Our Department History: Where We’ve Been and Where We’re Headed
We commit to a shared environment that reflects the joy of learning and the dual realizations that, while we are fortunate to live in this time and place, what we put into the mix affects the unfolding of events.
Health Science Program Review Report,
2004
The Early Years: 1965 - 2000
Our Department was founded in the
1960s, one of the results of the dissolution of the Home Economics
Department. The word “science”
was added to the department’s name as part of the public enthusiasm for the
growing knowledge base of the physical and social sciences of the 1960s. The new department focused on school
health and health administration in its early days, offering a B.S. in Health
Science with approximately 40 graduates per year.
In the late 1960s, Chair Richard
Bonvecchio seized the opportunity to establish a master’s degree in public
health (MPH) due to a change in accreditation requirements of the Council on
Education for Public Health. Within just a few years, he brought Dr. Sam
Radelfinger to campus to establish the program and Dr. Helen Ross to prepare
it for accreditation by the Council on Education for Public Health. The new
MPH in Community Health Education, one of the first outside of a school of
public health, admitted its first cohort in 1970 and has received continuous
accreditation since 1974.Our program was the first to receive a
7-year accreditation term in 1992 and the first to receive consecutive 7-year
terms.
The department’s degree offerings
grew during the 1980s and early 1990s, responsive to the needs of the region
and the resources of the university.Highlights of this period include creation of undergraduate
concentrations (Community/Occupational Health Education and Health Services
Administration), development of community-based internships and fieldwork in
both undergraduate and master’s programs, continuous curriculum development,
introduction of a 30-unit MA program in Health Administration, support for the
College’s new Gerontology program, collaboration with several departments on
new General Education courses, and lead participation in several College-wide
federal grants, including a community organizing health promotion project and
a Health Careers Opportunity (HCOP) grant. Core values and principles were
identified for the MPH program for the first time, including teachers as
learners, a systems perspective, social justice, and that which is not given
away is lost.MPH students
developed a Diversity Statement which became a central and lasting guide for
the program’s policies and operating procedures.New faculty lines and additional
support from the President’s Office allowed the hiring of five faculty members
between 1987 and 1990 (David, Roe, Perales, Gerstman, Gardner).Enrollment was strong, with
increasingly large cohorts of undergraduate and MPH students (50 and 35
graduates per year, respectively).The rising national prominence of the MPH program brought opportunities
for leadership, networking, and resources for both faculty and students.
The 1990s brought significant
challenges to the Department, all tied to the volatile local and state
economies.In the early 1990s,
the state’s budget crisis led to an attractive “Golden Handshake” early
retirement package for senior faculty – within 6 weeks of its surprise
announcement, three senior faculty in the Health Science Department retired
(Bonvecchio, Ross, Whitlock).Combined with the planned retirements of two other senior members
(Peterson and Smolensky), the department was left with 1 senior, 1 mid-career,
and 5 very junior faculty members.The lost faculty lines were never replaced.A few years later, the technology boom
in Silicon Valley resulted in a swift and dramatic shift in majors within the
university – by the late 1990s, the vast majority of all SJSU undergraduates
were concentrated in Engineering, Business, and Computer Science.While the MPH program remained strong,
the undergraduate major and MA programs suffered significantly; the problems
were enhanced by declining public funding for public health region-wide and
the difficulty undergraduates were having finding jobs upon graduation.New faculty members joined the
Department: One to replace a faculty resignation in the area of health
administration (Gardner resigned, Rangavajhula hired) and another to assume
responsibility for Gerontology (Hikoyeda) as Dr. Debra David took on
increasing responsibilities at the university level.We developed a new Core GE course: HS
1 Understanding Your Health, in an attempt to branch out into the lower
division area, and redesigned our Human Life Span course (now HS 15) for Core
GE as well.However, as internal
and external challenges mounted, Health Science began operating in a deficit
for the first time, a trend which accelerated throughout the late 1990s.By 1999, there were only 14 Health
Science majors, GE enrollments were smaller than needed to make enrollment
targets, and the department’s growing management crisis put the MPH program’s
resources in serious jeopardy.
Rebuilding and Resilience: 2001 - 2005
Significant leadership changes
occurred in the Department in Fall 2001: Dr. William Washington completed his
second term as Chair and retired to a position at Meharry Medical School.Dr. Kathleen Roe was elected
Chair. Dr. Edward Mamary became
MPH Program Director. Other
director positions were created and filled at various times by the now-senior
faculty members Dr. Dan Perales, Dr. Nancy Hikoyeda, and Dr. Tina Foley.The precariousness of our position was
underscored by a drastic resource reduction by the Dean, cutting us down to
only our full-time faculty positions and an additional .50 allocation.Two requirements
were attached to even this reduced level of funding: 1) the Department must
“adopt” the struggling interdisciplinary Gerontology Program, and 2) the
Department must meet enrollment targets within 3 years. The faculty committed
itself to a thorough and purposeful review of our resources, our curriculum,
our opportunities, and our responsibilities to the university, students, our
professions, and the region.
We redesigned our department
leadership, creating three Program Directors (MPH, Undergraduate, and
Gerontology) who work closely with the Chair to determine overall department
strategy and coordination.Each
Director leads a Program Core Faculty (MPH, Undergraduate,
Gerontology/Community Partnerships) which is responsible for daily oversight
of their respective programs and recommending strategic direction to the
Directors and then full faculty.This change in leadership structure, and the shared communication and
responsibility it created, was crucial to all of the changes that would occur
and the ultimate rebirth of the Health Science Department.
Our first project was a serious
and strategic redesign of our undergraduate programs.Careful analysis suggested
several avenues for curricular re-alignment and innovation, and we quickly got
to work! We adjusted the day and time of all of our courses to provide a more
coherent schedule and offer more courses during the times students want to
take classes.We reconfigured the
Health Science major to provide more flexibility for students, encourage
multiple points of entry, and capture more of the FTES generated by our own
majors. We created a required Health Science Core and four Options:Option 1: Health Science + electives;
Option 2: Health Science + minor; Option 3: Gerontology Concentration; Option
4: Health Services Administration.We reconfigured the Health Science Minor to be more flexible in meeting
students’ personal and career objectives.We successfully staged the merger with
Gerontology, incorporating multigenerational perspectives into the curriculum
and providing organizational and faculty support for the program.
Another early decision was to
implement recommendations from the most recent Program Planning process,
particularly elimination of the M.A. in Health Administration and the M.S. in
Gerontology.It took three years to graduate all of the students in progress, but as
of AY 2005-2006 there are no more students in either degree
program.
In 2001 for the first time in
department history, we developed a strategic general education plan, and began
developing courses with broad appeal, such as Women’s Health, Health
Statistics, and Community Mental Health.Queued up for
development are courses in Global Health, Writing Workshops, and Infectious
Diseases.
We used the opportunity provided
by the various leaves and university assigned time of several faculty members
to hire dynamic new part-time instructors for increased sections of HS 1 and
other GE courses.We developed a
system of Course Leads, regular meetings, department orientation, and a
thank-you luncheon for better part-time instructor support and
recognition.
In 2001, we worked with Toucan Ed
to develop a “new look” for our department through coordinated outreach
materials.Through focus groups,
student interviews, and faculty brainstorming – and many, many drafts – we
developed our department slogan Make a Choice that Matters! and invested in
high quality and coordinated department outreach materials – a beautiful
brochure, poster, and display – that disseminate that message.In 2003, MPH student and Muskie Fellow
from Ukraine, Ihor Perehinets, updated our website to be more user-friendly
and to showcase department events and accomplishments, along with providing
useful advising information.A
new department display case rounds out the new, upbeat, and engaging
presentation of the Health Science Department.
Once the undergraduate program
showed signs of rebounding, we were able to turn our attention to broader
strategic efforts on behalf of the entire department.Between 2001 and 2004, we
painstakingly reviewed every aspect of our department operations.Our analysis began with revising our
department and program missions, and identifying both shared and
program-specific core values, principles, and definitions.Working in Core Faculty groups, we
developed broad goals and outcomes for each academic program, with
corresponding essential course objectives and assessment methods for each.
Midway through the process, we convened our Department Advisory Group – an
extremely productive day-long meeting of leading public health professionals
in the region, professionally facilitated by Jill Cody.One of the results of that meeting was
establishment of a formal articulation between Stanford/Foothill’s Physician
Assistant Program and our MPH Program – the first such articulation in the
country.We also began the
process of developing a plan with our colleagues from Foothill College that
would allow seamless matriculation into our Health Science major from five of
their allied health career certificate programs: Respiratory Therapy, Dental
Hygiene, Radiologic Technician, Physician Assistant, and Paramedic.In Fall, 2006, this would debut as our
newest HS Concentration (Option 5) in Health Professions.
Department faculty expanded their
involvement in university leadership, including key roles in Service Learning,
the Center for Faculty Development, the Academic Senate, the Program Planning
Committed, the WASC Steering Committee and Special Visit Coordination,and the WAC Academic Alliance, as well
as assuming the leadership of key College committees, particularly the CEED
and Curriculum Committees.In 2005, we hosted an exciting 2-day
external review by James Girvan, Dean of the College of Health Sciences at
Boise State University, which involved over 60 students and 25 alumni and
community partners and resulted in extremely helpful observations about our
capacity and planning, and keen recommendations about our future directions.
The integration of the
Gerontology Program into Health Science was complete by 2004 and has enriched
both parties significantly.Health Science is able to provide a stable home and resource base for
the smaller Gerontology Program, while the department benefits from the
intergenerational perspectives, community ties, and faculty expertise of
Gerontology.By the end of the
three-year phase-in period, we were all glad to have done it!
The commitments and
accomplishments of the Health Science faculty were acknowledged through local
and national recognitions during the period 2000-2005.Kathleen Roe was elected President of
the National Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) and received the
SOPHE Mentor of the Year Award and the Dorothy Nyswander Award for Leadership
from the Northern California SOPHE Chapter.Ed Mamary was elected Co-Vice
President of National SOPHE in 2002 and Dan Perales was elected SOPHE
Treasurer in 2004.Kathleen Roe
was named to the National Task Force on Accreditation in Health Education and
is currently Co-Chair of the Transition/Implementation Task Force.Kathleen Roe was a founding member and
Ed Mamary served two terms as Secretary of CAMP (Council of Accredited MPH
Programs). Kathleen Roe was named the SJSU 2001 Outstanding Professor and
SJSU’s nominee for the Wang Family Award (CSU) and the Teacher of the Year
Award (Carnegie Foundation).Tina
Foley was named the College Outstanding Lecturer in 2005.In 2004, the Department received the
SJSU Provost’s Award for Excellence in Service Learning and in 2006, Dr. Nancy
Hikoyeda was named the Outstanding Lecturer for Service Learning.In December 2005,
the Department was thrilled to be named the first recipient of the Society for
Public Health Education’s Open Society Award.
Our students and recent alumni
were also recognized during this period: Lauren Droira was selected by the
SJSU President as one of two Outstanding Graduating Seniors (May 2002). Health Science students were selected
for the highest recognition by the College Dean each year since 2002 for their
work towards equity and diversity (CEED Awards 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005,
2006). Four students from HS
104 Community Health Promotion –
German Blanco, Ryan Duhe, Ken Lee, and Andrea Nance – were awarded the
Provost’s Award for Excellence as a Service Learning Leadership Team in
2006. Matthew Staley was the
winner of the SOPHE Graduate Research Paper Award, Kevin Roe was the recipient
of SOPHE’s Vivian Drenckhahn Scholarship, Anne Roesler represented SJSU at the
CSU Graduate Research Competition, Sabrina Valade was awarded the Sally
Cassanova Pre-doctoral Fellowship, Anne Roesler and Edgar Ednacot were awarded
CSU Forgiveable Loans for Doctoral Study.J. Henry Montes (MPH 2004) was named
the College GOLD Award winner (Graduate of the Last Decade) and Mary C.B.
Nacionales (MPH 2000) was the recipient of the American Public Health
Association (Public Health Education and Health Promotion Section) 2004 Early
Career Award.
Near Future:
2006 – 2010
The re-election of Kathleen Roe
to a second term as Chair (2005 – 2009), the hiring of two new tenure-track
faculty (Pollie Bith-Melander and Anne Roesler), the maturity of our full-time
faculty group, the strong department organizational structure, our dedicated
office staff, formal commitments with community partners, new department-level
responsibility for resource management, restored enrollments, and motivated,
creative students offer a powerful alignment of vision, commitments, and
resources.We are excited
about the future!
The new leadership of our
university, along with the renewed capacity of our department, promises a
period of thoughtful, strategic action dedicated to the highest standards of
teaching, scholarship, and service.We are delighted with the extended appointment of our university
president, Don Kassing, grateful for the tone and decisions during the first
years of our Provost Carmen Sigler, and particularly excited with the
leadership of our new Dean, Inger Sagatun-Edwards, during her first year
2005-06.We look forward
to continuing to serve under their administrations and aligning our department
efforts with their vision for our institution.
Curricular initiatives and priorities:
Our department’s long-term planning calls for implementation of
several strategic initiatives in the 5- year period 2005-2010. We have committed to these initiatives
as a department-wide responsibility – and opportunity. We will continue to examine our
undergraduate curriculum and its option structure to ensure the best possible
education and professional preparation for new professionals interested in
community and public health. We
will launch the first cohort of our MPH Distance Program in Fall 2007 after a
long and careful assessment and planning process.We will complete our CEPH
accreditation MPH self-study in 2006 and host the re-accreditation site visit
in May 2007. We will monitor
quickly moving developments in the field of public health and health
education, adjusting our curriculum and perhaps our major and MPH program to
respond to the emerging accreditation and certification requirements for
professional practice. We will
continue to implement our strategic plan for General Education, focusing on
new courses in Global Health and Infectious Diseases. We will continue our
commitment to service learning and our community partnerships, with additional
AmeriCorps and VISTA volunteers through our relationships with The Health
Trust, local public health departments, and community-based
organizations. We will extend the
highly effective structure of our MPH fieldwork to our undergraduate
internships, thereby providing more varied, guided, and productive experiences
for undergraduate students and their host organizations.We will continue to explore our
growing relationship with The Health Trust, as a model of university-community
partnership that benefits students, the community, staff and faculty, and the
participating organizations through engaged and strategic joint action and
scholarship. We will continue to assess program outcomes and refine our
curricula across the department, with particular attention to integrating
appropriate technology and practice-based learning in all courses.
Service: Our university and community service
commitments will continue in the period ahead.We will continue to offer leadership
on university and College committees and in our national professional
associations.Health Science
faculty members currently serve on the University WASC Accreditation Steering
Committee, Academic Senate Curriculum and Research Committee, Program Planning
Committee, GEAPS, and BOGS Area E Committees.Nancy Hikoyeda is currently President
of the regional Stanford Geriatric Education Center, Dan Perales is on the
Board of the Prevention Institute, Anne Roesler is on the Board and Steering
Committee of United for Peace and Justice, and Kathleen Roe serves on the
Grants Committee of The Health Trust.Ed Mamary and Kathleen Roe are Site Reviewers for the Council on
Education for Public Health, and the SOPHE elected leadership positions of the
faculty continue.Dan Perales and
Kathleen Roe will participate in an invitational Summit on Eliminating Health
Disparities in August 2005 and have active roles in the upcoming annual
meetings of the Society for Public Health Education and the American Public
Health Association (New Orleans, November 2005).
Scholarship: We are excited to
continue and better support our growing portfolio of scholarly work within the
department. Two faculty members
are working on text books based on courses they have taught for many
years – Bud Gerstman on a
Biostatistics text and Kathleen Roe on a text for Community Health
Promotion. We look forward to
bringing more grants through the SJSU Foundation. Ed Mamary is completing a funded
research project on the experiences of African American men who have sex with
men and HIV risk. Our new faculty
member, Pollie Bith-Melander, has been able to continue her scholarship
through NIH and other grants on HIV/STDs and women’s health in Cambodia.She is also conducting a needs
assessment of the local Cambodian community with support from SJSU Graduate
Studies and Research. We
will continue our extensive evaluation contract and project work with groups
as diverse as the Statewide Nutrition Network, the Public Health Institute,
and local health departments (Dan Perales), rural health departments (Ed
Mamary), and HIV prevention community planning in San Francisco, the Santa
Clara County Diabetes Coalition, The Health Trust (Kathleen Roe). We commit to increasing the number of
annual publications to better disseminate what we learn, and to continue our
active participation in national conferences through scholarly
presentations. We are excited to
implement our revised graduate research requirements, and hope that the new
structure will encourage more student-faculty publications resulting from
Masters Theses and research-oriented Graduate Projects. We will continue to serve as
manuscript reviewers and guest editors for the leading journals in our field,
as well as on the Editorial Board of Health Promotion Practice.While committing ourselves to
developing the structures and resources that allow more frequent scholarly
research and publications from faculty members, we remain committed to
scholarship that meets the needs of the profession and the communities we
serve, that brings forward community assets and effective interventions, that
results in accessible publications and products, and that provides valuable
and desired learning opportunities for our students and community
partners.
As stated in
our 2004 Program Review Report, “we commit to a shared environment that
reflects the joy of learning and the dual realizations that, while we are
fortunate to live in this time and place, what we put into the mix affects the
unfolding of events.”
