A Knox County Health Department senior health official who for years has been an adjunct faculty member at UT will be moving into a permanent role at the university.
Kathy Brown, currently director of community assessment and health promotion at the Knox County Health Department, has been appointed clinical associate professor and director of the Master of Public Health Program in the Department of Public Health. She will replace Charles Hamilton, who is retiring this summer after thirty-nine years at UT.
She was selected through a national search and begins August 1.
“Dr. Brown has the academic qualifications that give her appropriate credibility with fellow faculty and students, and she also has critically important experience in public health practice,” said Paul Erwin, head of the UT Department of Public Health. “This gives her immediate credibility with the practice community—here and across the state and nation—which is fundamental to building a strong public health program that is relevant to the public health workforce.”
As a UT Master of Public Health student in the early 1990s, Brown was a graduate assistant to Hamilton. After completing her doctorate at UT and working as an instructor under Hamilton, she took a position with the Knox County Health Department, where she now oversees several public health programs.
“Her potential was demonstrated during her own successful graduate studies with the UT program, leading to her first position in academic public health,” Hamilton said. “She is returning full-time to UT after completing seven years in public health practice with the Knox County Health Department in a position of major responsibility. This powerful combination of academic and practice experience will significantly benefit MPH students as they prepare for their public health careers.”
The Master of Public Health program and the Department of Public Health are housed within UT’s College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences.
Brown called her new appointment “an exciting opportunity to contribute to the development of the public health workforce.”
“I look forward to working with the faculty and students, as well as collaborating with public health practice on the local, state, and national level,” she said. “I leave behind an amazing staff at the Knox County Health Department. I am grateful for the opportunity to have worked with each and every one of them.”
To learn about the UT Department of Public Health and its programs, visit the website.
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CONTACT:
Lola Alapo (865-974-3993, lola.alapo@tennessee.edu)