As you know, ensuring that our centers have names that accurately reflect the depth and breadth of work happening there — to advance their mission is critical. After an extensive review and deep engagement with relevant faculty, I am excited to share that just before the Winter Break, the University Academic Priorities Committee voted to accept our proposal for the renaming of three centers within SPH. These names reflect the evolved missions and valuable work being done within these centers. Please see below for the full list of updates:

• The International Health Institute will now be known as the Center for Global Public Health to emphasize the center’s work transcending national boundaries through a highly interdisciplinary, collaborative approach to disease prevention, public health interventions and training future global public health researchers.
• The Center for Statistical Sciences will now be the Center for Biostatistics and Health Data Science, which better reflects an expanded scope of the center with the addition of a substantial component of domestic and international research projects in health data sciences. The center will continue its work to advance the understanding and use of statistics in medicine, public health, biology and health-related social sciences at Brown and beyond.
• The Center for Children’s Environmental Health will now be the Center for Climate, Environment & Health to align with strategic growth priorities and reflect the expanding focus of the center in climate and health while also recognizing its continued impact through research and practice on environmental pollutants such as air, water, chemical and noise pollution. The new name for the center recognizes the intersection between the climate, local and global environments and human health, especially for highly vulnerable populations.

A lot of work went into this careful process, work done by our faculty and led by our terrific Associate Dean for Research, Jennifer Tidey. She has consistently advocated for and worked hard to ensure we have intellectually vibrant centers at SPH that are tackling the big public health issues of our time. These naming updates were part of that work.

I look forward to seeing these changes implemented across the school in the coming weeks and months and, most importantly, the great work these centers will do to drive improvements in human health.

Sincerely,

Ashish K. Jha, M.D., MPH
Dean, School of Public Health
Professor of Health Services, Policy and Practice