs faculty who have professional experience in settings outside of academia and have demonstrated competence in public health practice. Schools and programs encourage faculty to maintain ongoing practice links with public health agencies, especially at state and local levels.
To assure the relevance of curricula and individual learning experiences to current and future practice needs and opportunities, schools and programs regularly involve public health practitioners and other individuals involved in public health work through arrangements that may include adjunct and part-time faculty appointments, guest lectures, involvement in committee work, mentoring students, etc.
E2.1. Describe the manner in which the public health faculty complement integrates
perspectives from the field of practice, including information on appointment tracks for practitioners, if applicable. Faculty with significant practice experience outside of that which is typically associated with an academic career should also be identified. (self-study document)
The program recruits and employs full-time, part-time and special faculty (teacher-practitioners) who not only have disciplinary and content expertise but broad professional experiences outside of academia that they integrate into their online class experiences (see Section E1 and E2). Below are some examples of how our regular faculty maintain ongoing practice links with priority communities.
Dr. Tanya Benedict has an ongoing professional practice involving research and service experience within the Dominican Republic (DR). She collaborated with CU Global Engagement Office and conducted a second Community Assessment in three years, which among other factors looked at the nutritional status of children within a Batey (Haitian shantytown community) located in the DR. As a result of the first Community Assessment, a nutritional program was established and data on the nutritional profile is completed annually. The second Community Assessment confirmed the implementation of the nutritional program for the children was transformative for the children and the community. This experience is shared with our MPH students as part of a review of international and national health systems in a foundational MPH core course (MPH 601).
Dr. Benedict also serves as a Consultant in the areas of Accreditation and Credentialing for Thomas Jefferson University, Thomas Jefferson Hospital, and Main Line Health in Philadelphia and the
surrounding area of Radnor. She has been actively working with these institutions to develop a process which has been lacking for accreditation and credentialing for nurses in the field of Esthetics.
Dr. LaShaune Johnson participated in LEED (Leaders in Equitable Evaluation and Diversity) and has since this time offered trainings on culturally responsive racial equity evaluation at national conferences, for non-profits, the CDC, and for online trainings given by the American Evaluation Association. She also participates in program evaluation as a consultant with her own LLC or, through other work. In MPH 609, when the students have to craft an evaluation plan for a proposed CBPR project, she uses these
experiences to guide the students.
Dr. Kate Nolt is a consultant for National Government Services for review and implementation of a response to RFP from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. This includes examining methods for improved beneficiary outcomes, reduction in costs, and reform of health care delivery by applying Beneficiary Engagement Incentive Models. This experience as well as her current scholarship within addictive gaming are shared with students as they enter their pre practicum and practicum experiences.
Moreover, we have several special faculty members engaged in field practice which provides opportunities for them to integrate theory and practice in the design and delivery of their courses.
Special (adjunct) faculty contributions include:
Dr. John R. Stone (special faculty for MHE 600 and 602) serves as Co-Executive Director of the Center for Promoting Health and Health Equity (CPHHE), a CU community-campus collaboration that promotes
health and health equity with community health as a primary focus. Omaha community members and our health sciences faculty formed this partnership of equal parity using seed funding from Nebraska Tobacco LB-692 monies. The partnership develops, evaluates, and disseminates multidisciplinary culturally
competent research methodologies and health promotion behavior interventions aimed at improving the health of vulnerable populations and reducing health disparities. His knowledge and expertise with research in the social determinants of health is integrated into the scholarly writing and research ethics courses.
Dr. Leah Casanave (special faculty for MPH 605) is an Epidemiologist at the Douglas County Health Department and supervisor of the STD Control Program. Her primary teaching responsibility is the MPH 605 Epidemiology. From 2014-2016 she was the Chronic Disease Epidemiologist for the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. She brings experiences with outreach activities, community projects and public health evaluation into her online classroom.
Dr. Lisa Boyd (special faculty MPH 707) as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow, oversees organization-wide statistical procedures and conducting quantitative analysis, for the Gretchen Swanson Center for
Nutrition. Her expertise in quantitative analysis was used in course assignments and working 1:1 with students.
Dr. Roger Mustalish (special faculty for MPH 606 and 604) is immediate Past President of the Amazon Center for Environmental Education and Research Foundation (ACEER) and currently Vice President. In his 27 years with ACEER, Dr. Mustalish has conducted community health needs assessments for indigenous villages; secured funds for humanitarian health missions; fostered traditional uses of plant based medicines; secured clean water supplies for the Ese’Eja native people; worked with local gold miners to demonstrate mercury-free mining techniques; conducted research on water quality for 19 Amazonian watersheds; and managed an extensive conservation education program for rural and urban school children and teachers. He is also a National Geographic grantee and reviewer. Dr. Mustalish works with the Lenape Indian Tribe of Delaware to train them to be citizen scientists in an effort to restore an ancestral watershed in Delaware. He integrates his international experiences by incorporating
concepts, theories, and practice of transcultural health in MPH 604; and fostering an ecosystem approach to health in MPH 606.
Dr. Nick Baldetti (special faculty for MHM 601) is the Executive Director of Healthcare Initiative for McPherson College in McPherson, Kansas. As the former Director of the Reno County Health Department in Hutchinson, Kansas, he brings his expertise as an executive officer to the human resources course. His executive experience in operations involves the development of policies, setting and developing operational goals, managing resources, obtaining funding through various state and federal grants, and the selection of key personnel.
Dr. Tim Guetterman (special faculty for MPH 707) is an expert in the field of quantitative and qualitative methodology. His research interests include advancing the science and methodology of mixed methods research, enhancing health communications through bioinformatics technology, and employing software in qualitative data analysis. His teaching experience has included CU, University of Michigan, Bloomberg School of Public Health and University of Nebraska at Lincoln.
Stephen Peters (special faculty for MPH 634) works in marketing and strategic planning for a large philanthropic endowment within one of the local health systems in Omaha. He brings his non-profit experiences to the online environment and involves the students in marketing and strategic planning.
To maintain ongoing practice links with public health agencies, the program encourages all faculty to be involved in community engagement activities (see Table E5.2 in subsection E5) that complement their work, for the learning experiences of their students, for professional development, and to benefit the community or the public health workforce at some level.
A survey of all teaching faculty (n=12) in Fall 2019 indicated that, in addition to having extensive public health practice outside of academia as noted by the profiles above, 83% of faculty integrate external public health practitioners into their courses through guest lectures (ex. Mustalish); ethics committee work with a local hospital (ex. Chapple); and student mentorship/community engagement in biostatistics (ex.
Boyd).
Lastly, the members of our EAB are all practitioners that review our curricula for relevance and to inform us about current and future practice needs.
E2.2. If applicable, assess strengths and weaknesses related to this criterion and plans for improvement in this area. (self-study document)
Strengths
• Key regular faculty maintain practice external to academia within their local communities and abroad within the Dominican Republic.
• All special faculty are current practitioners and represent a wide variety of professional fields and expertise in public health.
• Of all faculty, 83% integrate other external practitioners into their courses through guest lectures, committee work and/or mentorship.
Weaknesses
• None identified