[Students] New B.S. in Public Health at A&M-Commerce!

[Spencer Willis]

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It is my pleasure to introduce our new Bachelor of Science in Public Health (BSPH) at A&M – Commerce!

Public health is the practice of preventing disease and promoting good health within groups of people from small communities to entire countries. Public health professionals rely on policy and research strategies to understand issues such as infant mortality and chronic disease in specific populations. 1

Public health is important.  The American Public Health Association1 outlines some of the key ways in which public health improves lives:

Public Health Saves Money and Improves Quality of Life.
A healthy public gets sick less frequently and spends less money on health care; this means better economic productivity and an improved quality of life for everyone.

Improving Public Health Helps Children Thrive.
Healthy children become healthy adults. Healthy kids attend school more often and perform better overall. Public health professionals strive to ensure that all kids grow up in a healthy environment with adequate resources, including health care.

Public Health Reduces Human Suffering.
Public health not only educates people about the effects of lifestyle choices on their health, it also reduces the impact of disasters by preparing people for the effects of catastrophes such as hurricanes, tornadoes and terrorist attacks.

Historically, public health education existed as a professional degree program with training at the graduate level only. In 2003, the Institute of Medicine recommended that public health education be accessible to all undergraduates. Since 2007 we have seen a rapid increase in advocacy to increase undergraduate public health education, which has led to the first consensus report and curriculum guidelines for undergraduate degree programs.2

Our BSPH curriculum is built on the five core competencies in public health: Epidemiology, Statistics, Environmental Health, Social and Behavioral Aspects of Health, and Health Policy & Management. Through classroom curricula, research experience and hands-on learning through field placements in the community, the undergraduate program will provide a strong foundation for students looking to work in public health, pursue medical careers, law school, business professions, or graduate programs in public health.

We will begin phasing out the current B.S. Health Promotion degree  Fall 2015.

On behalf of the entire BSPH faculty, I am thrilled to welcome the A&M-Commerce community to undergraduate public health education.

In health,

Spencer L. Willis, Jr., DrPH, CHES l Assistant Professor/Coordinator
Academy for Health Potential l Department of Health & Human Performance

Texas A&M University-Commerce
P.O. Box 3011 Commerce, TX 75429-3011
Tel. 903.886.5573 l Fax 903.886.5991 l www.tamuc.edu/hhp<http://www.tamuc.edu/hhp>


1American Public Health Association. (2006). What is Public Health? - Our Commitment to Safe, Healthy Communities . Retrieved from Get The Facts: https://www.apha.org/~/media/files/pdf/fact%20sheets/whatisph.ashx

2UC San Diego School of Medicine. (2015). Bachelor of Science in Public Health. Retrieved from http://bsph.ucsd.edu/about_welcome.html



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