FALL 2008 VOLUME 1 • NUMBER 5 Public Health Foundation, Incorporated BOARD OF DIRECTORS Susanne Glen Moulton, JD, MPH, President Leah Devlin, DDS, MPH Jacky Ann Rosati, PhD Director State Health Director and Environmental Scientist and Containment Patient Assistance and Reimbursement Programs Director, Division of Public Health Area Lead GlaxoSmithKline N.C. Department of Health and Human Services U.S. Environmental Protection Agency National Homeland Security Research Center Jack E. Wilson, MSENV, Vice President Cynthia J. Girman, DrPH Retired Senior Director, Department of Epidemiology Ilene C. Siegler, PhD, MPH Board of Directors Merck Research Laboratories Professor of Medical Psychology TEC, Incorporated Duke University Shelley D. Golden, MPH Delton Atkinson, MPH, MPH, PMP Lecturer Paula Brown Stafford, MPH Deputy Director Department of Health Behavior and Executive Vice President Division of Vital Statistics Health Education Global Data Management and Biostatistics National Center for Health Statistics UNC School of Public Health Quintiles Transnational Corporation Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Sandra W. Green, MBA, MHA, BSPH Russell B. Toal, MPH Ronald E. Aubert, PhD, MSPH President Visiting Associate Professor of Public Health Vice President, Clinical Analytics, East Coast Customer Management Group Institute of Public Health Outcomes and Reporting MedAssets, Incorporated Georgia State University Medco Health Solutions, Incorporated C. David Hardison, PhD John C. Triplett, MD, MPH David J. Ballard, MD, MSPH, PhD, FACP Corporate Vice President, Life Sciences Regional Medical Officer Senior Vice President and Chief Quality Officer Science Applications International Corporation Bethesda, MD Baylor Health Care System Deborah Parham Hopson, PhD, RN Robert D. Verhalen, DrPH Executive Director and BHCS Endowed Chair Assistant Surgeon General Chief Executive Officer Institute for Health Care Research and Improvement Associate Administrator, HIV/AIDS Bureau Verhalen and Associates, LLC Health Resources and Services Administration Fred T. Brown, Jr., MPH, FACHE G. Robert Weedon, DVM, MPH Managing Director, Business Development Joan C. Huntley, PhD, MPH Adjunct Faculty in Honors and Biology Carolinas HealthCare System Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology University of North Carolina Wilmington Kelly B. Browning, MA UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health Vice-Chairman Executive Vice President Mark H. Merrill, MSPH New Hanover County Board of Health American Institute for Cancer Research President Senior Partner Deniese M. Chaney, MPH Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas College Road Animal Hospital, PLLC Senior Manager, Healthcare Practice Douglas M. Owen, PE, BCEE Alice D. White, PhD Accenture Health and Life Sciences Vice President Vice President Stacy-Ann Christian, JD, MPH Malcolm Pirnie, Incorporated Worldwide Epidemiology Department GlaxoSmithKline Assistant Director Jonathan J. Pullin, MS Clinical and Health Services Research President and Chief Executive Officer Thomas K. Wong, PhD Michael (Trey) A. Crabb, III, MHA, MBA The Environmental Group of the Carolinas, Vice Presiden Managing Director, Investment Banking Incorporated Meganium Corporation Avondale Partners, LLC Roy J. Ramthun, MSPH President HSA Consulting Services, LLC 2008 School of Public Health ADVISORY COUNCIL Dennis Gillings, CBE, Chair Ken Eudy Guy Miller, MD, PhD Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Chief Executive Officer Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Quintiles Transnational Corporation Capstrat Edison Pharmaceuticals, Incorporated William K. Atkinson, PhD, MPH Robert J. Greczyn, Jr., MPH Carmen Hooker Odom, MS President and Chief Executive Officer President and Chief Executive Officer President WakeMed BlueCross and BlueShield of North Carolina Milbank Memorial Fund Joseph Carsanaro, MBA, MSEE James R. Hendricks, Jr., MS Jane Smith Patterson General Manager Vice President of Environment, Executive Director Personal Communications Sector Health and Safety (Retired) The e-NC Authority Motorola, Incorporated Duke Energy Joan Siefert Rose, MPH Willard Cates, Jr., MD, MPH J. Douglas Holladay, MDiv President President, Research General Partner Council for Entrepreneurial Development Family Health International Park Avenue Equity Partners, LP Alexandria Technology Center Andrew Conrad, PhD Donald A. Holzworth, MS Charles A. Sanders, MD Chief Scientific Officer Chairman Chapel Hill, NC National Genetics Institute Expression Analysis, Inc. Michael C. Tarwater, MHA, FACHE Keith Crisco, MBA David P. King President and Chief Executive Officer President President and Chief Executive Officer Carolinas HealthCare System Asheboro Elastics Corporation Laboratory Corporation of America Paul M. Wiles, MHA Nancy A. Dreyer, PhD, MPH John McConnell President and Chief Executive Officer Chief of Scientific Affairs Raleigh, NC Novant Health, Incorporated OUTCOME contentsfall 2008 4 O n Sept. 26, 2008, Chancellor Holden Thorp officially recognizes our School as the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. 10 Holden Thorp features & news 4 THE PUBLIC HEALTH LANDSCAPE: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES 16 9 GILLINGS GIFT POSITIONS UNC TO BETTER MEET 21ST CENTURY PUBLIC HEALTH CHALLENGES 10 DENNIS GILLINGS: DRAWING STRENGTH, EXPERIENCING SUCCESS, NOW RETURNING TO HIS ROOTS 14 JOAN GILLINGS: INSPIRING OTHERS WITH A CAN-DO ATTITUDE 16 A PLACE FOR RIGOR: SINCE 1949, UNC’S RESEARCHERS SET THE PACE 22 FOR BIOSTATISTICS 21 UNDERSTANDING THE PUBLIC: UNC’S SURVEY RESEARCH UNIT HELPS RESEARCHERS COLLECT HIGH-QUALITY DATA 22 UNC’S COLLABORATIVE STUDIES COORDINATING CENTER: CONTROLLING QUALITY, MANAGING DATA, CHANGING THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE 26 24 GARY KOCH: A MENTOR FOR LIFE 26 ANTICIPATING PUBLIC HEALTH NEEDS; ACCELERATING PUBLIC HEALTH SOLUTIONS 29 GILLINGS INNOVATION LABS FOCUS INTERDISCIPLINARY EFFORTS ON TOUGH PUBLIC HEALTH PROBLEMS 31 NORTH CAROLINA MENTAL HEALTH SYSTEM IMPROVEMENT 32 VACCINES FOR GLOBAL HEALTH continued CAROLINA PUBLIC HEALTH | 1 DEAN Barbara K. Rimer, DrPH fall 2008 DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS Ramona DuBose EDITOR Emily J. Smith ASSOCIATE DEAN contents continued 33 45 48 FOR EXTERNAL AFFAIRS Peggy Dean Glenn DESIGN AND PRODUCTION Sheila Johnston Sherer 33 UNC BIOSTATISTICIANS MAKE THE NUMBERS ADD UP IN BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH Sherer Graphic Design 40 SIX DEGREES OF BIOSTATISTICS CONTRIBUTING WRITERS 42 SCHOOL NEWS Margarita De Pano, Kim Gazella, Linda Kastleman, Kathleen Kearns, 48 AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS Angela Spivey and Torrey Wasserman Articles appearing in Carolina Public opportunities to invest Health may be reprinted with permission from the editor. Send correspondence to Editor, Carolina 51 HONOR ROLL OF DONORS Public Health, UNC Gillings School 53 ROSENAU SOCIETY GIFTS of Global Public Health, Campus Box 7400, 135 Dauer Dr., Chapel Hill, 54 DAUERS HONOR DAUGHTER’S SUCCESS BY PROVIDING SCHOLARSHIP NC 27599-7400. FOR OTHER STUDENTS SUBSCRIBE TO CAROLINA PUBLIC HEALTH 57 SCHOLARSHIP BEQUEST REFLECTS DUNN’S APPRECIATION OF OPPORTUNITIES www.sph.unc.edu UNC PROVIDED HER 25,000 copies of this document were 59 MORSE NAMES OFFICE IN SCHOOL’S RENOVATED ROSENAU HALL printed at a cost of $23,815 or $0.95 60 DAD TAUGHT HER TEAMWORK, MOM TAUGHT HER SCIENCE, per copy. NOW DEVLIN HONORS THEM WITH HER GIFT Carolina Public Health (ISSN 1938- 63 BALCHEM SCHOLARSHIP SUPPORTS NUTRITION STUDENT’S CHOLINE RESEARCH 2790) is published twice yearly by the UNC Gillings School of Global Public 64 GIFTS FROM CORPORATIONS AND FOUNDATIONS Health, Campus Box 7400, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 67 FRIENDS MAKING A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE 135 Dauer Dr., Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7400. Vol. 1, No. 5, Fall 2008. Front cover photo credits: Young girl in rice field by Pathathai Chungyam. Left to right at bottom: Family photo by iStock International, Inc.; Indigenous Mexican woman by Kim Steele; Two 2008 graduates of our School, Kirkland Lynch (left) and John DeMasi, by Linda Kastleman; Man and camel in Agra, India, by Peter Adams. Back cover photo credits: Left to right at top: School children in Beijing, China, by Dr. Peggy Bentley; Elizabeth Simmons, Master’s in Public Health nutrition student at our School, by Linda Kastleman; Ugandan children by © Lisa Marie Albert. Left to right, second row: Spring 2008 Bachelor of Science in Public Health graduates of our School by Will Owens; Mother and child in Mozambique by Isabelle Michaud-Letourneau, MPH; Jeff Nguyen, Master of Health Care Administration at our School, by Linda Kastleman. Bottom right: Granddaughter hugs grandpa by iStock International, Inc. 2 | VOL.1 • NO. 5 FALL 2008 from the Dean’s desk wrote this flying over the Cascade Mountains, going home from I the annual Association of Schools of Public Health Deans’ Retreat in Vancouver, B.C. The mountains are grand, majes- The most significant application of the Gillingses’ tic, awe-inspiring in scope and size — a natural gift is funding Gillings Innovation Laboratories metaphor for the challenges facing public health. (GILs) to solve problems in North Carolina and Our 40 (and growing) accredited schools of public around the world. I am so excited about the poten- health share a grand mission to improve the public’s tial of these projects to accelerate solutions to public health across the U.S. and around the world through health problems. (Read more about these projects our teaching, research and service. Our task’s scope and their leaders on page 26 or visit www.sph.unc. is huge and complex— to understand infectious and edu/cph/weblinks.) chronic diseases and halt