Graduate School of Public Health

Dean's Message

Welcome to the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH).

Founded in 1948 in response to the needs of the local community, GSPH is now recognized for its outstanding contributions to public health on local, national, and international fronts.

Public health has changed in many ways since our school was founded 60 years ago. While some diseases have declined dramatically, others pose growing threats to human health. We are now confronted by diseases of lifestyle, aging, and other problems of our own making in the environment and the workplace. Health disparities between the advantaged and the disadvantaged present a constant challenge. Escalating health care costs vex us economically and politically, with little consensus on the structure of a reformed health care system. Violence far too commonly affects our families and neighborhoods. Vaccination rates among our children remain too low.

The list of challenges is long. But GSPH is committed to training the public health leaders who will solve these problems and meet the new public health challenges head-on. Our school’s programs in international health provide opportunities to work collaboratively with health professionals and communities across the globe.

All seven of the school’s outstanding departments boast a diverse faculty, rich in backgrounds, disciplinary approaches, and research interests. GSPH has collaborative relationships with all of the University’s health science schools, community organizations, and the local and state health departments. We rank third among all schools of public health in terms of research funding from the National Institutes of Health. Our faculty are also dedicated teachers, and, as befits a school of public health, service and practice are also important components of the school’s mission.

Support from individuals, foundations, and corporations will help us accomplish even more, and accomplish it more quickly. I thank you for your interest in GSPH.

Donald S. Burke, MD
Dean
UPMC-Jonas Salk Professor of Global Health

Overview

The Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH) combines excellence in research and teaching with a tradition of translating important findings into groundbreaking public health advances.  GSPH ranks third among schools of public health in terms of NIH funding.  The school spans a broad range of disciplines and provides a rich academic environment for students.  Student enrollment has increased over 30% during the past five years in response to the quality of the educational programming.  Through its commitment to excellence, GSPH continues to be world-renowned for contributions that influence public health practice and medical care for people in western Pennsylvania, across the nation and around the globe.

Established in 1948 with a gift of $13.6 million from the Andrew W. Mellon Education and Charitable Trust, GSPH was the 13th accredited school of public health in the nation.  Founded in response to the needs of industrial Pittsburgh, GSPH quickly achieved prominence in occupational health.  Today, GSPH is a leader in studies to explore long-term health effects of employment in and living close to specific industries.  The school’s efforts have expanded to address all major public health concerns with notable achievements.

• With the emergence of AIDS during the 1980s, Pitt’s expertise in virology and immune deficiency made it a front-runner in AIDS investigations, including the largest and most extensive epidemiological study of HIV and AIDS in the world.
• GSPH’s Women’s Health Initiative, the first and longest-running study on women’s health has changed the way hormone replacement therapy is prescribed, translating into lives saved.  The incidence of breast cancer declined 8% in Pennsylvania between 2001 and 2003.
• GSPH established the first Center for Minority Health in the country devoted to eliminating racial/ethnic health disparities.
• GSPH’s Center for Aging and Population Health is built on the resources of GSPH’s Department of Epidemiology and strives to generate new solutions to the challenges of an aging society, shifting the paradigm of prevention research to target optimal rather than usual aging.
• Research conducted primarily in the Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology has led to accomplishments such as hallmark clinical trials on passive immunization against poliovirus leading to the Salk polio vaccine.
• The Epidemiology Data Center is a leader in coordinating multi-center trials and registries to evaluate new and established technologies such as coronary artery surgery, angioplasty, liver transplantation artificial heart valves, brain resuscitation, and eye surgery.  The Data Center also examines optimal strategies for preventing the progression of diabetes mellitus, hepatitis C, ischemic heart disease, non-invasive coronary disease, Alzheimer’s disease and depression, among other diseases.
• GSPH is a leader in human genetics research with recent projects focusing on risk factors for osteoporosis and age-related macular degeneration, obesity, Alzheimer’s disease, coronary heart disease, diabetes and lupus as well as developing new statistical methods for gene mapping and genetic mechanisms underlying various cancers.
• GSPH faculty developed much of the body of law directing public health, hospital and elder care practices, ethics and care delivery.

Your gift supports the outstanding contributions of the Graduate School of Public Health in educating tomorrow’s leaders and in researching issues and their translation to improved public health practices.

Donor Profile

Carol and Monto Ho

Dr. Monto Ho, professor emeritus and retired chair of the Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology at the University of Pittsburgh, and his wife Carol (SIS 68 MLS) have been a part of the Pitt community for many years. Since serving others has always been an integral part of their lives, they recently chose to make a significant impact on the department that Dr. Ho created and led for twenty years by endowing a chair in the Graduate School of Public Health.

Dr. Ho spent his entire medical career at Pitt. He arrived in 1969 and his early years were spent as an assistant professor of medicine in the Graduate School of Public Health, where he was affiliated with the Department of Epidemiology. Dr. Ho was also a professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases from 1971-1992. However, one of Dr. Ho’s fondest memories of his time at Pitt is creating the Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology.

Believing that the study of infectious diseases in microbiology has a great future because of its importance in public health, Dr. Ho and his wife Carol wanted to ensure his former department’s continued existence. “My wife and I believe this study needs a source of permanent funding and that is why we endowed a chair in the department that I headed,” Dr. Ho proudly explains.

The Monto and Carol Ho Chair in Infectious Disease and Microbiology in the Graduate School of Public Health will ensure that the work begun by Dr. Ho will continue for years to come.

Dr. Ho and Carol, a retired medical librarian at St. Clair Hospital, are proud that their legacy will remain at the University of Pittsburgh. “Knowing that we have been able to make a difference in the future study of infectious diseases is such a rewarding feeling,” Dr. Ho says, “We are honored to play a role in its continued success.”

Contact Us

Apryl Eshelman

Director of Development
Graduate School of Public Health
A631 Crabtree Hall
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
412-624-5639
Eshelman@pitt.edu

Apryl Eshelman, CFRE, is the Director of Development at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. Prior to joining the University of Pittsburgh, Ms. Eshelman raised support for The Nature Conservancy’s global conservation projects.

Ms. Eshelman was a commercial wholesale banker for twenty years and began her career with Chemical Bank in New York City. She has also worked as a wholesale commercial banker in Europe and, most recently, in Pittsburgh.

She is a native of Western Pennsylvania and a graduate of The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.