Schenck to lead NC Institute for Public Health and Public Health Leadership Program

Anna P. Schenck, PhD, MPH, will become director of the North Carolina Institute for Public Health (NCIPH) and associate dean for public health practice at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, effective March 1. Schenck also leads the School’s Public Health Leadership Program (PHLP).

“Anna’s leadership provides an important opportunity to strengthen ties between research, teaching and practice at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health,” said Barbara K. Rimer, DrPH, dean and Alumni Distinguished Professor at the School. “By leading the NCIPH and PHLP, she will increase connections between academics and practice, not just with these programs but across the School and out to communities. Dr. Schenck is the right person to serve as both associate dean and director of NCIPH. She is an accomplished researcher and a seasoned practitioner. She herself is evidence that practice and academic pursuits can be synergistic.”

 

Edward Baker Jr., MD, MPH, research professor in the School’s health policy and management department and director of the Institute since 2003, will step down from his administrative role as NCIPH director. He will continue to serve as a research professor at UNC, focusing on executive development, preparedness research and strengthening the public health system.

 

“I am very grateful for Ed’s impressive leadership over the past seven years in areas such as leadership training for public health professionals in the field,” Rimer said. “He’s been a real visionary in the preparedness area as well. We’re glad that he will remain at the School and continue to work on these and other efforts.”

 

“PHLP and the Institute are invaluable resources for public health practitioners,” Schenck said. “Each provides opportunities to enhance the School’s scholarly engagement in practice, and enhance state and community access to the public health expertise of the School. In these difficult economic times, we will look for the most efficient ways to help practitioners, and to clarify and focus on our core mission to our state of North Carolina, as well as the rest of the nation and world.”

 

Schenck, a native North Carolinian, began her career at the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and then moved to the Guilford County Department of Public Health in Greensboro, N.C., where she was promoted from lead health educator to epidemiologist during her nearly seven years of service. She received a Master of Science in Public Health in health education and a doctorate in epidemiology from UNC’s public health school. She became PHLP director Dec. 1, 2009. Prior to joining UNC, she worked for 12 years at The Carolinas Center for Medical Excellence, in Cary, N.C.About the North Carolina Institute for Public Health

The Institute, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2010, develops and offers programs that focus on workforce development, accreditation and quality improvement, public health preparedness, and healthy environments. A number of certificates are offered through the Institute, including Core Public Health Concepts and Field Epidemiology. More than 8,000 public health responders and other practitioners were trained through the Institute last year.

 

The PHLP prepares public health practitioners for leadership positions. Through certificate and graduate degree programs, offered in both traditional and distance-learning formats, the program helps develop population-level knowledge and skills with an interdisciplinary emphasis. Students participate and learn collaboratively, building upon their varied professional experiences. Currently, more than 200 students are receiving education through the Public Health Leadership Program.

 

UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: Ramona DuBose, director of communications, (919) 966-7467 or ramona_dubose@unc.edu.