Behavioral Science and Health Education

"The greatest pleasure which a person can have in this world is to discover new truths; and the next is to shake off old prejudices."
Federick the Great (1620-1688) Elector of Brandenburg

The Division of Behavioral Science and Health Education is discovering new truths - about how we teach, how we do research, and how we can learn from each other, public health practitioners, community members, and our students to address the most critical public health issues that face us today. These new truths are discovered by blending what is known from academic and community perspectives. From the academic perspective we build on a solid foundation of established expertise in behavioral science theory, community engagement, program planning, health communication, and evaluation. We also recognize that to be effective in our efforts this expertise must be adapted in ways that are informed by the local community and the context in which they live and work on a daily basis.

In order to discover, translate, and disseminate these truths, we, as a division, are committed to the following:

We are committed to quality teaching and small class sizes.

Our faculty includes Drs.: Elizabeth Baker, Cheryl Kelly, Jeffrey Mayer, Darcell Scharff, Nancy Weaver, and Ricardo Wray. We are joined by adjunct faculty who bring their expertise from working in the community into the classroom. This expertise is enhanced by the offerings across the School of Public Health in epidemiology, biostatistics, environmental and occupational health, and health management and policy. We are rolling out one of the countries first competency based curricula. This will ensure that any student who graduations from our program will have the specific knowledge and skills they need to design, implement and evaluate interventions to improve health.

We are committed to excellence in research.

Each of our faculty has active research in areas including: physical activity, maternal child health, injury prevention, community development, health communication, health literacy, health disparities, and social determinants of health. We have on-going funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Missouri Foundation for Health.

We are committed to the improvement of the public's health and reducing health disparities.

Our research and service activities reflect this commitment. Much of our work is focused in underserved communities and we work toward reducing death and disability of the leading causes of death in our society.

We are committed to the community.

We work closely with community organizations and members of the community to help reduce disease, death, and disparities. We respect and honor the expertise and have developed several continuing relationships.

We are committed to our students.

We look forward to working with you and sharing our passion and commitment to public health.

To learn more, please contact Bernie Backer at 314-977-8144.