A strong public health infrastructure that hopes to address
the wide range of needs within a community requires sound
relationships and active collaboration between academia
and the current, as well as, future public health workforce.
In 1988, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) outlined some
distressing failures of the public health infrastructure in its
report The Future of Public Health. In particular, the IOM
determined that unlike other health professions, ‘‘schools
of public health have in recent years become somewhat
isolated from the field of public health practice’’ [1]. The
IOM further concluded that ‘‘all undergraduates should
have access to education in public health’’ to ensure a welleducated
public health workforce