New name and new era for Pitt Public Health

In recognition of its new undergraduate degree program, Pitt’s Graduate School of Public Health — also known as Pitt Public Health — is dropping the “Graduate” from its name to become the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health.

The change follows last month’s announcement of the school’s Bachelor of Science in Public Health (BSPH) degree, a four-year program that provides undergraduate students with a foundation in key public health disciplines, study abroad courses and research opportunities while embedding them in communities through active service-learning activities. The inaugural BSPH class will matriculate in fall 2022.

“With the recent expansion of our student body at the undergraduate level, we are entering a new era of cultivating public health leaders across the educational continuum — from the BSPH to those earning master’s and PhD degrees,” said the school’s dean, Maureen Lichtveld. “More than ever, as a premier school of public health in Pennsylvania, we are working together with our communities to counter the most intransigent health problems and inequities.”

The new name reflects the school's investment in younger generations of students passionate about public health, many of whom were driven by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and the desire to embrace both the school’s undergraduate and graduate scholars.

Founded in 1948, Pitt Public Health is a community of nearly 650 students, 160 faculty and 320 staff. The school's pillars of teaching, research and community engagement span across seven academic departments that include behavioral and community health sciences, biostatistics, environmental and occupational health, epidemiology, health policy and management, human genetics, and infectious diseases and microbiology.

Pitt Public Health is a research powerhouse that is consistently ranked among the top recipients of National Institutes of Health funding. While clinicians such as nurses and physicians focus on treating individuals, public health professionals at Pitt apply quantitative, social and biological science tools from almost every field of science to counter health threats to entire populations in a data-driven, transdisciplinary fashion.