Collegiate Times

The Center for Public Health Practice and Research plans to work with TriAdventure to offer an exercise program for disadvantaged kids. Here, coach Kelly McPherson from TriAdventure monitors athletes training at the Weight Club.

A new public health center at Virginia Tech offers students and faculty more opportunities to participate in public health programs.

The Virginia Tech Institute for Society, Culture and Environment (ISCE) opened the Center for Public Health Practice and Research, replacing the Institute for Community Health, to expand the educational offerings of the public health program at Tech.

Kathy Hosig, associate professor in the department of population health sciences, will direct the new center.

The center will provide Tech students and faculty the opportunity to participate in public health projects and research with external health organizations, public health and government officials, and other outside groups.

The program was formed in response to the demand for health-based research around Tech and as an addition to the Master in Public Health, a professional program that Tech, in collaboration with the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, offered during the fall 2010 semester.

The ISCE, one of the main sponsors of the new center, wanted to create the new public health center because of the growing interest and excitement around health-related research on campus in the past several years, according to Karen Roberto, director of the ISCE.

The new center will serve as a central hub for undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and Master of Public Health students networking with outside organizations and businesses involved in public health projects, and public health education and praxis. “Having a center that really focuses on public health issues helps to provide a central place for faculty and students to work together on practice issues and conducting research – that really gives it a place,” Roberto said.

Roberto believes the new center will benefit public health students at Tech by providing them with a central entity to serve as an organizing body and a liaison with the public health industry, giving students access to public health practice and research projects.

“The public health program – the Masters in Public Health – is a new program, so part of that educational program will be working with external partners as students are being placed in their practicums and field studies,” Roberto said. “It [the center] will serve as an organizing body.” The center also intends to make advances in the study and application of public health strategies and models, in addition to fostering student involvement with public health research and practice.

The program is expected to facilitate collaboration between university researchers, faculty and students, along with professionals in government, public and private organizations involved with public health policy and issues.

Roberto believes that the new center will be a catalyst for expansion of the ever-growing public health education department at Tech.

“I think this is an exciting time on the Virginia Tech campus, and creating the Institute for Public Health Practice and Research is just another indication of Virginia Tech’s commitment to health science and health service research and practice,” Roberto said. “We are looking forward to the Institute’s growth and development."

A version of this article appeared in the Jul 21 issue of the Collegiate Times.