SPH News Jan. 5, 2009
SPH News is a school-wide electronic newsletter distributed to SPH faculty and staff every other week during the school year. Please send news items to SPHNews@umn.edu.
From the Dean
The are lots of putative explanations about how the tradition of New Year’s Resolutions began. The story to which many subscribe appears to have originated with the ancient Romans. They assigned the first month of the solar calendar to the god Janus, who possessed two faces — one always looking to the future, the other gazing back upon the past. Many people are engaged in both activities just now, especially with an eye to shaping the resolution of the new president who prepares to take office in about two weeks. One of the best of these efforts, in my opinion, is a report issued by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in mid-December: The U.S. Commitment to Global Health: Recommendations for the New Administration.
Among its New Year’s Resolutions for President Obama are that he should:
- make a major speech early in his administration declaring global health as among the chief "pillars" of his foreign policy;
- re-establish U.S. leadership in global health by creating a White House Inter-agency Committee and designating a senior official to oversee it;
- expand the scope of "global health" to reflect a broader cross-section of health and disease issues; and
- double the U.S. financial commitment to global health between 2009 and 2012. These are only a few of the recommendations of the 52-page report, which is definitely worth a read.
View the report online.
By the way, the IOM committee that drafted the report was chaired by former NIH Director Dr. Harold Varmus.
—John R. Finnegan, Jr., Ph.D.
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Media News
December 2008 media coverage featured the following SPH faculty and staff:
Bruce Alexander
Roger Feldman
John Finnegan
Jean Forster
Ian Greaves
Robert Kane
Rosalie Kane
Jeffrey Mandel
James Neaton
Michael Osterholm
Sarah Rydell
Coverage was featured in local media as well as in the Associated Press, a Washington Post blog “The Checkup,” the Duluth News Tribune, Northwest Herald in Illinois, and WebMD.com. Visit www.sph.umn.edu/about/news/media/ to read more about SPH faculty in the news.
Subscribe to Public Health Scene to get regular e-mail updates on SPH in the news.
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School News
Enter the “It’s Global” PSA Contest for a chance to win up to $500. Want to tell the world how you feel about pollution, clean water, climate change, second-hand smoke or another global public health topic? Here’s your chance. Create a public service announcement that is 30 seconds or less and enter the 2009 “It’s Global” Public Service Announcement (PSA) contest sponsored by the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health. Novice and seasoned filmmakers are encouraged to participate. The deadline to enter is March 6. Select entries will be showcased and winners of cash prizes up to $500 will be announced on April 6 during National Public Health Week. Learn more at www.sph.umn.edu/psa
Check out the 2008 All-School Winter Reception photos. The 2008 All-School Winter Reception was a hit thanks to the guests and volunteers. Congratulations to Environmental Health Sciences for their victory in the SPH version of “Hollywood Squares.” Photos from this event can be viewed or downloaded at: www.flickr.com/photos/umnsph/. If you have any comments or suggestions for next year’s event please email SPH event coordinator Nichole Axtman at mart1047@umn.edu.
Cerra slated to deliver annual State of the AHC address. Senior Vice President for Health Sciences Frank Cerra will present his annual State of the Academic Health Center address from 3-4 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 15, in Mayo Auditorium. The address will be preceded by the AHC Faculty Assembly from 2-2:45 p.m. and broadcast to the St. Paul, Duluth, and Rochester campuses.
Save the date for, “What’s Next in Law, Health and the Life Sciences? Debating Openness, Access and Accountability,” which will be held Friday, March 6. The daylong seminar, sponsored by the Consortium and Joint Degree Program, features SPH faculty members Michael Osterholm and Bill Toscano, and Frank Cerra, senior vice president for Health Sciences.
• More information about the seminar
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SPH Events
Save the Date for the SPH Alumni and Friends Scholarship Gala. The event will be held on Saturday evening, May 16 in the Great Hall at Coffman Memorial Union. New York Times best-selling author, Dan Buettner, will deliver the keynote. Last year the event raised $45,000 for SPH student scholarships.
• More about Buettner and his book
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CPHEO Announcements
Upcoming Courses
Tools for Managing Volunteers During and After a Disaster
These tools were developed for Medical Reserve Corps coordinators, public health agencies or any organization that may deploy volunteers to assist during or after an emergency or disaster and can be adapted to meet your agency needs.
• Access tools online
8-Hour Emergency Response Refresher
Jan. 8
Read the training description
8-Hour Site Worker Refresher
Feb. 5
Read the training description
24- and 40-Hour Site Worker Training
Feb. 9-13
Read the training description
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Other Events
Jan. 9, 7:30 to 9 a.m.
Minnesota Public Health Association forum series "Food and Public Health: A Sampler."
Jan. 29 11:30 to 1 p.m.
2009 Deinard Memorial Lecture on Law & Medicine: "The Emergent Logic of Health Law"
For more events, go to the SPH Online Calendar
Subscribe to SPH calendar updates by e-mail
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Events on the AHC Web Site
Events on the SPH Web Site
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Last modified on Monday Jan 05, 2009