Yeshiva University Observer

Issue date: 10/3/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Sophie Marmor One of the shelters in India where millions of the poor live.

Two of Yeshiva University's (YU) professional schools, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (AECOM) and the Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology (FGSP), have merged their disciplines in the co-sponsorship of the recently-established Institute of Public Health Sciences (IPHS). The Institute, which is co-directed by Dr. Sonia Suchday of FGSP and Dr. Paul Marantz of AECOM, will allow students of medicine and psychology to study health research and its impact on local and world health issues. "The focus of the Institute is that the local issues and solutions inform global issues and vice versa," stated Dr. Sonia Suchday, co-director of IPHS. "It is an equal partnership that lends richness to the focus on behavioral and social aspects of public health and global health research in health."

The IPHS offers two tracks: one Master's of Public Health, which is "focused on research, and targeted toward post-doctoral students and students who are currently enrolled in a doctoral program who can enroll in an MD-MPH or a Ph.D.-MPH, or a Psy.D.-MPH program," explained Dr. Suchday. Students pursuing an MPH focus on chronic disease as well as behavioral and social aspects of disease and health. Additionally, the Institute offers a Certificate in Public Health program, a 10-credit certificate program that allows students interested in a Master's of Public Health to learn the basics of public health.

This summer, the Institute created a workshop abroad at St. Xavier College, part of Mumbai University in India, that addressed issues on globalization and health.

"The course was an experimental effort at interdisciplinary training in global health research," described Dr. Suchday. "In other words, we tried to bring in perspectives from different disciplines, and students from different disciplines - psychology and medicine - and tried to provide an opportunity for them to learn about the challenges of doing research in different cultures and resource-poor settings. These skills translate to research in global and local issues."

The topics covered by the summer initiative ranged from community-based research to mental health programs among adolescents, and included the study of alternative healing, such as yoga and meditation, common Indian practices. Sophie Marmor (SCW '09) was able to participate in the program. The Institute's workshop was offered as an honors course through Stern College for Women's S. Daniel Abraham Honors Program. Marmor joined three FGSP students and two AECOM students in the program.

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