Consistently recognized as one of the top public health schools in the nation, the Gillings School of Global Public Health has been home to the top public health leaders and students for over 75 years.
In 1936, the School’s departments and programs were part of the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 1940, the UNC Board of Trustees approved public health as a separate school within the university, and the School awarded its first degrees in 1940.
Through the years, the School has grown into seven departments and one program. The current departments of epidemiology, environmental sciences and engineering, and health policy and management grew from the areas of study that were in place when the School was founded. These included public health administration, sanitation and sanitary engineering, epidemiology, communicable diseases, child hygiene, vital statistics, public health laboratory methods and preventive medicine.
The Department of Health Behavior was added in 1942; public health nursing (now part of the public health leadership program) grew out of the work on the health administration department; nutrition (which began as part of the School of Medicine) became part of the public health school in 1946; the biostatistics department was founded in 1949; and the maternal and child health department was added in 1950.
In September 2008, the School was named the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health in recognition of a generous gift from Dennis Gillings and Joan Gillings. Dennis Gillings was a biostatistics professor at the School from 1971 to 1988 and is founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Quintiles. Joan Gillings is a philanthropist and community volunteer. The $50 million donation was, at the time, the largest single gift in the history of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Overcoming social and health injustices has been an anchoring focus throughout the history of the Gillings School. Faculty, students and staff continue this tradition of working collaboratively in communities across North Carolina to overcome barriers to good health for all.
“From its earliest days, the School has had a strong moral compass,” said Barbara K. Rimer, DrPH, current dean. “That’s why it was a hospitable place for a group of South African anti-apartheid faculty who emigrated here in the 1960s. That’s why Dan Okun (the late environmental sciences and engineering professor) and other faculty members marched for civil rights in that era. And that’s why a great deal of our research was and is focused on overcoming health disparities.”
Faculty members have been coming and going across the world since the School began. For example, Bernard Greenberg, first a chair of biostatistics and later dean of the School, collaborated with colleagues in Egypt and in other countries, and our biostatisticians for years have trained their counterparts in Chile.
Today, the Gillings School continues to award doctoral, master’s and undergraduate degrees and certificates to students who take courses on campus or via the Internet as distance learners. The School is ranked the top public school of public health (#2 overall) by U.S. News and World Report (ranked in 2015 for the 2016 edition).
Our mission is to improve public health, promote individual well-being and eliminate health inequities across North Carolina and around the world.
"Our mission is to improve public health, promote individual well-being and eliminate health inequities in North Carolina and around the world. Our work is done in basic science laboratories; clinical and public health settings; communities, including worksites; and community-based and other non-governmental organizations. With our special focus on the science of implementation and delivery, our faculty, staff and students bridge the gap between academic research and practical, public health to make a world of difference — and a different, healthier world."
