A Welcome from the Director:  Dean Jeffery Johnson

The undergraduate public health program at Tulane University builds on the strengths of its respected graduate research faculty, multicultural student body, and excellent programs. The school's undergraduate program will provide you with a strong base in the liberal arts and sciences and a solid foundation in the public health sciences. Your Tulane degree will be a first step in securing the tools and skills you need to create and disseminate public health knowledge and to apply that knowledge on local and international levels. There are many career opportunities in public health. Whether you plan to enter the workforce after graduation or continue to graduate and professional programs in health, business, law, or medicine, a degree in public health will provide a foundation for your career path. Feel free to contact our office, schedule a tour, sit in on a class, and visit with our outstanding research and teaching faculty. Most importantly, talk with our students and alumni! Jeffery T. Johnson, PhD Director of Undergraduate Public Health Studies

                                            Focus on Faculty

Penny Jessop joined the Peace Corps after college, spending three and a half years in Niger, West Africa, as a health volunteer. She later spent two and half years in Puerto Rico doing hospital administration and learning Spanish. After six years in the tropics, when she was looking for a master's program, Penny sought out a warm climate and settled on New Orleans where she earned a master of public health in administration with honors at Tulane University.

After two years of work doing grants and contracts administration for Tulane, she joined the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. Penny is the faculty lead on the Global Health Fellows Program, a five year project designed to recruit, place and mentor mid and junior level public health professionals in positions at USAID in the Washington office of global health and in missions overseas. She has coordinated the school's Humphrey Program since 1979. Penny is also responsible for coordinating the master's and doctoral level training of more than 300 students from fifty different countries each year. Over the years, Penny has also conducted short-term public health training programs for participants from Colombia, Guatemala and Ecuador. Penny co-teaches SPHL 601: Epidemics, Revolutions, and Response: The Historical Development of Public Health for the undergraduate public health program. Penny speaks English, French, Spanish, and Djerma/Songhai.