Public Health at LSU Health Sciences Center has had a long and distinguished history in tropical medicine and other fields of study in the School of Medicine dating back to 1931. Its programs were incorporated in the Department of Pathology in the 1980s. It was reactivated as a free standing Department in 1992. Since then it has grown in size and importance through its three-part mission of education, research and service.
In 1995 the Department launched its first programmatic initiative in proposing the MPH degree program in Community/Preventive Medicine, which was subsequently approved by the Board of Regents. Enrollment was limited to students pursuing other graduate programs in the Medical, Dental, Allied Health, Nursing and Graduate schools of LSUHSC.
In 2003 the Department was reorganized as a School of Public Health. It offered MPH degrees with concentrations in Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Environmental / Occupational Health Sciences in the fall of 2004 as well as a Master’s of Science in Biostatistics. Concentrations in the MPH degree in Behavioral/Community Health Sciences and Health Policy and Systems Management were added in the fall of 2005. Three PhD programs were established in Biostatistics (2007), Epidemiology (2007) and Community Health (2009).
