School of Public Health

About the School of Public Health
Public health programs were part of the University beginning in 1874. However, it was not until 1944 that the Board of Regents created the School of Public Health. In the years that followed, the School of Public Health added more and more areas of expertise. The University became the first in the country to grant a master’s degree in hospital administration in 1948, for example, and founded the nation’s first Ph.D. program in epidemiology in 1958.

Please click here for a timeline of the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.




No Picture

Bakdash, Bashar

Dr. Bashar Bakdash arrived at the University of Minnesota in 1974 and held a dual appointment in the School of Dentistry and the School of Public Health. In 1988, Dr. Bakdash became director of the Division of Periodontology. At…


Blackburn, Henry

Henry Blackburn earned his M.D. from Tulane University in 1948, the M.S. from the University of Minnesota in 1957, and became a medical fellow in the Department of Medicine in 1953. In 1956, he became a faculty member in the Laboratory of Physiological Hygiene in the School of Public Health …


Dornblaser, Bright

Bright Dornblaser received his B.A. in 1949 and his masters in hospital administration in 1952 from the University of Minnesota. From 1967 until the early 1980s, he directed the School of Public Health’s Program in Hospital and Health Care…


Kane, Robert

Dr. Robert Kane was dean of the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health from 1985 to 1990. He holds the Minnesota Chair in Long-Term Aging and has served as director of Clinical Outcomes Research since 1993 and director…




Leonard, Barbara

Dr. Barbara Leonard earned her master’s in 1965 and her Ph.D. in 1983, both from the University of Minnesota. She served as a professor in the School of Public Health and the School of Nursing at the University. Dr. Leonard…


Leyasmeyer, Edith

Edith Leyasmeyer received her Ph.D. in Hospital and Health Care Administration from the University of Minnesota in 1968. She joined the faculty of the School of Public Health in 1971. From 1972 to 1981, she worked in the Area…


Luepker, Russell

In 1976, Dr. Russell Luepker joined the University of Minnesota and became part of the Laboratory of Physiological Hygiene, which later part of the Division of Epidemiology. He became associate director of the Division in 1986 and served as…