{"id":230879,"date":"2025-05-20T10:14:04","date_gmt":"2025-05-20T14:14:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=230879"},"modified":"2025-06-11T14:03:30","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T18:03:30","slug":"allied-health-sciences-launches-public-health-concentration-at-uconn-waterbury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2025\/05\/allied-health-sciences-launches-public-health-concentration-at-uconn-waterbury\/","title":{"rendered":"Allied Health Sciences Launches Public Health Concentration at UConn Waterbury"},"content":{"rendered":"

The allied health sciences program<\/a> at UConn Waterbury will begin offering a concentration in public health and health promotion in fall 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of interest here, and in Storrs too, for careers that aren\u2019t necessarily direct patient care,\u201d says Tamara Kaliszewski, associate professor-in-residence. \u201cSo, this offers an option for those students.\u201d<\/p>\n

This concentration has been offered to students at UConn Storrs through the Department of Allied Health Sciences, which is part of the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources (CAHNR).<\/a><\/p>\n

Students in the concentration will take introduction to public health and epidemiology, program planning, biostatistics, and environmental health courses. These courses will be available to all students in the major.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that offering the public health course will benefit students even if they don\u2019t pursue the concentration, because many students don\u2019t come into undergraduate studies\u00a0understanding what public health is,\u201d Kaliszewski says.<\/p>\n

This concentration will help prepare students who want to work in public health after graduation or pursue a masters of public health.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt does better prepare students for positions in community and public health within the Waterbury region and within the state, as well as help prepare them for graduate study in public health,\u201d says Justin Nash, professor and department head.<\/p>\n

UConn Waterbury is well-positioned to offer this concentration thanks to their community connections and faculty expertise.<\/p>\n

Recent faculty hires including assistant professors Anna-Michelle McSorley and Pablo Kokay Valente; and assistant professor-in-residence Aviana Rosen contribute to the research and teaching expertise in public health in the Waterbury program.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are research opportunities for students who are interested in that aspect of public health, and they bring their expertise to the courses they teach,\u201d Kaliszewski says.<\/p>\n

The program has built strong connections with community organizations like the Waterbury Department of Public Health and hospitals in the area.<\/p>\n

\u201cTamara has formed strong relationships and partnerships, which has given our students opportunities for valuable experiential learning,\u201d Nash says. \u201cHaving the concentration in public health also fits with that initiative.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chelsea Erem \u201824 (CAHNR) took advantage of these opportunities, participating in research and an internship at the Waterbury Department of Public Health.<\/p>\n

Erem was inspired to work in the field after taking an infectious diseases course with Valente.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the first time I had really heard of public health,\u201d Erem says. \u201cAfter taking that course I realized I was interested professionally, particularly the epidemiology side. But I wanted to get a sense of what places public health practitioners work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Erem worked closely with the Waterbury director of public health, Aisling McGuckin, to develop a policy proposal for the city\u2019s certificate of occupancy program, a state-wide mandate that health departments inspect tenant housing before people move in.<\/p>\n

Erem joined sanitarians on their daily site visits across the city, met with city officials, and attended meetings and town halls.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really enjoyed how hands-on it was,\u201d Erem says. \u201cI got to see what public health practice looks like in real time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other students have interned with New Opportunities, an organization focused on addressing food insecurity among older adults, the UConn Health Disparities Institute, the UConn Health Leaders Program, and the Western Connecticut Area Agency of Aging in their Medicare Fraud Office.<\/p>\n

During her senior year, Erem also worked with Valente on a research project.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s when I realized I was more interested in the data side, the science side of public health,\u201d Erem says. \u201cIt was actually because of him that I ended up applying for a master of public health program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Erem is pursuing her master\u2019s at UConn. She plans to build on her undergraduate experience in community-engaged work for her practicum.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m really interested in lifestyle medicine as it relates to research,\u201d Erem says. \u201cAnd I like community-oriented research where you go out and you give just as much as you take.\u201d<\/p>\n

This work relates to CAHNR\u2019s Strategic Vision area focused on\u00a0<\/em>Enhancing Health and Well-Being Locally, Nationally, and Globally.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Follow\u00a0<\/em>UConn CAHNR<\/em><\/a>\u00a0on social media<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This concentration, which is also offered at Storrs, will help prepare students who want to work in public health after graduation or pursue a masters of public health<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":209476,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2296,2224,2649],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2140],"class_list":["post-230879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-allied-health-sciences","category-cahnr","category-blue-pride"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-07 18:09:30","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230879"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":230881,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230879\/revisions\/230881"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/209476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230879"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=230879"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=230879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}