Those are the words of James M. Raczynski, PhD, professor and dean of the Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock. Yet, people are catching on fast, and the evidence is in the number of higher education institutions offering public-health degrees.

The Washington, D.C.-based Council on Education for Public Health has accredited 111 higher-education schools and programs in the United States and Puerto Rico. (Bear in mind that one university may have approved programs on several campuses.) "The reason for that growth is that public health has become a very exciting area," Raczynski said. "When people typically think of public health, they think about death records, birth records, immunizations and indigent care. Well, public health of the 21st century is not like that."

A century ago, infectious disease and problems related to childbirth were the leading causes of death, dealt with through policy changes like sanitation improvement and prenatal care, Raczynski explained. "Now the leading causes of death and disability are lifestyle issues – heart, cancer, stroke. So public health has become much more complicated. We can no longer simply pass laws," he said.

James McGuire, PhD, chair of the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, said the first job of public health academia is to let students know of the broad range of challenging and fulfilling careers under the public-health umbrella. "I tell them there's a real dire need for such health professionals, and I don't think young people are aware of that dire need," he said.

Professions in public health cover a wide array of topics, from food protection to disease prevention, data analysis to teaching, public relations to policy development, finance to risk assessment and, of course, patient care. Employers include healthcare providers, government agencies, international health agencies, the armed forces, private-sector consulting firms, the pharmaceutical industry, research facilities and nonprofit organizations such as the American Red Cross, American Heart Association and American Cancer Society.

On Today's Campuses

Arkansas' Boozman College is a graduate school, offering 17 different educational programs. "That's staggering, since we've only been a college for seven and a half years now," Raczynski said. The college boasts 50 primary faculty members, and about 180 secondary and adjunct faculty.

Master's students specialize in either biostatistics, policy and management, epidemiology, behavioral science or environmental and occupational health. Combined degree programs marry an MPH with a medical degree, a law degree or a pharmacy doctorate or an MPH with a master's in public service. Doctorates are offered in public health leadership, health systems research and health promotion and prevention research.

Gaining in popularity is the 4+1 program, which is a partnership with three historically black colleges and universities in the state "to identify bright undergraduates, typically sophomores," Raczynski said. While working toward their bachelor's degree, these 4+1 students can take graduate coursework, thus fulfilling undergraduate requirements and also putting themselves a step ahead toward a master's degree. "Students typically finish their undergraduate degree in the normal four years, and then they have anywhere from 15 to 21 hours of graduate work already completed," he said. "Typically they can complete the MPH, which normally takes two years, in one year, hence the name 4+1."

The program is funded in part by the National Institutes of Health, which also funds the Arkansas Center for Health Disparities on campus, founded to improve healthcare access to racial and ethnic minorities. One project at the center is taking a proven diabetes-prevention program and implementing it in predominantly minority communities, Raczynski said.

He noted that much college emphasis is on community-based public health, and he pointed to childhood-obesity initiatives as an example. In March, the college learned it will receive funding from the CDC's Prevention Research Center for public-school policies to reduce childhood obesity. The college has been involved already in Arkansas programs funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to monitor progress in that arena. The new funding from the CDC will help make parents part of the solution.

At Southern Mississippi, undergraduate students in the Department of Community Health Sciences focus on health promotion, administration and policy or allied health (with a management emphasis). Master's students choose epidemiology, biostatistics, administration and policy or education. "We just started an additional emphasis area in veterinary public health," McGuire said. "That's a growing field, because if you look across the board, a large number of illnesses stem from animal transmission to humans by way of direct contact or through the food chain." He cited bird flu and mad cow disease as examples.

McGuire said one-third of all the department's classes have a community outreach component, culminating near graduation in a 400-hour internship, which is an extensive fieldwork experience under the supervision of a mentor, administrator or health professional.

Southern Miss offers two dual degrees: the MPH plus business administration, which McGuire called "very marketable, and an MPH/anthropology dual degree. "I found a lot of students who were in anthropology had a real strong interest in epidemiology and biostatistics, so that's the emphasis of that dual program. Anthropologists are involved in retrospective investigation, and that's what epidemiology is, retrospective investigation of disease outbreak. So it just meshed together." A new emphasis in this dual area will be education, he added. On the horizon is a dual MPH/master of social work.

Reaching into southern Mississippi's rural communities is a top priority for students and the department's 13 faculty members. McGuire himself is director of one of the state's five Area Health Education Centers. His AHEC region, covering the state's 15 southernmost counties, receives federal funding to address health concerns of residents and ensure continuing education for health professionals.

Another department research example is a $300,000 federal grant to investigate lead consumption in children "That's still a big deal here, whether it's in paint or other products," McGuire said. Breast cancer in poverty-stricken areas, the effects of job loss on healthcare access, nutrition and childhood obesity are other research initiatives tackled by USM.

A Final Thought on Public Health

Raczynski sees the public-health field as contributing to more than the health of America's residents. In fact, he sees public health as an economic imperative. "People who run big business understand public health, because they understand insurance costs and how that impacts on their bottom line," he said.

Economic development, education and public health are "different legs of a three-legged stool. They go hand in hand. You can't concentrate in grade school if you have a toothache, so that's public health and the prevention of oral disease. You can't perform well if you're not healthy, and you can't be attractive to business if you don't have a healthy workforce."

And while it may take some explaining, "People eventually get it," Raczynski said. "Once you start talking about the importance of public health to our state and our nation, people understand it. I think our president understands it, thank goodness."