For East Carolina University, a planned School of Rural Public Health – slated to open in August 2020 – will aid in addressing health disparities faced by people living in the eastern part of the state.
“It is our mission to work collectively to provide and to train the next generation of public health workforce with a primary focus here in eastern North Carolina,” says Ronny Bell, professor and chair of the Brody School of Medicine’s Department of Public Health at ECU.
“There have been discussions going on here at ECU since the late ’90s about the public health needs of people here in eastern North Carolina,” says Bell. “About 10 years ago, the (ECU) Department of Public Health was created, but with the intention that the School of Public Health would be created in the future.”
