The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is the public health school of Harvard University, located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. The school grew out of the Harvard-MIT School for Health Officers, the nation's first graduate training program in population health, which was founded in 1913 and then became the Harvard School of Public Health in 1922.
Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health is currently ranked as the best school for public health in the world by both the Academic Ranking of World Universities and EduRank. It is also ranked as the second (tie) best public health school in the nation by U.S. News & World Report.
History
Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health traces its origins to the Harvard-MIT School for Health Officers, which was founded in 1913. Harvard calls it "the nation's first graduate training program in public health." In 1922, the School for Health Officers became the Harvard School of Public Health.
In 1946, it was split off from Harvard Medical School and developed its own dedicated public health and medical faculty. It was renamed the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 2014 in honor of a $350 million donation, the largest in Harvard's history at the time, from the Morningside Foundation, run by Harvard School of Public Health alumnus Gerald Chan, SM '75, SD '79, and Ronnie Chan, both of whom were sons of T.H. Chan.
Leadership
From 2009 until 2015, the dean of the Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health was Julio Frenk, the former Mexican government's Secretary of Health from 2002 until 2006 and current president of the University of Miami.
In 2016, following Frenk's departure, Michelle Ann Williams was appointed the School's new dean.
In January 2020, The Harvard Crimson reported on an internal discussion by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health faculty on whether to hold a "no confidence" vote on Williams' leadership. The newspaper reported that allegations included that "Williams has punished faculty and staff in the past for expressing dissent, creating what multiple affiliates termed a 'culture of retaliation'."
In November 2022, Williams announced she would step down as dean at the end of the 2022-23 academic year.
As of June 2023, the interim dean of Harvard Chan School is Jane Kim, who also serves as Dean for Academic Affairs and K.T. Li Professor of Health Economics in the school's Department of Health Policy and Management.
Curriculum
The Master of Public Health program offers ten fields of study: Clinical Effectiveness (CLE) Epidemiology (EPI) Generalist (GEN) Global Health and Population (GHP) Health and Social Behavior (HSB) Health Management (HM) Health Policy (HP) Occupational and Environmental Health (OEH) Quantitative Methods (QM) Nutrition (NUT)
Degree programs offered by specific departments: Biostatistics: SM, PhD Environmental Health (EH): SM, MPH, PhD, DrPH Epidemiology (EPI): SM, DrPH Genetics and Complex Diseases: PhD Health Policy: SM, MPH, PhD Health Care Management: SM, MPH Immunology and Infectious Diseases: PhD Nutrition (NUT): MPH, DrPH, PhD Global Health and Population (GHP): SM, MPH, PhD Social and Behavioral Sciences (SBS): SM, MPH, PhD, DrPH Population Health Sciences (Interdisciplinary PhD within departments of EH, EPI, GHP, NUT, and SBS)
The Harvard Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) was launched in 2014 as a multidisciplinary degree providing advanced education in public health along with mastery of skills in management, leadership, communications, and innovation thinking. The program is a cohort-based program emphasizing small-group learning and collaboration. The program is designed for three years – two years at Harvard, plus one year in a field-based doctoral project – although some students may take up to four years to complete the program. Academic training in the DrPH covers the biological, social, and economic foundations of public health, as well as essential statistical, quantitative, and methodological skills in the first year, an individualized course of study in your second year, and a field-based, capstone project called the DELTA (Doctoral Engagement in Leadership and Translation for Action) in the final year(s) of the program.
PhD programs are offered under the aegis of the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.