Enrolling in 2024, The UT School of Public Health aims to improve human (and planetary) health and well-being and eliminate health inequities both locally and globally through excellence in research, instruction and practice, inclusion, and compassion.
The School of Public Health’s community, research and educational partnerships will enrich San Antonio's health care, public administration, and city planning economic sectors. Before its creation, San Antonio was the largest city in the U.S. without a school of public health. Because the demography of San Antonio illustrates what our nation will look like by 2050, San Antonio is an optimal setting for fostering and educating our future public health workforce.
Organizational units
Mission
Perform meaningful scholarship that discovers, disseminates, and applies evidence-based, equity-driven scalable solutions and policies that can be implemented in a timely manner to advance the health of the planet and its human populations, especially those that belong to historically underserved, marginalized, and vulnerable groups.
Serve public health needs and promote a culture of health and well-being locally and regionally, acting as a steward and serving as an anchor while thinking nationally and globally.
Educate, develop, and train the next generation of diverse public health leaders and professionals in systems thinking, social justice and health equity, and precision public health so they can face the public health opportunities and threats of today and tomorrow
Goals
- Create an advanced, socially responsible, financially self-sufficient, state-of-the-art Hispanic-serving multiversity with local leadership and a regional focus to anchor our purpose to promote public health and well-being
- Build a methods-to-research-to-practice continuum. Educating and training the next generation of diverse public health leaders to formulate and implement evidence-based, equity driven, scalable solutions in a timely manner to advance the state of health and well-being of the planet, its populations, cities, and communities
- Create an evidence-based educational experience to address public health challenges of the 21st century locally, regionally, and globally
- Promote rigorous public health scholarship that leads to evidence-based equity-driven solutions
Our History
In November 2021, the University of Texas System Board of Regents approved plans and voted to authorize UT Health San Antonio and UTSA to develop a new public health school.
The Regents recognized that the region’s persistent disparities in key health outcomes require a public health approach. The UT School of Public Health San Antonio is a collaboration between UT Health San Antonio, and The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). Programmatic, operational and educational costs include renovation of existing spaces at UT Health San Antonio and UTSA.
Our inaugural Dean, Dr. Vasan Ramachandran, was hired in September 2022.
Our Campus
The new school is a strategic collaboration of The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio) and The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) and is one of three schools of public health in The University of Texas System.
Located on the Greehey Campus of UT Health San Antonio will provide optimal access to the region’s major medical and academic health facilities.
Accepting Students in 2024
Through its coursework, the School of Public Health will provide a unique curriculum by integrating advanced health research, collaborating on new academic programs to serve a diverse population and building public health leaders who understand and are dedicated to finding positive interventions to mitigate our greatest public health challenges. A student census of almost 400 is planned within the first five years, with a Master of Public Health degree to be offered beginning in 2024 and a Doctor of Public Health degree program beginning in 2025.
Proposed Departments of Study:
- Quantitative and Qualitative Health Sciences
- Environmental and Occupational Health
- Health Policy and Health Services Administration
- Health, Behavior, and Society
Fostering inclusion and diversity is foundational to our university mission because it demonstrates a sense of belonging and it ensures everyone is treated with respect, and have agency and voice, no matter one’s race, gender, age, ethnicity, cultural heritage, nationality, religious or political beliefs, sexual orientation, gender identity or socioeconomic, veteran or ability status.
William L. Henrich, MD, MACP, president of UT Health San Antonio“Unique health challenges of our region include infectious diseases, diabetes, maternal and child health, mental health and substance use disorders, health care disparities, cancer and injury prevention. Our faculty will propose innovative public health solutions to these problems.”
Taylor Eighmy, Ph.D, president of The University of Texas at San Antonio“UTSA and UT Health San Antonio are urban serving universities that are deeply committed to meeting the unique public health needs of South Texas’ diverse population by preparing our region’s next generation of public health leaders and advancing transdisciplinary research and policy that ensures healthier communities.”
