For the People: VCU School of Public Health

By Paul Brockwell Jr.

Photos by Daniel Sangjib Min

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

What Benjamin Franklin first said centuries ago is a truth recognized for decades by faculty on the MCV Campus who knew there was a missing piece to VCU’s academic enterprise in health sciences: public health. 

In 1996, the university’s Master of Public Health program received accreditation within the VCU School of Medicine. The degree offering was a natural outgrowth of faculty desire to train students to understand the disparities in care at the state’s largest safety-net hospital while also studying and developing effective interventions to address gaps in access to care and overall health outcomes in vulnerable populations.

“Our safety-net mission has always extended beyond clinical care — it also includes how we approach education, research and community service,” said Marlon Levy, M.D., senior vice president for VCU Health Sciences and CEO of VCU Health System. “Establishing a dedicated school of public health is testament that our impact in that area is on par with VCU’s other exceptional professional schools dedicated to health sciences.” 

The COVID-19 pandemic emphasized the importance of a strong public health workforce and accelerated long-term plans to create a new school focused on the discipline. In 2023, VCU created the School of Population Health when it reorganized three existing academic units (one division; two departments) within the VCU School of Medicine to become the four founding departments in the new school  — Biostatistics, Epidemiology, Health Policy, and Social and Behavioral Sciences.

Our new status as a school recognizes our academic and research success and enhances our visibility; more importantly, we are able to expand our programs to better train the workforce to improve the health of Virginians.

Vanessa B. Sheppard, PH.D.,  interim founding dean, VCU School of Public Health

In 2024, its permanent name as the VCU School of Public Health was formally approved by the state.

“This is a significant milestone for VCU and a testament to our past work in public health,” said Vanessa B. Sheppard, Ph.D., interim founding dean. “Our new status as a school recognizes our academic and research success and enhances our visibility; more importantly, we are able to expand our programs to better train the workforce to improve the health of Virginians.”

The school’s bold vision of working toward a healthier world for all by understanding and breaking down barriers and disparities was inspiring to alumna Angela Middleton, M.D., who earned her Master of Public Health and a medical degree from VCU. She and her husband, Ryan Mitchell, recently gave to support the new school. For Dr. Middleton, it was an exciting opportunity to be part of something new and impactful as it is being built. She recently joined the school’s advisory council as well.

“One of the reasons we support VCU, aside from the alumni connection, is we see how important the health system is in Richmond and beyond as the largest safety-net hospital in Virginia,” Dr. Middleton said. “I believe the School of Public Health is going to be really helpful in our community and beyond by diving deeper and bringing multiple perspectives under one roof. Its faculty researchers will help get to the root of longstanding problems and pilot solutions for how we can remove obstacles to access and care in ways that improve health outcomes for everyone.”

The discipline of public health takes a preventive perspective, recognizing that health disparities exist and creating programs to address or mitigate those inequalities with regard to access and health outcomes across populations. The goal is to ensure that people have the best available educational resources and care regardless of where they live.

“We didn’t put any restrictions on our gift because we trust the leaders will know how to achieve the greatest impact where it’s most needed,” Dr. Middleton said. “We’re excited to see the School of Public Health take off, and I am sure it will make an important impact on solving some of the big-picture problems around health access and education.”

WHAT PUBLIC HEALTH MEANS

For faculty and students, the School of Public Health represents continued growth in important work that was already happening on campus. It’s also an opportunity to expand the impact of insights gleaned from engaging in a real-world public health education and working on research to improve the lives of all Virginians. The school is home to the first Master of Public Health program with a concentration on cancer health equity science. 

“We have accomplished a lot in our first full year as a school,” Dr. Sheppard said. “Through our commitment and strong community partnerships, I am even more excited about the work ahead and the progress we can help make to address public health challenges in Virginia and beyond. This gift will allow us to launch new initiatives that will connect our students to work hand-in-hand with community members and researchers on high-priority concerns such as maternal mortality and other issues that need our attention.” 

The School of Public Health will be a rich engine for insights as the only school of its kind affiliated with an academic health system that has a teaching hospital, children’s hospital, National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center, and a center for clinical and translational science. In fact, the school recently secured a $9 million grant, one of only four awarded in the country, to establish a pioneering Cancer Control Engagement Research Center.

This grant will help expand research and community partnerships in Virginia, particularly for residents living in income-based housing communities in the Greater Richmond Region and Hampton Roads.                     

The goal is to expand on work the school has done through similar partnerships like the recently concluded TRUTH Project with the Chickahominy tribe. That initiative started with a phone call from a concerned community member who was tracking higher rates of cancer in tribal housing near the Charles City County, Va., landfill. 

Faculty from the School of Public Health entered into a partnership with the community to test water, conduct field interviews and research the Virginia Indian community’s heightened risk of cancer. They considered that community’s lack of trust in health care and worries about water safety due to reliance on wells and proximity to the landfill. 

“This proposal was designed to dig deeper into the health issues affecting the community, especially cancer,” said Kathryn Y. Tossas, Ph.D., an assistant professor of epidemiology at the school. “Working in partnership with the tribal community, we conducted in-home interviews with those in the proximity of the tribal center, particularly within a four-mile radius, prioritizing residents with either a personal or familial history of cancer in the past two decades. These individuals are not only participants in our project but also its driving force, receiving compensation for their invaluable contributions. With their deep local knowledge, they assist in identifying interview candidates and extending participation invitations through general mailings.”

VCU Health remains the largest safety-net health system in Virginia, and additional MCV Campus programs in medicine, nursing, dentistry, pharmacy and health professions make the new School of Public Health an ideal place for training the next generation of leaders to engage in interdisciplinary health education and research that improves lives beyond Richmond.

“Together with our public health partners, we will create a workforce that will make Virginia a hub for developing, evaluating and implementing high-impact programs to reduce disparities in health that impact millions of people across the country,” Dr. Levy said.

If you would like to support the VCU School of Public Health, please contact Laura Keller, director of development in the Office of Medical Philanthropy and Alumni Relations, at 804-628-8907 or KellerL3@vcu.edu.