School of Public Health

SPH collaborates on training and learning grants

September 28, 2010 • Uncategorized

The UNTHSC School of Public Health (SPH) is part of a consortium with two other schools – Texas A&M Health Science Center’s School of Rural Public Health and University of Texas School of Public Health at Houston – on two recent training and learning grants.

The Texas Public Health Training Center (TPHTC), a workforce development collaboration for the public health community created in 2000, has been awarded a five-year, $3.2 million grant by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  Funding for the first year of this grant cycle totals $649,801.

UNTHSC’s Dr. Nuha Lackan, assistant director of Health Management and Policy, serves as TPHTC director in the North Texas area, representing the UNTHSC School of Public Health.

The TPHTC develops educational courses for all levels of public health workers, from those who work in state and local health departments to community workers at non-profit organizations.  In 2009, the TPHTC trained 4,993 public health workers across Texas.

TPHTC is one of the first eight public health training centers to be funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  This is the center’s third renewal of funding.

The second grant awarded to the consortium is a five-year award of nearly $5 million from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to establish one of 14 nationwide Preparedness and Emergency Response Learning Centers (PERLC).  The Texas collaboration has been named the Training and Education Collaborative System-Preparedness Emergency Response Learning Center (TECS-PERLC) and will serve in a national capacity for preparedness and response training and education needs of the U.S. public health work force.

Dr. Lackan will also represent UNTHSC on this grant.

Other TECS-PERLC partners include the Texas Department of State Health Services , South Dakota Department of Health, South Dakota Office of Emergency Management and the New Hampshire Division of Public Health Services.