The MSU Division of Public Health focuses on population health from its home base – the College of Human Medicine’s Flint campus. Being embedded in the Flint community allows our faculty and researchers to understand the assets and needs of the community while studying Flint’s most pressing public health issues.

Spartans work side-by-side with community partners and healthcare providers in a community-identified and community-participatory public health focus model to:

Encourage healthy behaviors, mitigate chronic diseases, identify environmental health risks, and examine social factors that influence community health
Prepare graduate students to become competent public health professionals to meet the needs of communities across the globe
Engage agencies, professional organizations, and community-based partners on collaborative projects to improve health care delivery that will lead to reductions in health disparities in the community, the state of Michigan, and beyond.

Division of Public Health News

MSU Study Seeks to Reduce Children’s Lead Dust Exposure

Lead exposure from contaminated water has gotten much justifiable attention lately, but another major source lurks in the dust of countless older homes.

That is why Masako Morishita, PhD, an associate professor of family medicine in the MSU College of Human Medicine, is heading a study of whether portable air filters can mitigate lead exposure and reduce lead levels in the blood of children who live in older houses. Robert Wahl, DVM, MS, an assistant professor in the MSU Division of Public Health, Master of Public Health Program, is co-leading the study.

R2D2 Scholarship Application Open

Research to Reduce Disparities in Disease Program (R2D2) is seeking first-year College of Human Medicine student scholars. Opportunity to earn $10,000 and satisfy the College of Human Medicine’s 3rd-year research requirement. Scholars will create a strong transdisciplinary bridge between medicine and public health while investigating the role of race, ethnicity, gender, and implicit/explicit bias in medicine.

APPLY BY DECEMBER 12, 2021.

Accreditation Update from MPH Director

As part of the accreditation process, the Michigan State Master of Public Health (MPH) program has been engaged in a self-study of the program’s strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement related to the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) accreditation criteria. Our site visit with the accreditors concluded on November 12, 2021. Having met all 35 criteria, we will receive the written site visit report in 6 - 8 weeks and expect the report to go to the council for a decision at their June 2022 meeting.

2022 Flint Spartan Master of Public Health Scholarship

We are pleased to announce the 2022 Flint Spartan Master of Public Health Scholarship to support the public health workforce in the Flint community. Thanks to support from the MSU Division of Public Health, one scholarship will be awarded for a second year. Prospective students who live or work in the Greater Flint community, including Mt. Morris and Burton are eligible.

ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS FOR FALL 2022. APPLY NOW.

Public Health Nutrition in Action

Staff Spotlight with Sarah Egan
Meet dietitian and public health professional Sarah Egan, MPH, RD. She is the Project Coordinator for the Michigan State University-Hurley Children's Hospital Pediatric Public Health Initiative (PPHI), Nutrition team.

She talks about finding her dream job, Flint Kids Cook, overcoming challenges at work during COVID-19, and how transitioning to a virtual class helped reach more kids and brought families together.