HHS Awards Schools of Public Health $6.4 Million in PHTC Grants

Published: January 24th, 2012

Category: RSPHTC, Uncategorized 1

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced this week $6.4 million in new grant funding to ten Schools of Public Health. These grants will support the Health Resource and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Public Health Training Center (PHTC) Program, which provides public health workforce education and training in a wide array of areas, ranging from environmental health and public health leadership, to nutrition and cultural competency.

ASPH assists HRSA in coordinating the PHTC program. Upon receiving notice of the awards, Dr. Harrison Spencer, president of ASPH, said, “We commend HHS for its commitment to furthering public health workforce education, particularly in this era of tight resources. We appreciate the fact that the contributions of the PHTC program to the nation’s public health capacity have been recognized by HHS.”

The newly funded PHTCs join existing centers for a total of 37 training centers nationwide. The awards’ impact is significant, as it expands the national educational network that will provide highly-skilled training to nearly 500,000 public health and related health care practitioners each year.

Schools of Public Health receiving PHTC awards are:

  • Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
  • Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
  • University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health
  • University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions
  • University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health
  • University of Iowa College of Public Health
  • University of Massachusetts Amherst School of Public Health and Health Sciences
  • University of Minnesota School of Public Health
  • University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Public Health
  • Yale School of Public Health

The PHTC awards are part of over $40 million in grant funding to health departments and Schools of Public Health to enhance the nation’s public health infrastructure and strengthen the public health workforce. ASPH recognizes that this funding will improve the delivery of necessary public health services in communities, cities and states across the country. In addition to the PHTC Program, the grant dollars will also fund the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Public Health Improvement Initiative Strengthening Public Health Infrastructure for Improved Health Outcomes grant program.

For more information about the 2011 HHS awards, click here. To see the schools that were awarded PHTC grants last year, click here.