Integrating Public Health Education at Oregon State University: Improving the Health of Populations in Oregon and Beyond

Recognizing the compelling need to address emerging public health challenges facing Oregon and beyond, and responding to the MPH Degree for the 21^st Century final report, the College of Public Health and Human Sciences at Oregon State University (OSU) has implemented key strategies to improve teaching, learning and practice. These strategies align with the national directions for public health education and include: 1) reorganization of the College to provide a learning environment that supports interdisciplinary collaboration and fosters the development of public health professionals to work across disciplines; 2) integration of the core MPH curriculum to emphasize a more generalist core curriculum with increased focus on in-depth concentrations; 3) creation of new MPH concentrations that reflect the strengths of OSU and College faculty, the needs of communities/organizations we serve, and an opportunity to more fully integrate our human sciences and public health disciplines; and 4) expansion of experiential learning opportunities through placement of student interns with Cooperative Extension faculty strategically housed in all 36 counties in the state of Oregon to align with the OSU mission as a Land Grant University. In this presentation, we highlight the progress we have made in our efforts to integrate public health education at OSU. We discuss challenges to interdisciplinary integration including the tightly woven connection between academic discipline and professional identity. We highlight efforts to overcome these barriers including engaging all members of our academic community as both the changers and the changed; hiring diverse new faculty members with both the promise and expectation of interdisciplinary research and integrated academic programs; and listening to our practitioner colleagues who contributed forward-thinking, suggestions, and questions to guide curricular and competency development. As we continue our journey to transform public health education, we are now well positioned to discover, teach, learn and serve.