Concordia University Irvine launched a new School of Health and Human Sciences in July, drawing together the nine Concordia University Irvine programs having to do with health and physical activity.
“The new School of Health and Human Sciences allows CUI to bring together related health science and service programs for greater collaboration and interdisciplinary learning,” says Scott Ashmon, CUI’s provost. “There is administrative efficiency to be found, for sure, in bringing together related programs, but it is the common focus and synergy academically and vocationally that are more important. Many hands are joining together to pull in the same direction — nurses, kinesiologists, coaches, healthcare administrators and more — for the sake of serving our neighbors’ health and welfare.”
“There’s an atmosphere of excitement around this institutional restructure,” says Terry Olson, who was named Dean of the School of Health and Human Sciences in July. “Faculty and staff coalesced very quickly and are ready to implement the new mission and vision. They see the benefits of this new School and how it encourages collaboration between programs and Schools where commonalities exist.”
One of the new programs is the Master of Public Health, which is training future public health leaders to recognize and address public health needs in ethical and effective ways.
The formation of this new School affords us new opportunities to prepare students to lead and positively shape the future of health and wellness across the region.
“There is so much that students can do with this degree,” says Catherine Sinardi, who oversees the Master of Healthcare Administration (MHA), and the new Master of Public Health (MPH) which started this fall. “There are opportunities as community health educators, in hospitals, in managed care organizations, in health education advocacy, in policy change and management, infectious disease prevention and control, nonprofit community engagement and more.”
The MPH is fully online, with opportunities for in-class learning and built-in professional development workshops twice a year featuring presentations from health care leaders.
“The addition of the Master of Public Health program in the School of Health and Human Sciences continues CUI’s commitment to serve society by preparing students to be, in Martin Luther’s words, ‘wise, honorable, and cultivated citizens’ and public health administrators,” says Ashmon. “We aim to accomplish that not only through excellent field-specific knowledge and skills, but also by helping students think carefully about their callings as public health administrators and the ethical decisions that they will need to make in faithfully fulfilling those callings for the health and welfare of others.”
Olson’s ambition, reflecting that of President Michael Thomas, is for CUI’s School of Health and Human Sciences to be the best in the western U.S., which starts by taking care of people in the Southern California community.
“The health field is in constant need of highly skilled professionals,” says Olson. “The formation of this new School affords us new opportunities to prepare students to lead and positively shape the future of health and wellness across the region. We want our school to be a centerpiece of health care within our local communities, and want Concordia Irvine to come to mind when people think of health care.”
Under one academic and administrative umbrella now are: