Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Overview

Originally named the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, the school was founded in 1916 by William H. Welch with a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. The school was renamed the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health on April 20, 2001 in honor of Michael Bloomberg (founder of the eponymous media company) for his financial support and commitment to the school and Johns Hopkins University. Bloomberg has donated a total of $1.1 billion to Johns Hopkins University over a period of several decades.

The school is also the founder of Delta Omega (est. 1924), the national honorary society for graduate studies in public health. The Bloomberg School is fully accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH).

Origins

In 1913, the Rockefeller Foundation sponsored a conference on the need for public health education in the United States. Foundation officials were convinced that a new profession of public health was needed. It would be allied to medicine but also distinct, with its own identity and educational institutions. The result of deliberations between public health leaders and foundation officials was the Welch–Rose Report of 1915, which laid out the need for adequately trained public health workers, and envisioned an "institute of hygiene" for the United States. The Report, reflected the different preferences of the plan's two architects—William Henry Welch favoured scientific research, whereas Wickliffe Rose wanted an emphasis on public health practice.

In June 1916, the executive committee of the Rockefeller Foundation approved the plan to organize an institute or school of public health at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. The institute was named the School of Hygiene and Public Health, indicating a compromise between those who wanted the practical public health training on the British model and those who favoured basic scientific research on the German model. Welch, the first Dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine also became the founding Dean of the first school of public health in the United States.

The facility is located on the former Maryland Hospital site founded in 1797. The Maryland Hospital was originally built as a hospital to care for Yellow Fever for the indigent away from the city. In 1840, the hospital expanded to exclusively care for the mentally ill. In 1873, the buildings were torn down as the facility relocated to a new site as the Spring Grove Hospital Center.

Legacy

The Johns Hopkins School of Public Health represents the archetype for formalized public health education in the United States. By 1922, other schools of public health at Harvard, Columbia and Yale had all been established in accordance with the Hopkins model. The Rockefeller Foundation continued to sponsor the creation of public health schools in the United States and around the world in the 1920s and 1930s, extending the American model of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health to countries such as Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Czechoslovakia, England, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Norway, the Philippines, Poland, Rumania, Sweden, Turkey, and Yugoslavia.

Centennial Celebration

The school is celebrating its 100th anniversary during the 2015–2016 academic year with programs, festivities, and innovative projects to spotlight 100 years of pioneering public health—connecting a century of achievements to the promise of new advances for the next century.

Reputation and Ranking

The Bloomberg School is the largest school of public health in the world, with 530 full-time and 620 part-time faculty, and 2,030 students from 84 countries. It is home to over fifty Research Centers and Institutes with research ongoing in the U.S. and more than 90 countries worldwide. The School ranks first in federal research support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), receiving nearly 25 percent of all funds distributed among the 40 U.S. schools of public health, and has consistently been ranked first among schools of public health by U.S. News & World Report.

Academic Degrees and Departments

The School offers:

The Bloomberg School is composed of 10 academic departments:

In addition to these ten academic departments, there is a school-wide MPH program (Chair Marie Diener-West) and the Graduate Training Program in Clinical Investigation which is a collaborative program between the School of Public Health and School of Medicine (Chair N. Franklin Adkinson, Jr.).

Location

The Bloomberg School of Public Health is located in the East Baltimore campus of the Johns Hopkins University. The campus, collectively known as the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions (JHMI), is also home to the School of Medicine and the School of Nursing and comprises several city blocks, radiating outwards from the Billings Building of the Johns Hopkins Hospital with its historic dome. The main building on which the school is located is on North Wolfe Street; it has nine floors and features an observation area and a fitness center on the top floor. The Bloomberg School also occupies Hampton House on North Broadway. The school is also serviced by the Welch Medical Library, a central resource shared by all the schools of the Medical Campus. The campus includes the Lowell Reed Residence Hall and the Denton Cooley Recreational Center. Public transportation to and from the campus is served by the Baltimore Metro Subway, local buses, and the JHMI shuttle.

Notable Alumni

Some of the graduates of the Bloomberg School of Public Health include

Deans of the School

The official title of the head of the School has changed periodically between Director and Dean throughout the years. Originally the title was Director. In 1931, it was changed to Dean and in 1946 back to Director. In 1958, the title again became Dean. The Deans (Directors) of the Bloomberg School include:

1. William H. Welch (1916–1927)
2. William Henry Howell (1927–1931)
3. Wade Hampton Frost (1931–1934)
4. Allen W. Freeman (1934–1937)
5. Lowell Reed (1937–1947)
6. Ernest L. Stebbins (1947–1967)
7. John C. Hume (1967–1977)
8. Donald A. Henderson (1977–1990)
9. Alfred Sommer (1990–2005)
10. Michael J. Klag (2005–present)

Publications