Michael Walton is the Executive Director of green|spaces, Chattanooga’s Sustainability Nonprofit. Michael grew up in Greeneville, Tennessee (upper northeast) received his professional architecture degree from UT Knoxville, and then practiced architecture in Washington DC for several years with a focus on sustainable design for social and environmental nonprofits before moving back to Tennessee to run green|spaces.   green|spaces has a wide range of programs that impact public health. From large scale issues like climate change and the… Read more →

ATTENTION! In early September 2021, UTC Master of Public Health received accreditation notification from the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH)! Having this accreditation showcases quality and continuous improvement in our higher education program through evaluation of institutional and programmatic outcomes. In October, the MPH Program was able to celebrate the accreditation with community partners, MPH alumni, faculty, staff and students. We would like to thank every person that has been involved with UTC’s Master of Public Health Program past and present! We are so delighted… Read more →

Are you looking for extra support? Needing help with personal and academic growth? The Center for Wellbeing is focused on improving the health and wellbeing of the UTC community. They provide prevention and education programs addressing mental health, suicide, substance misuse, gender-based violence, physical health, sexual health, and nutrition. Megan McKnight serves as the Director of the Center for Wellbeing. In her role, she oversees the Center’s programs, grow on-… Read more →

While in the MPH Program, students work on a project with a community partner during their Program Planning, Implementation and Evaluation Course. One group of students are working on a “Overdose Data to Action”, which is a partnership between UTC’s MPH second year students Breanna Long, Shelby Nolan, and Matt Pankey and Megan Revis of the Hamilton County Health Department. This project was created to evaluate the effectiveness of the health department’s overdose prevention… Read more →

This semester, MPH students, faculty and staff participated in the Remote Area Medical (RAM) Clinic at Camp Jordan Arena in East Ridge, TN. RAM Clinic provides medical, dental and vision services at no cost to the patients. MPH volunteers helped with post clinic referrals and evaluation surveys! Over 520 patients were registered that weekend and over $300,000 worth of medical services were provided. We loved partnering with UTC Social Work, RAM USA and meeting… Read more →

Starting Fall 2022, UTC MPH is planning to offer MPH in Nutrition and Dietetics as a second concentration (in addition to MPH concentration in Chronic Disease Prevention and Control) for students interested in becoming Registered Dietitians (RD). This concentration is based on The Future Education Model and will be a full-time, 2-year program where students obtain supervised experiential learning hours while in the program in order to sit for the RD exam at the conclusion of their time in the program. This Program is accredited through The Accreditation Council… Read more →

Taylor received the CDC Public Health Communications Fellowship by applying through the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE).  While assigned to the Division of Population Health (DPH), he will be trained in the development and implementation of appropriate communication messaging for campaigns, social marketing initiatives, and other program events for specific target groups. Throughout the process, Taylor will be involved in health communication briefings with various departments within the CDC and… Read more →

The Public Health Student Association (PHSA) partnered with UTC’s Graduate Student Association (GSA) to host a Bowling for Boobs- Strike Out Breast Cancer Fundraiser at Spare Time on October 29th from 6-9 pm. This event was in support of breast cancer research and bringing awareness to the community during Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Tickets were sold for attendance as well as T-shirts! The event was a huge success and PHSA was able to raise over $570! PHSA also hosted a College of Health, Education and… Read more →

In August 2021, UTC MPH welcomed new faculty member Dr. Jaesin Sa to the program! Dr. Sa received his PhD from Indiana University-Bloomington and completed his postdoctoral training in the School of Public Health at University of California-Berkeley. He is a Biostatistician with expertise in community-based approaches to understanding and reducing racial/ethnic disparities in obesity-related behaviors.   Dr. Sa has also received an internal grant and published an innovative study in a peer-reviewed… Read more →