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, and provides leadership to the Center for Public Health Statistics (CPHS).
The Department of Biostatistics is currently comprised of 16 primary faculty, 13 adjunct/secondary faculty, and approximately 40 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, spatial and spatio-temporal modeling, time series analysis, survival data analysis, longitudinal data analysis, network analysis, integrative analysis, personalized medicine, causal inference, comparative effectiveness studies, high-dimensional data analysis, missing data techniques, nonparametric modeling, model selection, 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, the Iowa Informatics Initiative, and the UI Genetics Cluster Initiative.
Nearly all graduate students in the Department are supported by half-time research or teaching assistantships. The Department has a dedicated computing lab, which includes extensive Linux and Windows networks, 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 mission of the Department of Community and Behavioral Health is to serve Iowa, the Midwest, and the nation as a leading source of expertise on creating new knowledge in the area of community health and behavioral components of health and disease. In collaboration with communities, CBH promotes health and quality of life by developing, implementing, evaluating, and disseminating evidence-based practices through research, training, and innovative policy.
The Department currently has 10 primary faculty members, 2 emeritus faculty, 18 adjunct and secondary faculty representing medicine, nursing, anthropology, global studies, education, pediatrics, psychology and communication studies, an Associate research scientist, an Assistant Research Scientist, 41 students and over 17 full and part time staff members and Graduate Research Assistants supporting the academic and research missions of the Department. The faculty members come from a variety of disciplines within the social and health sciences; their common bond is an interest in health behavior and promoting healthy communities.
CBH Faculty have expertise in a wide range of community and behavioral health areas including: health disparities, nutrition and physical activity, health communication, substance use and addictions, mental health, maternal and child health, community based participatory research, obesity, and aging. Sources of funding and grants have included CDC, SAMHSA, NIH, NSF, ARRA, IDPH, Foundations and other private educational and industry. The Department currently administers two centers of research and practice, and M.P.H., M.S. 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 of disease and its consequences and in health promotion and evaluation; and by providing education, consultation and collaboration with public health and other programs. The Department of Epidemiology has maintained diversity and a multi-emphasis graduate degree program with faculty who have expertise in a variety of areas, with emphasis on those with public health importance to rural America. Academic degrees are offered through the MPH program, the MS in Epidemiology program, the PhD in Epidemiology program and the MS in Clinical Investigation program.
Dr. Elizabeth Chrischilles is Professor and Head of the Department. The Department currently has 16 full-time faculty, 52 secondary and adjunct faculty, 7 emeritus faculty and four research scientists. The research activities support nearly 210 research staff and graduate research assistants. Space for the academic department is available in the General Hospital for faculty and administrative staff. Research programs are located in the Westlawn Building, Old Capitol Centre, and Oakdale Hall on campus as well as satellite clinics of the Preventive Intervention Center at the Towncrest Center in Iowa City and in Des Moines. 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 Center on Aging, 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. The Epidemiology Resource Core Protocol Development provides researchers and students with expertise in data management, statistical consulting, research budgeting, protocol and questionnaire repository, data archive and sample storage and cataloging.
Areas of research and academic emphasis include aging epidemiology, birth defects epidemiology, cancer epidemiology, cardiovascular disease epidemiology, infectious disease epidemiology, injury epidemiology, neuroepidemiology, pharmacoepidemiology, reproductive epidemiology, genetic epidemiology, nutritional epidemiology, and health services research and outcome epidemiology. 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, NHSTA, NIOSH, HCFA, DoD-GEIS, CDRF and AHRQ; various foundations (Wellmark Foundation, Arthritis Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson, Cancer Research Foundation, Pew Charitable Trusts, Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust, W. K. Kellogg Foudation, Principal Financial Group Foundation, and National Pork Board); associations (American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, American Dietetic Association, American Emu Association); private industry (Merck, Bristol-Meyers Squibb, Merck/Schering-Plough, Pfizer, Hoffman LaRoche, GlaxosmithKline, USAA, Daiichi Sankyo, Sanofi-Aventis, Abbott Labs, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Quidel, MITRE); center grants, and institutional grants.
Major research studies include the Agricultural Health Study, the Women’s Health Initiative, the Iowa Cancer Registry, the Iowa Center for Birth Defects Research and Prevention, National Birth Defects Prevention Study, National Down Syndrome Project, Muscular Dystrophy Surveillance Tracking and Research Network, Iowa Stillbirth Surveillance Project, the Study of Fluoride and Other Factors in Childhood Bone Development, the International Study of Unruptured Intracranial Aneurysms, the University of Iowa Older Adults CERT, Lung Cancer Care Outcomes/Surveillance Consortium – Iowa (CanCORS), Adolescent Diet Hormones and Breast Cancer Susceptibility, Promoting Health and Reducing Obesity in Children: A Community-Based Pilot Project in Iowa, Nutrition Experiences in Cancer Prevention, Pharmaceutical Case Management and Living Well with a Disability, National Surveillance for Emerging Adenovirus Infections, Transcriptional and Genetic Profiles in HNSCCs, the Multicenter Knee Osteoarthritis Study , Domestic Abuse in Pregnancy and Adverse Birth Outcomes, and Maternal-Fetal HLA Sharing and Risk of Preeclampsia.
Department of Health Management and Policy
The Department of Health Management and Policy offers a Master of Health Administration (MHA) degree, a M.P.H. in Policy degree, an MS in Health Policy, and a Ph.D. in health services and policy. Alumni of these programs hold positions in academia, research firms, consulting firms, and healthcare organizations throughout the country, including many in leadership positions. The 69-year-old M.H.A. program has over 1000 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. Twelve 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, Public Policy Center, 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 Interim Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.
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. Thomas Peters is serving as the interim head, it is currently comprised of 15 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 10 centers and programs: