By Elizabeth Wells, UC Health

For Omar Morales-Haro, pursuing a public health degree while training to be a doctor just made sense.

“When we’re in the business of helping people improve their health, we should be taking a step back and evaluating the systems in which we practice,” he said.

Omar just graduated from UC Irvine with his M.D. and Master of Public Health (MPH) degrees, where he pursued the dual M.D./MPH degree program through his involvement in theUC Irvine PRIME-LC program (which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year). A three-time UC Irvine anteater alum, Omar said public health aligns with his values. “A public health perspective provides an opportunity to help fix things in our health care system that could be working better for everyone.”

UC Irvine recently received approval from the UC Board of Regents to transition its program in public health into the Joe C. Wen School of Population and Public Health. It is the first public health school in Orange County and the newest UC school of public health. The school is grounded in community engagement, and its establishment helps strengthen the public health infrastructure in Southern California and beyond.

With the transition of UC Irvine’s public health program into a school, many students, like Omar, gain the knowledge and training needed to address California’s critical public health challenges and promote health equity.

The impact of public health programs in communities

Similarly to Omar, Chris Weir is driven by a passion to create change and improve the health of communities. He’s pursuing an MPH degree to impact health policy, and because it’s the gold standard, professional degree for those who want a role in the vast field of public health.

Coming from a multiracial background, Chris is focusing on dismantling the practice of aggregating the unique health and socioeconomic data from Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islanders populations. This practice can mute the health experiences of these communities when they are grouped within the larger, often-used Asian American identifier.

“When data reflects those lived experiences and ultimately highlight disparities, individuals are better equipped to demand equitable representation, resources, and services that align with their needs,” said Chris.

COVID-19 deepened existing health disparities, disproportionately affecting certain communities across California. In response, a new generation of students eager to address these inequities and support their communities emerged. At UC Irvine, this resulted in a spike in applications to the public health program and, consequentially, enrollments.

In 2020-21, the public health program had 58 enrolled students in the MPH program. Three years and a global pandemic later, enrollment has grown to 105 – a nearly 80 percent increase. The new school aspires to enroll 150 MPH students by the next enrollment cycle.

UC Irvine’s public health faculty members were also instrumental in the area’s COVID-19 pandemic response, partnering with the Orange County Health Care Agency and sitting on several regional task forces to advise on contact tracing, limiting the spread of the virus and more.

As the sixth largest county in the country, Orange County is home to a diverse population. The region is faced with a myriad of unique, everyday health challenges, many of which were exacerbated by the pandemic – like undertreated mental health problems, opioid use, and significant, uneven impact of chronic and infectious diseases, along with a need to focus on successful aging. Public health professionals, like those graduating from UC Irvine, help state and local agencies develop strategies and programs to address these needs.

Addressing Southern California’s public health challenges

Transitioning to the UC Irvine Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health will expand its role in the region’s public health system.

Partnerships with state and community agencies and organizations, combined with expert faculty, committed students and a mission for community engagement through a health equity lens, means the new UC Irvine Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health is well suited to help address some of Southern California’s most pressing public health challenges.

The new school’s four departments: environmental and occupational health; epidemiology and biostatistics; health, society and behavior; and population health and disease prevention, make up the foundation of public health. The departments’ faculty will continue partnerships with surrounding communities and will promote an understanding of the population-level social, biological, behavioral, and environmental determinants of health.

Training the next generation of public health leaders

Transitioning from a public health program means the school can increase the size and reach of public health education being done on campus. Additionally, the new school helps fill the immediate need for a competent workforce of public health practitioners in California.

The UC Irvine Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health is home to a total of nine undergraduate and graduate degree programs. It is the fourth school of public health in the 10-campus UC system, joining schools of public health at UC Berkeley, UCLA and UC San Diego.

The UC Irvine Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health houses what was the first bachelor’s degree in public health in the UC system and is among the largest undergraduate public health cohort in the country.

The school will join UC Irvine’s Schools of Medicine, Nursing, and Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences within the Susan & Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences. Through the college, UC Irvine is taking a robust, unified approach in training the next generation of health providers.

How UC is expanding California’s public health care system

For Omar, his involvement in the UC health and education system is far from over – in fact, he’s beginning his neurology residency program at UC San Diego in the fall. He says his MPH degree helped him have a deeper understanding of social determinants of health and the causes of stroke. He believes a public health degree lets physicians see the bigger picture.

Seeing the bigger picture – like the social determinants that impact a patient or community – is at the heart of UC’s public health schools.

All four schools of public health within the UC system are dedicated to training future public health leaders and providers, each one committed to addressing health disparities and furthering health equity.