This week’s episode features a discussion with University of Iowa College of Public Health Dean Edith Parker. This year is the college’s 25th anniversary and Dean Parker touches on some past accomplishments and milestones while looking ahead to future challenges and opportunities. She also talks about her personal journey to the field of public health.

Lauren Lavin:

Welcome to Plugged into Public Health. My name is Lauren Lavin and I’m your host for today’s. In today’s episode, we have a special guest, Dean Edith Parker from the College of Public Health at the University of Iowa. As we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the College of Public Health, we’ll dive into its fascinating history, discuss the significant milestones achieved over the years, and explore what lies ahead for the next 25. Dean Parker will also share her insights into her personal journey to public health, her leadership philosophy, and how the college has shaped public health on local, national, and global levels. Now let’s get plugged in to public health.

Hello everybody and welcome to the podcast today. Today we have Dean Parker joining us, and I’m so happy that you’re here.

Edith Parker:

Well, thank you. I am delighted to be here, and thanks for inviting me back.

Lauren Lavin:

And this episode is kind of going to focus on the College of Public health history. I don’t know if we talked about this on the podcast yet, but it’s the 25th anniversary of the College of Public Health. We’re going to reflect on that, talk a little bit about where it’s going in the next 25 years, and then also talk about your journey to public health, Dean Parker. That’s the format that we’re going to be talking about today. Can you tell us a little bit about the founding of the College of Public Health 25 years ago and what the University of Iowa had for the vision behind its creation?

Edith Parker:

Sure. And a timely question, but I think we had really kind of fascinating start in the sense that we came out of the College of Medicine and there were several already existing strong programs. For example, the Department of Preventive Medicine and Environmental Health, and that included what is now Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Occupational Environmental Health. And then we had a longstanding that even predated that department, a graduate program in Hospital and Health Administration. So these successful programs, they’ve been in existence for quite a while. And I think there was a thought of bringing those all together to more formally recognized public health. And so that was, I think one vision of the university is let’s bring these together, let’s demonstrate more strongly our commitment to public health, teaching, research, and service.

And that then gave us the ability to have a master’s of public health, which we had not had before. And we’d had PhDs, we’d had MS degrees. So we also were able to develop a lot of joint programs, including one that’s still ongoing with Iowa State University and Vet Medicine. And we have dual degrees with medicine, pharmacy, law, and I’m sure there are others I should be mentioning. And then those are more formal agreements, but we also have students, oh, business, I think also, students who may just choose to do that outside of the recognized program. And then another factor that I think really drove that was the state of Iowa was very instrumental in the forming of the college and with some support recognizing that there are public health needs in our state, that we had a unique demographic in terms of being a predominantly rural state. Which is interesting because if you’ve been following the trends in the last 10 years, I think since 2016, people have begun to realize that rural areas are suffering from health inequities.

There’s a lot going on there that we need to pay attention to. And I think we’re one of the few schools of public health that have been paying attention to rural issues long before. And when the college was founded, as one of the examples is that there was an Institute for Public Health Practice that was also started, again with some support from the state. That is now part of the Institute for Public Health Practice, Research and Policy. But that was really established to think about [inaudible 00:04:00] with the practice community, those folks who are already out there. So our job is not only to prepare the workforce for tomorrow, but to support the workforce that’s already out there as a field of lives. That’s a huge part of what we do now, and I think I’ll maybe have a chance to talk more specifically about that. So that’s sort of how we came to be, and I think it’s exciting to be in our 25th year.

Lauren Lavin:

I think it really makes sense where they wanted to consolidate all of these fields together kind of in one space because there is so much cross discipline usage between, I mean, I’m in health management policy, but I’ve taken classes with biostatistics. We have to take one from epi. And so I think we really benefit from having all of these aspects. I mean, now in the same building, I don’t know if when they consolidated it, we have a really beautiful building that we’re all in. But makes it really easy to find other people that may have a similar interest but go about finding answers in a different way, which is I think only a benefit too.

Edith Parker:

Yes, I think the building is one of the great things that have kind of been a milestone or accomplishment that it took a lot of work and a lot of generosity, not only the state and the university, but individual donors. And to your point, when I came to the college in 2010, we were all across campus. Some of us were in general hospital, but then occupational environmental health was all out at Oakdale. We still have some presence out there, but we’re working hard and I, fingers crossed, think we’ve got some solutions, some new labs that will be built to house our faculty. And also some other changes to bring some of the other people back. But I think that bringing us all in one building has been just amazing. And I don’t know about you. I’ve been in that building now for, I guess we had come in 2012, so about 12 years. I think it’s aged well.

Lauren Lavin:

Oh my gosh. I did not know it was 2012. Just before you said that, I was like, oh, like 2017, right?

Edith Parker:

No.

Lauren Lavin:

That’s crazy. 12 years old, you wouldn’t know it.

Edith Parker:

Yes. Yeah. So I think it’s done a good job in that regard. Have to give the architects their due.

Lauren Lavin:

We do have the best view, especially as fall comes around, I feel like the trees all around the building. If you’ve never been to the University of Iowa, the College of Public Health is sitting on top of this hill, and so you can see all of Iowa City kind of on every side. And in the fall, the trees are so pretty.

Edith Parker:

It is true. And also looking out over the capitol. I’d been in the building sometimes early in the morning, particularly when I was in CBH on the fourth floor, and you could see the moon setting. I also have one that our director of communication says I shouldn’t use because it looks a little creepy, but I thought it was great. It was a very foggy day and you could look out over. He said I could only use it on Halloween, so maybe I need to put that out on Halloween this year.

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah, I love that. You kind of mentioned that the building was maybe one of the defining moments of the last 25 years. Are there any other specific moments or turning points that really stand out in the college’s history?

Edith Parker:

Yeah, one of the things when we founded the college, then we started the Department of Community and Behavioral Health. We had not had a separate unit for that, so that was a new on. As was our Master of Public Health, I mentioned that. And so those really gave us the ability to A, become a college because you needed that, this area of social behavioral sciences of public health. But also I think the MPH has really allowed us to respond to the needs not only of the state, but in terms of training public health professionals. But our graduates go all over the world, quite frankly. So to sort of help the needs, not only in Iowa, but in neighboring states, in the United States and all over the world.

So we’ve had people who go on to be a state epidemiologist, data analyst, working in food safety, working for the CDC, the World Health Organization, and even also working in private sector. Might be with pharmaceutical companies, insurers, environmental safety industry, et cetera. So I think that that was one. I think another one was our undergrad program that we established in 2016. And we did that, we were the first four-year undergraduate program in public health in the state of Iowa. So I think that’s allowed us to not only train up folks now undergrads, we now have had more than 300 individuals come through that program and more than 200 undergrads who have through that program been able to get a certificate in public health.

So that has, I think really contributed again to the state and to the nation and has been a great, I think for us, a real boon. I think all of us were, faculty and staff at the college were used to having only grad programs and we’re like, what’s this going to be, this undergrad? And I have just been so impressed with how the energy it’s brought into the building and into the teaching and folks who teach their undergrad courses have just been thrilled with that. And so I think it’s just bringing a good compliment of having those grad programs and undergrad programs to do either.

Lauren Lavin:

I was a TA for an undergrad class last year and did quite a bit of teaching within the class, and I loved it. I think there’s, the undergrad group are so fun. And like you said, they’re just lively and they tend to congregate and hang out on that main level, which grad students just don’t as much. It really makes the building feel alive, especially when they come back for the semester after the summer.

Edith Parker:

I agree. And it’s fun just to, occasionally I’ll sort of chat to some of them and just hear what they’re interested in, what they’re taking, where they’re from. Another one is our undergrad to grad, which has allowed folks to, from not only University of Iowa, but we also have agreements with Grinnell, Cone, Cornell and Luther. So other colleges where their undergrad students can also take advantage of this, allowing somebody to get an undergrad and a master’s in five years instead of six. So I think-

Lauren Lavin:

It’s a pretty good deal.

Edith Parker:

Yeah. Yeah. I think parents like it too, I think.

Lauren Lavin:

It’s a little easier on the wallet.

Edith Parker:

Yes, exactly. And then we’ve always been just an incredible research engine. I think quite frankly, for our size, we are probably the most productive college in terms of our research enterprise. So Dan McMillan, our communications person, pulled some figures for me. In last year, fiscal 2023, we’ve brought in $43 million-

Lauren Lavin:

Wow.

Edith Parker:

… research. And for the past 25 years, the figure is $980 million, so almost $1 billion. And this is important for many different reasons. One, I think it shows our faculty’s real engagement and national, international reputation in scientific discovery in public health. So that’s important for public health to advance the knowledge base, but it also has given a lot of opportunities for students to be engaged in research. Our grad students, even our undergrad, are now really getting engaged. And I think that gives them some sort of practical experience, real-world training in much of what we do.

Because much of what our research is applied, so it can be relevant for an MPH that comes into practice, particularly an epidemiologist who might be working in data for a health department or someone in the HMP who may be doing policy work and or master’s of health administration, so healthcare work, et cetera. So I think that those are some of the really big milestones that we’ve had. You mentioned the building of course, but all of these I think have been crucial in our ability to support the state of Iowa and their needs, public health, and we do quite a lot of that with State Iowa, Health and Human Services as well as hospital systems and not profits in the [inaudible 00:12:19].

Lauren Lavin:

Which $1 billion. That’s a crazy number. Wow.

Edith Parker:

It is.

Lauren Lavin:

And somebody could be really proud of.

Edith Parker:

Yes, absolutely.

Lauren Lavin:

You kind of just led me right to my next question, which is what has the role of the college played in public health within this local community in the state? And then beyond that, how has the college contributed to public health initiatives at the national or global level?

Edith Parker:

I think going back, thinking about even just had the anniversary of September 11th, it’s kind of hard now even for those of us who lived through that, to think about the impact of that and all that went along with it in terms of realizing that we needed to be more prepared. There was an anthrax gear that went along with that, and our college really took an active role in preparedness for the state in terms of doing training, long-term planning. We were able to get some CDC funding to do that. And I think we’ve continued to play that role in preparedness. We’ve just set up, which is one of I’m very pleased with our Strike Force team, our student Strike Force team that can be available for public health agencies in case there’s a surge that they need some more capacity for that. But also it’s a great way for students to get real life experience. So I think that kind of our role in training and preparedness set us up for COVID-19, which is certainly a defining moment.

And our faculty and staff really use their expertise not only to help our local Johnson County, many of our students served as contact tracers, but also our faculty who had experience in ventilation and aerosols and exposure assessment helped the university to figure out how to open up safely, as well as the state. I mean, they were doing things like the UIC had all of this stock of personal protection equipment, and there’s always an expiration date on that. And so do you throw it all out when there’s no PPE around? And some of our investigators, I think it was Patrick O’Shaughnessy was able to test it to see if it was effective past the effective date, which therefore saved a lot of resources. And we had folks who did some modeling work for the state. We had researchers that were looking at the impact of COVID, our Rural Policy Research Institute on rural populations, which was applicable to not only Iowa, but the greater area.

And some of us served with the state on various advisory boards such as how do you allocate the immunizations? We’re now kind of, COVID is with us and the new set of vaccinations are out, but we’re forgetting that there was that time of waiting and how do you prioritize who should get dispersed? And so a lot really ethical and interesting decisions along that way. So I think those are some of the ways that we’ve done it statewide. In terms of our impact nationwide, I think that back to rural health, we have several centers. Our City Center, Prevention Research Center for Rural Health funded by CDC just was refunded, and it’s been a continuous, don’t make me do an math. I guess it’ll be 22 years since 2002. Our Environmental Health Sciences Research Center I think predates that.

And then we have several centers from NIOSH, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health that are focused on Ag safety and health, workplace health. And those are the types of centers that really give us much national visibility. I think our expertise in rural policy, rural wellbeing, all of the workplace exposures are really some of the areas that we shine. As well as also in cancer. Our cancer registry, which we have for the state, is one of the original cancer registries and has been in existence almost, I think 30 years and more. And is really not only contributed to the state, but to the nation in terms of the data and being able to do surveillance for cancer across the country.

Lauren Lavin:

Those are great examples. It clearly had a lot of impact over these last 25 years, and hopefully we’ll continue to do so.

Edith Parker:

That’s right.

Lauren Lavin:

Now I’m going to switch over to some questions about you, Dean Parker. Can you share a bit about your own journey into public health and what led you to your current role as the dean of the college?

Edith Parker:

I’m a probably good example of, never say never. I never knew about public health. I grew up in the state of North Carolina that has a pretty good school of public health that had been around since the forties, but all of my family had gone to undergrad at North Carolina, including my parents had done their time there, but I did not. And so I never knew about public health until I started working overseas. I taught school in Kenya for a little under two years, and then I got a job Save the Children in Burkina Faso, West Africa.

Lauren Lavin:

Wow.

Edith Parker:

I kept meeting people who would say, “Oh, you’re from North Carolina. There’s a really good school of public health.” Then in Burkina Faso, I was asked to take on a health project because there was no one else there on staff could do it or who had talent. They were as capable if not more capable than me. And I think that’s where we had a consultant come who was a faculty member at Harvard, and she sort of said, “You’re doing public health without a union card. It’s time for you to go back and get an MPH and do that.” So I did. I went back to and I was fortunate to get into UNC. And will, all honesty, maybe not the best student undergrad than I should have been, but was able to still kind of slide in there. And when I went back, I said, “You know what? I’m going to do this degree and I want to go back and do global health, and I don’t want to do any research. I am a practitioner. That’s what I am.”

And then I started working with a faculty member on a project in Mississippi, and she used community-based participatory research methods, and I kind of thought, well, research does have value and you can work with communities and you can work on their issues. And then I also thought, if I’m going to work in a global context, I should work in my own culture to find out how hard it is. I worked at a free clinic for a couple of years in Virginia and then went back in and got a doctorate. Still thinking I was going to go work with CBC or UNICEF or something like that, and ended up applying for a job at Michigan.

Ended up getting a job at Michigan and then realized, I guess I can’t say, I’m just joking, that was actually a good choice. Worked with wonderful colleagues up there doing many projects in Detroit community-based participatory research. And then got an offer to apply for the chair position here at Iowa and came down to visit thinking, first trip to Iowa. Really liked my job at Michigan. No way I’ll take this job. And just was amazed. Amazed at the quality of the faculty we had here, not only in community behavioral health, but in all of the departments I met and the staff and things that were going on here. And kind of came back to me and said to my husband, “I think we might want to think about this.” And has been a wonderful decision. It’s just been a great place. It’s wonderful people doing wonderful things.

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah. And you’ve been here since 2012, you said?

Edith Parker:

2010.

Lauren Lavin:

2010. 14? 14 years.

Edith Parker:

Yeah. So that’s sort of how, and then in 2000 I applied for the deanship and I was fortunate to be chosen for that, so that’s how that kind of happened.

Lauren Lavin:

How would you describe your leadership style? You’ve been in a couple of different types of leadership roles and how do you see that align with the goals of the college?

Edith Parker:

I think I’ve mentioned a couple of times community-based participatory research, and I think that has greatly influenced my style, which is to be engaged with our students. Really an emphasis on what we have and do well here at Iowa is shared governance, but to make sure that we’re getting the viewpoints of folks and also what they feel like needs to be done in terms of shaping our future and our vision. It’s another thing to think about for everybody, particularly our students, is I think leadership styles evolve and you learn. And so I’m still a work in progress, I’ll say. But I think it was interesting that we as deans have a five-year review. And so there were great comments I got back from 360 where faculty, staff and students and folks above me, some of my bosses, others below me or not below me, but those that report to me. They mentioned great participatory style, but sometimes you just need to make a decision.

It was good to hear, that was good feedback. I think sometimes you can be too participatory in your approach and you have to, that’s what you’re paid to do and that’s what you need to do. So I think that the other thing is, I would say is that I am fortunate to have an incredible leaders around me. Our associate deans, our DEOs, our program directors are just incredibly qualified. Many of them who’ve been at the college for several years, and so they are a wonderful resource to [inaudible 00:22:44] because they’re doing a lot of all of the day to day, but also because they’re just a good resource when I say, “What do you think we should do about the X, Y and Z?” So I just want to highlight how fortunate we are to have so many good people.

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah, absolutely. It’s definitely who you surround yourself with that can really make or break some of that.

Edith Parker:

Yes.

Lauren Lavin:

As you reflect on the college’s history, you kind of did it broadly over the 25 years, what do you see as the most significant areas of growth during your own tenure [inaudible 00:23:18]?

Edith Parker:

Yes. I think there’ve been several, and I think COVID kind of threw us for a bit of the loop, but we did survive that. Although I do think, honestly, and I think since we’re in public health, we know this, that we’re still seeing some of the impacts of that, particularly on students, particularly on mental health issues. I think we’re still working out our hybrid approach to some people working remotely, and do you do that to allow flexibility for folks, but also to make sure that you can maintain that sense of community? That’s always been one of the best things I think about our college, is it’s a good place, it’s a real good sense of community and people really like to be here. So I think we’re still kind of figuring that out. But I think some of it is, I think we’ve done some good stuff on student success.

We still have challenges we need to work on, but one of the things I did along with my leadership team is we did not have a formal office of student services. We had a bit of a different configuration, so we established that separate office and brought in Assistant Dean Scot Reisinger to sort of lead that to make sure that not only did we have recruitment and good advising, but we also had a more robust career services and alumni, et cetera. I think that they have done a phenomenal job. I was fortunate to be in a presentation with our career services. And I think it was in our executive committee meeting, and I believe all of the members of the executive committee were just really blown away with how much they’re doing that we didn’t even realize it was going on. I think that’s one, and we’ll continue to think about ways to make sure that we’re doing all we can for student success.

And then I think also our research, I mentioned that, but we’re just continuing to do amazing things and really around issues that are emerging or have been, for example, we have a new center that’s looking at resilience to climate change in rural areas, Dr. Brandi Janssen, women farmers. We’re continuing to work on thinking about what research we need to undertake to understand why in Iowa we have the second-highest cancer incidence rate in the country. So again, impactful research. We’re not only successful by all metrics including money brought in, but I think the key here is that we are really impactful in really helping Iowa and the rest of the nation. I think those are some of the ones that get a highlight.

Lauren Lavin:

Some of that goes in line with the idea about fostering culture and innovation within the college. How do you feel like you’ve fostered that culture of innovation and collaboration within the college during your time?

Edith Parker:

I’m going to be honest on that. I inherited an incredible culture of innovation and collaboration. And I think my predecessor had done quite a lot, Sue Curry, to set up things to help with research, a robust research office for our faculty to tap into the institute that we have now slightly reorganized with the institute that’s now a public health practice research and policy. So those I think have helped to drive it. And so I’m just trying to make sure that we maintain what we’ve already got here, which is just incredible people who are really just doing amazing things. And so I’m going to be honest on that one.

Lauren Lavin:

I love that. We’re going to wrap this up by just looking at the short-term goals for the college and then as well as that long-term vision. What are some of the top priorities for the college in the next year, and are there any programs or initiatives within that that you are particularly excited about?

Edith Parker:

Sure. One is, I think this next year is our year of accreditation. Every seven years we go through accreditation process by the Council on Education and Public Health. Which is a real crucial process because it really does ensure that we are doing all that we should be doing in terms of a quality problem for our students. So we are preparing for that, and I think that will take a lot of time. You have to prepare self-studying and then entertain a site visit. And it does involve faculty, staff, and students in terms of the preparation, but also the site visit itself. So that’s one we’re doing coming up. And then we are, this is kind of a short-term, long-term, but we have been in negotiations and I think are pretty close to deciding, and I think we will to pursue an online MPH degree.

We just want to make sure, still need to look at a little bit more data that there really is a need out there. Because obviously you don’t want to start a program just to start, so we’re relying heavily on some of the folks in the central university to think about marketing needs, et cetera. But I think that would be a great way if it turns out that there really is a need to think about, and this would be a pitched a bit differently from our residential program than this would be for working professionals, and they need to go back and get that. So I think that would be a really exciting initiative. And we’ll be short-term as we figure it out. I think it’ll take a while to build it out.

And then I think in terms of the long-term, vision is really thinking and we’re beginning to do some of that strategic areas of strength and where we should go in terms of hiring new faculty or trying to encourage new students to come in. The university itself has identified three kind of areas that where we have excellence but could perhaps even become more excellent in writing and communication, cancer, both cancer care and research, and also the neurological sciences, neurosciences and mental health. And I think certainly we fit into many of those areas, and so that’s another way that we’re thinking about how can we even better support those areas of emphasis that the university’s talking about.

Lauren Lavin:

Great. I think that wraps it up for today. Thank you for taking the time to chat with us.

Edith Parker:

Well, thank you and thank you so much to you and your team for doing this. I just think the podcast is one of the greatest things we have going in our college. And I will say that I brag about it whenever I’m with my fellow deans, have a professional driven podcast, but I think there are very few that have a student driven one.

Lauren Lavin:

Yes.

Edith Parker:

I think that’s why it is such a success and I’ve got more interest, so thanks so much for that.

Lauren Lavin:

I appreciate hearing that. Thank you so much for being here.

Edith Parker:

All right, you take care.

Lauren Lavin:

That wraps up this episode of Plugged in to Public Health. A big thank you to Dean Parker for joining us and offering such thoughtful reflections on the College of Public Health’s journey over the past 25 years. From its unique beginnings to its cutting edge research and its pivotal role in addressing public health challenges, it’s clear that the college has made an incredible impact both locally and globally. We hope you enjoyed hearing about the milestones, the vision for the future, and Dean Parker’s inspiring path to public health. Be sure to subscribe to stay plugged into future episodes where we continue to explore the people, research and innovations shaping public health today. Thank you for listening, and until next time, stay curious, stay engaged, and take care.

This episode was hosted and written by Lauren Lavin, edited and produced by Lauren Lavin. You can learn more about the University of Iowa College of Public Health on Facebook. Our podcast is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and SoundCloud. If you enjoyed this episode and would like to help support the podcast, please share it with your colleagues, friends, or anyone interested in public health. Have a suggestion for our team? You can reach us at cph-gradambassador@uiowa.edu. This episode is brought to you by the University of Iowa College of Public Health.