What is Public Health? Heading link
What is Public Health?
Public health is the science of protecting and improving the health of people and their communities. Unlike medical providers who focus on treating sick individuals, public health professionals work to prevent people from becoming sick by:
• advocating for policies that promote health
• administering services
• educating and promoting people about healthy behaviors
• conducting research
• monitoring disease and preventing disease spread
• limiting health disparities.
What is Public Health Initiatives? Heading link
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of having a public health infrastructure on university campuses to be able to respond to public health emergencies. Public Health Initiatives was established on UIC’s campus in the summer of 2023 as part of the Health and Well-being team. They directly oversee activities including health education, public health preparedness, health policy advocacy, health equity, and disease surveillance and mitigation.
Public Health Initiatives is also home to the COVID-19 Contact Tracing and Epidemiology Program (CCTEP). Throughout the pandemic, this team provided essential services to the UIC community including case investigations, contact tracing, cluster investigations and resource navigation among others. In addition to being a critical component of the university’s pandemic response efforts, the data collected by this team was frequently shared with campus leadership, which helped shape public health policy on campus. Today, this team continues to serve and support all UIC students and will assist in responding to any disease outbreak on campus in the future.
Through all facets of work, Public Health Initiatives strives to better understand and support students’ complex and diverse health and well-being needs. The team frequently engages with students, stakeholders, and campus partners to ensure programs and policy changes address critical issues facing the community and fill potential gaps in service provision ad health education. Public Health Initiatives strikes to create supportive environments where UIC students can find personal and academic success.
