Dean Wahl's Message

When I became Dean of the UW School of Public Health in 1999, I brought to the job little knowledge of public health as it is practiced in the real world. I recruited Mark Oberle as our School’s Associate Dean for Public Health Practice—the first such appointment in the country. Mark had Dean Wahl served from 1987 to 1990 as our School’s liaison to the public health agencies in this state and was the first director of our Northwest Center for Public Health Practice (NWCPHP).

To gain a better understanding of public health at the community level, I decided to visit a few local health departments in our state and asked Mark to select some “representative” ones. He claimed there was no such thing and insisted we visit all of them. Accordingly, we made the commitment to visit all 34 local health jurisdictions in the state of Washington. It took almost two years, but we did it and learned a lot.

While we found that our School’s expertise was widely recognized and respected, and our academic programs and research were highly valued, they appeared to be neither accessible nor of benefit to local public health. It was clear that we needed a “gateway” into our “ivory tower” that would provide access to public health practitioners; thus, the NWCPHP is now linked through the Internet to state and local health agencies throughout the WWAMI (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, Idaho) and Oregon region. While we noted that there was a critical need to provide public health training outside of the University Dean Wahl Welcome Cake environment, we did not initially have the resources. We subsequently sought and received federal funding to extend the educational resources and expertise of the NWCPHP throughout our state and region, and we have continued to expand the Center’s ability to link our School and the practice community.

The NWCPHP has played an important role in implementing our School’s strategic vision of collaboration and partnership — bringing new tools to practice and valuable experience to our students and faculty — and we look forward to its continuing to serve our region in the years ahead.

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Navigation How We Got Started Dean Wahl's Message NWCPHP Directors NWCPHP Timeline then & now Annual Report Thank You	Info Dean Wahl's Message When I became Dean of the UW School of Public Health in 1999, I brought to the job little knowledge of public health as it is practiced in the real world. I recruited Mark Oberle as our School’s Associate Dean for Public Health Practice—the first such appointment in the country. Mark had served from 1987 to 1990 as our School’s liaison to the public health agencies in this state and was the first director of our Northwest Center for Public Health Practice (NWCPHP). To gain a better understanding of public health at the community level, I decided to visit a few local health departments in our state and asked Mark to select some “representative” ones. He claimed there was no such thing and insisted we visit all of them. Accordingly, we made the commitment to visit all 34 local health jurisdictions in the state of Washington. It took almost two years, but we did it and learned a lot. While we found that our School’s expertise was widely recognized and respected, and our academic programs and research were highly valued, they appeared to be neither accessible nor of benefit to local public health. It was clear that we needed a “gateway” into our “ivory tower” that would provide access to public health practitioners; thus, the NWCPHP is now linked through the Internet to state and local health agencies throughout the WWAMI (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, Idaho) and Oregon region. While we noted that there was a critical need to provide public health training outside of the University environment, we did not initially have the resources. We subsequently sought and received federal funding to extend the educational resources and expertise of the NWCPHP throughout our state and region, and we have continued to expand the Center’s ability to link our School and the practice community. The NWCPHP has played an important role in implementing our School’s strategic vision of collaboration and partnership — bringing new tools to practice and valuable experience to our students and faculty — and we look forward to its continuing to serve our region in the years ahead.

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Dean Wahl's Message