From the Dean
New Journal Leadership Team Approaches Climate Change
Before we turn to the excellent articles on climate change in this issue of Northwest Public Health, I’d like to let you know about some changes pertaining to the journal, the Northwest Center for Public Health Practice, and the field of public health itself.
We are the only school of public health with a journal focusing on public health practice. Under the guidance of Editor-in-Chief Aaron Katz and Managing Editor Judith Yarrow, Northwest Public Health became an award-winning regional journal with an active editorial board. Last summer, responsibility for the journal was transferred to the Northwest Center for Public Health Practice, a move intended to link it even more strongly with the network connecting the regional practice community and our School.
Now that Aaron and Judith have turned to new challenges, Susan Allan has become Editor-in-Chief, and Katherine Hall has taken over as Managing Editor. Kathy has worked in our School since 1999, most recently as the award-winning Communication Director of our Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences. An experienced writer and editor, she is completing her PhD in the UW Department of Communication.
Susan’s primary role is directing the Northwest Center, a position she assumed from Jack Thompson. During Jack’s eight-year leadership, the Center became a vital resource to state and local health departments in a six-state region, especially in preparedness and capacity building. Jack will continue to be active in both the Center and our Department of Health Services. Susan brings a wealth of experience and talent to the Center and our School. She has worked as a public health practitioner for 23 years, including 18 years as Health Director of the Arlington County Department of Human Services in Virginia and, most recently, three years as Public Health Director and State Health Officer in the Oregon Department of Human Services. She holds medical and law degrees from Harvard University and a Master of Public Health from The Johns Hopkins University, and is Board Certified in Preventive Medicine and General Public Health.
Susan’s interests include public health systems research, an emerging discipline that examines important questions about how best to structure, fund, and support our public health system. Susan notes that a century ago public health professionals were a significant part of the larger community dialogue about a wide range of needs and priorities. Then the focus of the field narrowed to the official systems we directly manage. In recent years, however, there has been more emphasis on the public health infrastructure, and many other fields are recognizing the value of public health methods and perspectives. One example described in this issue is the connection of public health to environmental planning.
Issues and leadership and even our climate may change, but what will not change is the importance of our field and our multidisciplinary contributions to solving old and new public health concerns. For example, we know particulate air pollution contributes to climate change. Our Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences and its predecessors have been at the forefront of that issue since the 1950s, and today our School has several faculty members on the Climate Impacts Group, an interdisciplinary research group funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration studying the effects of natural climate variability and global climate change on our region.
This edition of Northwest Public Health highlights our field’s breadth and strengths in tackling what might be the greatest challenge facing the world today.
Patricia W. Wahl, Dean
UW School of Public Health
