Harrington to join NC Institute for Public Health
August 17, 2011 | |
Dennis Harrington, MPH, a 30-year public health veteran, will join the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health to explore new ways to improve public health delivery throughout the state. Harrington recently stepped down from his role as deputy director of the N.C. Division of Public Health and will work through the School’s North Carolina Institute for Public Health (NCIPH) beginning in August. Through a new contract between the School and the state’s division of public health, Harrington will provide consultation and technical assistance to all of the state’s 85 local health departments in specialized areas such as recruitment of qualified applicants for local health director positions; support and guidance for health departments in hiring health directors; support and training for interim health directors; and business models for delivery of public health services in North Carolina related to changing economic and political conditions. In addition, the contract requires development of relationships between state and local health departments and UNC public health students and faculty. Harrington served as a local health director in two North Carolina counties and has been with the state’s Division of Public Health for 13 years, first as chief of local health services. He earned undergraduate and graduate degrees at UNC’s public health school in nutrition and health policy and administration, respectively. “This contract requires someone with specialized public health expertise, who is knowledgeable about both requirements for and demands upon local health directors,” said Anna P. Schenck, PhD, associate dean for public health practice at UNC’s public health school and director of NCIPH and the school’s Public Health Leadership Program. “We are looking forward to working with Mr. Harrington to provide additional outreach to local departments across our state.”
UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: Ramona DuBose, director of communications, (919) 966-7467 or ramona_dubose@unc.edu. |