Press Release
October 16, 2007
Contact: Jerry Carey
Phone: (856) 566-6171
careyge@umdnj.edu
CDC Awards School of Public Health $1 Million for Preparedness Program
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NEW BRUNSWICK — The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has awarded $1,011,076 to the UMDNJ-School of Public Health to support the work of the school’s New Jersey Center for Public Health Preparedness (NJCPHP). This is the fourth consecutive year that the CDC has provided the funding.
“New Jersey has made major strides since 9/11 and the anthrax letters of 2001, but as events such as Hurricane Katrina all too vividly reminded us, public health preparedness means we cannot afford to rest on our laurels,” said Dr. George DiFerdinando, the NJCPHP manager and a professor of Epidemiology at the UMDNJ-School of Public Health. In 2001, Dr. DiFerdinando was the Acting Commissioner of Health for New Jersey.
In awarding this grant, the CDC recognized the effective partnerships that the NJCPHP has with both the state health and the state environmental agencies. The CDC cited the center’s past and planned work, including programs to improve the working relationships of public health agencies with both physicians and hospitals. The CDC also noted the scope of the work done by NJCPHP, which includes preparing for public health threats as diverse as infectious diseases, natural disasters and radioactive materials.
“Especially in New Jersey, effective public health preparedness work requires a close working relationship with the state’s health and environmental agencies,” said Dr. Glenn Paulson, NJCPHP director and professor of Environmental and Occupational Health at the UMDNJ- School of Public Health.
The New Jersey Center for Public Health Preparedness (www.njcphp.org) at the UMDNJ-School of Public Health was established by the UMDNJ Board of Trustees as a Statewide Center of Excellence in 2003. Along with its core funding from the CDC, the NJCPHP receives additional funding from the State Department of Health and Human Services, the State Police, the State Department of Human Services, and the Medical Society of New Jersey.
The UMDNJ-School of Public Health (www.sph.umdnj.edu) is sponsored by the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in cooperation with Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey and New Jersey Institute of Technology.
To request an interview with Dr. Paulson or Dr. DiFerdinando, please contact Jerry Carey, UMDNJ News Service, at (856) 566-6171 or (973) 972-3000.
The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) is the nation's largest free-standing public health sciences university with more than 5,500 students attending the state's three medical schools, its only dental school, a graduate school of biomedical sciences, a school of health related professions, a school of nursing and its only school of public health, on five campuses. Last year, there were more than two million patient visits to UMDNJ facilities and faculty at campuses in Newark, New Brunswick/Piscataway, Scotch Plains, Camden and Stratford. UMDNJ operates University Hospital, a Level I Trauma Center in Newark, and University Behavioral HealthCare, a mental health and addiction services network.
