News & Events

Jaime Gofin, MD, MPH

Faculty Highlight –  Jaime Gofin, MD, MPH, joined the UNMC College of Public Health (COPH) faculty in 2010.  He obtained his MD in 1972 and his MPH in 1974.  Prior to moving to Omaha, Dr. Gofin served as faculty at The George Washington University (GW) and Hebrew University.  He has served as a consultant to the Pan American Health Organization and World Health Organization since 1994. Since 1981, Dr. Gofin has introduced more than 3,500 students and practitioners to Community Oriented Primary Care (COPC) through… Continue Reading

Fang Qiu

Student Highlight – Fang Qiu is a PhD student in the Department of Biostatistics at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) College of Public Health. She entered the PhD program on a part-time basis, and has now finished the first year of her doctoral program.  She is originally from ZaoZhuang, a small city in China. After obtaining a master’s degree in statistics, Fang started to work for UNMC as a full-time statistical coordinator. She works collaboratively with investigators across the UNMC campus on experiment… Continue Reading

Justin Frederick, MPH (Health Administration, 2011)

Alumni Highlight – Hometown: I grew up in Gretna, Nebraska, where my family has been established for nearly four generations. Current career position: I am currently the supervisor of Communicable Disease Epidemiology with the Douglas County Health Department in Omaha, Nebraska. I’ve been with the department since 2003, and since then I’ve had the opportunity to investigate and prevent the ongoing transmission of many emerging diseases, including measles, mumps, H1N1 influenza, tuberculosis, West Nile, listeria, Legionellia, Histoplasmosis, Cyclospora, and many others. I enjoy the ongoing… Continue Reading

Ashish Joshi, PhD, MD, MPH

Spotlight on Research at COPH – Dr. Joshi’s research interests include global health; multifaceted technology-mediated interventions to support chronic care; and computer-mediated health education, geovisualization, and health outcomes. Dr. Joshi blends his clinical medicine training with biomedical research, public health research, and computer science and engineering research. He uses technology-mediated, multifaceted interventions to support care of patients with chronic diseases. For example, Dr. Joshi designs and evaluates interventions that support disease prevention, monitoring, and management through technologies that are multifaceted, cost-effective, and accessible. He creates… Continue Reading

The ‘New and Improved’ General Educational Development (GED) Test Series

Public Health Community Advisory – A recent report on the upcoming changes to the General Educational Development (GED) series of examinations stated “[In January 2014] the series will be replaced by a new, more rigorous version intended to meet modern expectations for college- and career-readiness.”[1] So, why will this change be important, who will it be important for, and what is the connection to the public’s health? Simply put, it matters to all of us but in different ways. For those seeking a GED, the… Continue Reading

Equity of Mental Health Services Coverage

Public Health in the National News – As part of the fallout from the recent school shootings and outbreaks of gun violence, the Obama administration promised to improve mental health services. One of the 23 executive actions taken to reach this goal was to issue the final rule to fully implement the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) of 2008. Overall, the MHPAEA does not require insurers to provide mental health and substance abuse benefits unless they are being offered through the state… Continue Reading