Message from the Dean

While the Texas A&M University System Health Science Center’s School of Rural Public Health (SRPH) operates as a traditional school of public health, our mission is to advance the health of Texans and emphasizes the particular issues of rural communities and the dynamics of rural-urban interrelationships. We strive to achieve our mission through learning, discovery, outreach and creative partnerships. Moreover, we draw upon the vast resources and experiences of the many health and health-related institutions within the Texas A&M System along with agencies across the state in our efforts to promote public health.

SRPH serves communities across the country and throughout the world by educating the future generation of public health professionals. With the knowledge and experience students gain through classes and field-based training experiences they are able to help communities improve their quality of life. As a school, we are committed to strengthening public health knowledge and supporting the provision of public health and health services. We pursue our commitments to service and outreach health programs through strong partnerships within the community.

Since the beginning of its academic efforts in 1998, the School of Rural Public Health has experienced extensive growth in student enrollment, degree programs, faculty numbers, and research grants and contracts. We now offer several degree programs including a Master of Public Health, Master of Science in Public Health, Master of Health Administration, Ph.D. in Health Services Research, and a Doctor of Public Health with concentrations in Social and Behavioral Health. We are currently developing a school-wide doctoral degree program focused in additional public health core disciplines as well as establishing joint degree programs with other health fields.

Through our distance education program, we offer a master degree in five sites (Temple, Corpus Christi, Laredo, McAllen, and Austin) in Texas besides the main campus in College Station. The expanding research activities of SRPH now include designated programs or centers in rural health research, community health development, reproductive and child health, health services research, and aging and health promotion, aging and long term care and policy, and geographic information systems, among a variety of more targeted independent research activities by the faculty.

Other achievements include the granting of full accreditation for SRPH by the Council on Education for Public Health in 2004, a short six years after establishing the school with no antecedent academic public health program. Our faculty continue to receive increased recognition at the institutional, state, national, and international levels. The alumni of the school, now numbering approximately 270, are creating a formal alumni association in order to continue dialogue and support of SRPH and its mission.

We now look forward to the future in our new permanent home, a 100,000 square feet complex of three buildings arranged in the form of a triangle with a central open air atrium. For the first time, the SRPH family of students, faculty, staff, and administrators are located at one site on the Texas A&M campus. We intend to continue even more collaborative activities with the components of the health science center, colleges and schools of Texas A&M University and System, as well as the many partners in the community, state, and nation. SRPH is committed to being a national resource in academic public health in general and rural public health in particular—a commitment that will have a significant universal impact on the health of the public.

Ciro V. Sumaya, M.D., M.P.H.T.M.

Dean
John and Maureen Cox Endowed Chair in Medicine

Contact Information:

Ms. Ruth Yeager
Assistant to Dean
Phone: 979-862-4445
Email: rjyeager@srph.tamhsc.edu