From the Dean

Dear Friends,

Each fall, as many of you know, we celebrate with our many Minnesota-based colleagues at our Community Partners event. The event is designed to recognize and show our deep appreciation to the hundreds of individuals from across the public health spectrum who in some way contribute to the vitality of our research and education programs. This issue of Advances showcases some of the work we are currently undertaking with those partners.

As a University we realize the importance of investing in Minnesota, and as a school we see it as a fundamental part of our outreach mission to protect the health of Minnesotans. I hope you enjoy reading our cover story starting on page 2, which describes the many ways we are doing this.

The fall issue of this magazine carries an insert featuring our annual report. In it, you will see numbers showing the tremendous growth we are experiencing as a school, both in terms of our research enterprise and our education programs. I'm particularly proud of the career journeys our graduates embark on each year. Four of 2007's brightest stars are featured in the annual report.

I am delighted to welcome the newest member of the school's leadership team, Dr. François Sainfort, the new head of our Division of Health Policy and Management. Dr. Sainfort comes to us from Georgia Tech, where he was the senior associate dean for interdisciplinary research in the College of Engineering. Dr. Sainfort is joined by his wife, Dr. Julie Jacko, who has appointments at the School of Nursing and the SPH. Dr. Jacko will head the University's new Institute for Health Informatics.

Thanks for reading, and as always, I welcome your feedback. Feel free to drop me a line at sphdean@umn.edu.

In health,

John R. Finnegan Jr., Ph.D.
Dean and Professor
Assistant Vice President for Public Health