Dean Galea Honored with Top APHA Award.

The American Public Health Association has awarded Dean Sandro Galea, along with former colleagues at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, the 2014 American Journal of Public Health Paper of the Year Award.

The award recognizes one published paper that substantially advances the understanding of a public health issue, policy, or program. Dean Galea, former chair of epidemiology at the Mailman School, and three former colleagues were honored for their work on “MPH Education for the 21st Century: Motivation, Rationale, and Key Principles for the New Columbia Public Health Curriculum.”

The paper lays out the rationale for revamping public health education to meet key challenges of the times, such as globalization, urbanization, population aging, and health disparities. To accomplish this, the authors argue, educators must give students a global perspective on health; train them across disciplines; impart a “life-course” approach to disease prevention that looks across the lifespan; and teach critical thinking and leadership skills that empower them to turn science into action.

Dean Galea, who became the School of Public Health dean on January 1, was one of the architects of the Mailman School’s revamped MPH curriculum, launched in 2012.

In conferring the award, the APHA executive director Georges C. Benjamin said the paper provides “excellent practical recommendations to guide and improve public health education in the country, and offers a guide for other public health programs worldwide.”