The School of Public Health and Community Medicine (SPHCM) is one of 17 schools and colleges at the University of Washington. There are five departments in the School: Biostatistics, Environmental Health, Epidemiology, Health Services, and Pathobiology. Our emphasis is on strong academic programs in the public health disciplines, represented by the departments. At the same time, there is extensive interdepartmental collaboration due to the interdisciplinary nature of our research and training programs. The combination of discipline-oriented academic programs and strong interdisciplinary research provides a setting for faculty and students to apply in-depth expertise to broad public health problems.
Our School seeks strong academic students who are highly motivated and committed to public health. To provide the highest quality education possible, we recruit outstanding faculty who are experts in their fields. Our educational programs are designed to produce highly competent public health practitioners and researchers. Students gain knowledge of quantitative and qualitative methods, public health values, and emerging technologies through classroom, research, and field training experiences.
The University of Washington is a major research university and has ranked in the top five institutions in the U.S. in receipt of federal research awards since the late 1960s. The SPHCM is well regarded within the University community for its support of state-of-the-art research activities. Many of the graduate programs in the School emphasize fundamental and/or applied research in the public health sciences, conducted by faculty who are actively engaged in research. Our faculty research programs collectively are among the strongest in the world. Excellent collaborative relationships exist with other health sciences schools (Medicine, Pharmacy, Nursing), the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and other research organizations enhance the depth and breadth of research in the school.
Our position as the only accredited school of public health in the Northwest carries a responsibility to provide expert assistance to government and community agencies, industry, and business in the solution of regional public health problems. We believe our service activities enable faculty to bring knowledge of current public health practice problems to the classroom and to research projects. Strong relationships have been established with community agencies to foster the field training experiences of our students.