Departmental Summaries
Department of Biostatistics
The Department of Biostatistics has faculty, staff, and graduate student offices in a designated departmental corridor of the College of Public Health Building (CPHB). The Department serves as the home for the Clinical Trials Statistical and Data Management Center (CTSDMC), the Biostatistics Core of the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center (HCCC), and the Biostatistics Consulting Center. The CTSDMC is located on the fifth floor of CPHB.
The Department of Biostatistics is currently comprised of 15 primary faculty, 14 adjunct/secondary faculty, and approximately 60 graduate students. Existing departmental methodological research interests include clinical trials, computational statistics, Bayesian modeling and inference, statistical genetics and genomics, bioinformatics, informatics, machine and statistical learning, causal inference, spatial and spatio-temporal modeling, time series analysis, survival data analysis, longitudinal data analysis, social network data analysis, high-dimensional data analysis, model selection, clustering, missing data techniques, personalized medicine, epidemic modeling, and syndromic surveillance. Joseph Cavanaugh, PhD, is Professor and Head of the Department.
The health sciences campus for the University of Iowa (UI) is comprised of the Carver College of Medicine, the College of Dentistry, the College of Nursing, the College of Pharmacy, and the College of Public Health. Biostatistics faculty are actively involved in consultation and collaboration with researchers across all of these colleges, and also work closely with the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, the Institute for Clinical and Translational Science, the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Veteran’s Administration Medical Center, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and the Iowa Institute of Human Genetics.
Nearly all graduate students in the Department are supported by half-time research or teaching assistantships. The Department has a dedicated computing lab, along with dedicated nodes in the University’s high performance computing cluster.
Department of Community and Behavioral Health
Dr. Mark W. Vander Weg is Professor and Head of the Department. The vision of the Department of Community and Behavioral Health (CBH) is to serve Iowa, the Midwest, the nation, and world as a leading source of expertise on creating new knowledge in the area of community health and the behavioral components of health and disease. In collaboration with communities, CBH prepares graduates to promote health and quality of life by developing, evaluating and disseminating evidence-based practices through research, training, and innovative policies.
CBH currently has 12 primary faculty members, 5 emeritus faculty, 18 adjunct and secondary faculty representing medicine, epidemiology, nursing, anthropology, pediatrics, and psychology, 40 students, and 17 full and part time staff supporting the academic and research missions of the Department. Faculty members come from a variety of disciplines within the social, behavioral, and health sciences; their common bond is an interest in health equity and community engagement.
CBH faculty members have expertise in a wide range of areas including: community-based participatory research, health disparities, rural health, nutrition, physical activity, health communication, youth and young adult health and well-being, HIV/AIDS, substance use, preventing stigma, disaster preparedness, mental health, health policy, maternal and child health, aging, global health, and injury prevention. Sources of funding and grants have included NIH, CDC, SAMHSA, HRSA, VA, USDA, Iowa HHS, and foundations. The Department currently administers two centers of research and practice, and M.P.H., and Ph.D. degree programs.
Department of Epidemiology
The Department of Epidemiology is an academic and public resource for assessment and improvement of human health. It strives to improve public and personal health by preparing students for careers that require specialized knowledge of epidemiologic theories, methods, and analytic techniques by conducting innovative research in the magnitude, determinants, and prevention and management of disease and its consequences; educating researchers and public health practitioners; and collaborating with clinicians, communities and public health agencies in the measurement and evaluation of health status and prevention effectiveness. The Department of Epidemiology offers a multi-emphasis graduate program with faculty who have expertise in a variety of areas, including those with public health importance to rural America. Academic degrees offered include the MPH in Epidemiology, the MS in Epidemiology, the PhD in Epidemiology and the MS in Clinical Investigation.
Dr. Elizabeth Chrischilles is Professor and Head of the Department. The Department currently has 16 full-time faculty, 48 secondary and adjunct faculty and 7 emeritus faculty. The research activities support over 150 research staff and graduate research assistants. Space for the academic department is available in the College of Public Health for faculty and administrative staff. Research programs are located in University Capitol Centre, Med Labs, Medical Research Center, and University Hygienic Lab on campus as well as the Preventive Intervention Center at the Towncrest Center in Iowa City. Research administration is done through the College of Public Health by dedicated personnel in the Department and Centers: the Iowa Cancer Registry, the Iowa Registry for Congenital and Inherited Disorders, the Preventive Intervention Center, Health Effectiveness Research Center, the Nutrition Research and Resource Center and the Lipid Research Clinic, and the Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases. The Departmental faculty are also members of several University and College centers such as the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Injury Prevention Research Center, the Environmental Health Sciences Research Center, the Center on Health Effects from Environmental Contaminants and the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research.
Areas of research and academic emphasis include epidemiology of chronic and infectious diseases and injuries; effects of pharmacologic, nutritional, and policy interventions; special populations (aging, maternal, child and adolescent health outcomes); social and psychiatric epidemiology; and diverse outcomes including morbidity, mortality, disability, and quality of life. Faculty are using essential methodologies for contemporary epidemiology: molecular methods, causal inference, novel measurement techniques, pragmatic clinical trials, and innovative and privacy preserving data linkage. The Department, through its Centers and faculty activities, has strong collaboration external to University of Iowa. Nationally the Department participates in the NCI SEER program; the CDC NBDPS, NCIPC, and Coverdell Stroke Registry; NCATS CTSA; the FDA Sentinel Program; the PCORI PCORnet research network; and the Veterans Administration research centers. Sources of funding for grants and contracts are from the NIH (NCI, Fogarty International Center, NIEHS, NHLBI, NIA, NIDR, NIDCD, NINDS, NIMH, NIAID, NIDDK), the NLM, CDC, NHTsA, NIOSH, HCFA, DoD-GEIS, CDRF, AHRQ and PCORI; various foundations (Wellmark Foundation, Arthritis Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson, Cancer Research Foundation, Pew Charitable Trusts, Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust, W. K. Kellogg Foundation, Principal Financial Group Foundation, and National Pork Board); associations (American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, American Dietetic Association); and private industry.
Department of Health Management and Policy
The Department of Health Management and Policy offers a Master of Health Administration (MHA) degree, an Executive Master Administration (EMHA), a M.P.H. in Policy degree, an MS in Health Policy, and a Ph.D. in Health Services Research and Policy. Alumni of these programs hold positions in academia, research firms, consulting firms, and healthcare organizations throughout the country, and internationally including many in leadership positions. The 75-year-old M.H.A. program has over 1300 alumni, many of whom remain actively engaged with the department. The doctoral program is the oldest in health care management in the United States.
Dr. George Wehby is the John W. Colloton Chair and Head of the Department. Fourteen faculty have primary appointments in the department. Included on the faculty are specialists in health services research, health policy, health systems planning, strategic management, health economics, quality management, outcomes assessment, aging and mental health policy, and leadership. Joint appointments and regular collaborations involve physicians, nurses, geographers, epidemiologists, health system leaders, organizational sociologists, and economists.
HMP faculty carry out the bulk of their research in four centers and institutes: Center for Health Policy and Research, RUPRI Center for Rural Health Policy Analysis, Institute for Public Health Practice, Research and Policy, and the National Center for Rural Telehealth Research. HMP faculty either in prior years or currently fill a number of leadership positions within the University including Interim Dean, Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education, and Dean of University College.
Department of Occupational and Environmental Health
The mission of the Department of Occupational and Environmental Health is to prevent injury and illness resulting from occupational and environmental hazards. To accomplish this, we educate the next generation of public health leaders and conduct research that enables effective outreach and interventions for the citizens of Iowa, the US, and the world.
Dr. Nathan Fethke is Professor and Head of the Department, it is currently comprised of 12 faculty members from a variety of disciplines, including occupational health, industrial hygiene, injury epidemiology and control, rural health and toxicology. OEH personnel include 5 administrative staff, 54 other professional and scientific staff and 80 mentored MPH, MS and PhD students.
OEH faculty comprise a wide range of expertise in numerous areas of engagement in occupational and environmental health, including exposure and risk assessment, public health policy, evaluation and translation, biomedical sciences, and occupational and environmental epidemiology. Our faculty are collaborative and engage with extensive networks of researchers worldwide. Strengths among our departmental faculty include regular collaborations in research and teaching and a strong, student-focused commitment to teaching excellence. In addition, OEH graduates consistently find employment in their fields of study, securing positions in industry, academia, government, and the non-profit sector.
OEH students, staff and faculty are actively engaged in an extensive portfolio of research funded by an array of grants and contracts. OEH faculty are leaders in six federally funded research centers of excellence and two outreach and engagement projects. These include the Environmental Health Sciences Research Center (NIH), Great Plains Center for Agricultural Health (CDC), Healthier Workforce Center of the Midwest (CDC), Heartland Center for Occupational Health and Safety (CDC), Injury Prevention Research Center (CDC), Iowa Superfund Research Program (NIH), Former Worker Medical Screening Program (DOE), and Iowa’s Center for Agricultural Safety and Health (State of Iowa).
The work of the Department is conducted primarily through seven centers and programs: