UC Irvine’s Public Health Program to transition to School of Population and Public Health

Irvine, Calif. July 18, 2024 - Building on the existing foundations of public health sciences, community engagement and advancing health equity, the University of California, Irvine will transition its highly rated Program in Public Health to a school of population and public health after receiving approval today by the UC Board of Regents. This is the first school of public health in Orange County and the fourth within the 10-campus UC system.

The school will be named the Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health in recognition of a gift from Joe C. Wen and his family for $50 million, of which $42.5 million will support the new school.

"When we created the Susan & Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences, UC Irvine committed to elevating all of our health science programs to full schools, and I am delighted that the regents have completed the final piece of that promise," said Chancellor Howard Gillman. "As the Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health educates, conducts research, and partners with regional and national communities and organizations, it will address the wide range of public health problems faced by the world today."

Under the leadership of Founding Dean Bernadette Boden-Albala, professor of health, society and behavior, the new school will stand as a beacon of change by championing the principles of evidence-based public health sciences to understand and impact population-level social, biological, behavioral and environmental determinants of health.

"I want to thank our entire community for their support, dedication and hard work in establishing a new school of public health poised to become a destination of innovative training and cutting-edge research," Boden-Albala said. "It is our job as educators to prepare a workforce that can reduce the burden of disease and disability in Southern California's culturally diverse communities and around the world."

Dating back to the Program in Public Health's creation in 2003, the school now comprises the departments of Environmental and Occupational Health; Epidemiology and Biostatistics; Health, Society and Behavior; and Population Health and Disease Prevention. It offers nine degree programs, including the first bachelor's degree in public health established in the UC system, and currently has one of the largest numbers of undergraduate students in the country - about 1,300 - which has seen a 140 percent jump in first-year enrollment.

"The establishment of the Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health is a monumental step forward for UC Irvine. The school will fulfill a key role in the public health infrastructure of Orange County, serving as a model for improving health nationwide," said Steve Goldstein, vice chancellor for health affairs. "The school is poised to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time by elevating public health principles across the university in support of our health mission to discover, teach and heal."

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

In the last five years, the school has experienced considerable growth in its research enterprise, seeing a threefold increase in the number of new contracts and grants, which totaled $23 million during the 2023-24 fiscal year. The 57 faculty members focus on environmental justice and sustainability, mitigating chronic diseases, nutrition and wellness, health systems and policy, bioethics and more. The current research operating budget is $38 million.

"I was initially drawn to UC Irvine's Program in Public Health because of its large and diverse student population committed to taking their UCI public health training and improving the health of their own communities," Boden-Albala said. "The transformation from a program to a named school allows us to provide world-class training to even more students - the future leaders in the public health field."

In addition to the naming gift from the Wen family, the school received a $14 million grant from the Irvine Health Foundation in 2023 to establish seven endowed chairs to recruit and retain public health's top academics and experts.

The Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health is part of the Susan & Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences, which also encompasses the School of Medicine, the Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing, the School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute. Empowered by a distinctive One Health alliance that unites health disciplines to amplify their combined strengths, the college embodies a deep commitment to educating a diverse healthcare workforce to provide whole-person, team-based, precision care for individuals and communities.

About UC Irvine's Brilliant Future campaign: Publicly launched on Oct. 4, 2019, the Brilliant Future campaign aims to raise awareness and support for UC Irvine. By engaging 75,000 alumni and garnering $2 billion in philanthropic investment, UC Irvine seeks to reach new heights of excellence in student success, health and wellness, research and more. The Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health plays a vital role in the success of the campaign. Learn more by visiting https://brilliantfuture.uci.edu/school-of-population-and-public-health.

About the University of California, Irvine: Founded in 1965, UC Irvine is a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities and is ranked among the nation's top 10 public universities by U.S. News & World Report. The campus has produced five Nobel laureates and is known for its academic achievement, premier research, innovation and anteater mascot. Led by Chancellor Howard Gillman, UC Irvine has more than 36,000 students and offers 224 degree programs. It's located in one of the world's safest and most economically vibrant communities and is Orange County's second-largest employer, contributing $7 billion annually to the local economy and $8 billion statewide. For more on UC Irvine, visit www.uci.edu.

Media access: Radio programs/stations may, for a fee, use an on-campus studio with a Comrex IP audio codec to interview UC Irvine faculty and experts, subject to availability and university approval. For more UC Irvine news, visit news.uci.edu. Additional resources for journalists may be found at https://news.uci.edu/media-resources.

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