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Caption Marian Levy

Marian Levy has a simple goal for her newest project. Twenty years from now, she hopes kids will snack on fruit while they play video games, and then willingly turn off the machine to go outside and play.

Levy is a public health specialist and director of a new master’s degree program in public health at the University of Memphis. The curriculum is designed for working professionals who want to focus their career on public health. A pediatrician with a lot of obese patients, for example, may want to better understand nutrition; a business owner importing products from Malaysia may need a firmer grasp of environmental issues.

Administrators in public and private enterprises constantly encounter matters of policy and management with a health component. That’s different from the needs of a corporate wellness manager.

“Any time a large number of people are involved in something, it becomes a public health issue,” Levy said. “Different people enter public health for different reasons.”

Levy is best known for the three years she spent leading the charge to purge Tennessee school cafeterias of vending machines stocked with junk food. Schools resisted because they had become dependent on the revenue. But Levy and her supporters prevailed, arguing that when the lesson in health class is inconsistent with the presence of ice cream in the cafeteria, young people will go with the treats rather than the words. This summer, she completed a disaster response plan for the Memphis & Shelby County Health Department, with an eye on what to do in case of a flu pandemic.

The new master’s program was designed to be open and flexible, depending on the needs of individual students. It’s also based on accreditation standards of the Council on Education for Public Health. Accreditation will take two years.

All students will take a core of classes and from there identify a faculty member who can help choose electives that meet the student’s goals. The five general areas of study are: biostatistics, epidemiology, environmental health, health administration, and social and behavioral sciences.

The faculty, drawn from four different colleges of the university, is the key, said Henry Kurtz, dean of the College of Arts & Sciences. It allows for an inter-disciplinary approach that would not be possible if the program were captive to the faculty of a single college.

Until now, the closest public health program to Memphis was at the University of Alabama-Birmingham. Levy expects the first wave of students to be local; the pent up demand among people who can’t leave their jobs. For those who can leave, the program will be marketed throughout the region.

The U of M 10 years ago tried but failed to launch a public health program, simply because the university lacked such diversity of faculty. When Shirley Raines became president in 2001, she vowed to make the U of M an urban university with deep ties to the community. That vision has driven the schools to hire faculty members with a passion for community service.

“If you look at why this is happening now, it’s because we have a faculty that’s already engaged in the urban university concept,” Kurtz said. “These faculty members are already involved in community work and can bring that experience into the classroom.”

An essential aspect of public health is understanding the audience. A project Levy assisted with in Memphis City Schools to address asthma leaped forward once a curriculum was developed that engaged parents and teachers. Parents got information in layman’s terms, while material for teachers was written to their level.

“People have different cultural norms, and you have to start where the people are,” said Jennifer Wagner-Lawlor, associate dean of Interdisciplinary Studies. “You have to respect them, and tailor information to their needs.”

Tuberculosis is a major public health issue, particularly in developing countries where there are pervasive myths about vaccines.

“How does an international health expert overcome those myths and convey the value of vaccination?” Lawlor said.

Classes for the program will be held in the evening, with the goal of completing a graduate degree in two years. The climax of the program will come in either a thesis or a practicum. Levy urges students to consider a practicum because it provides a hands-on application of what’s been learned. It also puts students into contact with professionals in the community, opening doors to new jobs and opportunities.

Once the program is settled into the university, plans are to begin work on a doctoral program and perhaps a one-year executive masters program, akin to the popular one-year executive MBA programs. Though not a true master’s degree, the executive master’s will provide an overview of public health for those who manage a public health staff.

The Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law at the U of M is developing a Health Law Institute in which the Public Health staff will have some role.

Levy’s particular area of interest is nutrition, which she considers the base of most disease: change dietary and exercise habits and you change a life. The battle against junk food was just one campaign in an effort to teach children to live healthier lives.

It can take a generation before real change happens.

Watch 1963 reruns of the “Dick Van Dyke Show” and everyone smokes because it was glamorous. A generation later, smokers stand outside in the rain to get their fix.

“Most chronic diseases take 20 to 30 years to develop,” Levy said. “If we’re going to change things in the future we have to start now, by training public health professionals from the ground up.”



August 2007

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