1964
- The School of Social Welfare (SSW) was founded in 1964 and celebrates 60 years of impact this year. Through our research, teaching, and community engagement, on local, national and global levels, SSW promotes social, economic, and environmental justice, human rights, and the improvement of human wellbeing.
1966
- With support from the Children’s Bureau of the U.S. Department of Health, the School of Social Welfare (SSW) established training units in two county public welfare offices.
1967
- The first graduates of the School of Social Welfare—25 students who earned a Master of Social Work (MSW)— crossed the commencement stage.
1971
- After protests in the 1960s, UAlbany's Community and Public Service Program was developed. SSW faculty organized the structure of the program for the University, with the ideas of student service to the community and civic responsibility as central features. Today, students receive academic credit for participating in the program.
1985
- The School of Public Health (SPH) was created by Health Commissioner David Axelrod in partnership with UAlbany president Vincent O’Leary to train students directly within the state health department and its world-renowned Wadsworth Center laboratories.
- A shift in methods of working with individuals and families took place in the social work field. Distinguished professor William Reid was renowned as the inventor of the task-centered approach to social work, a pioneering method and philosophy of practice that led to the shift in methods.
1988
- UAlbany faculty were appointed to the Mozambique Health Assessment Mission and traveled to Mozambique to review the success of current relief and health efforts. They also catalogued the adverse health effects and environmental effects of violence and warfare.
1990
- The Departments of Environmental Health Sciences and Biomedical Sciences at the School of Public Health became officially based out of the New York State Department of Health's Wadsworth Center on January 5, 1990. The Wadsworth Center is a premier biomedical institute that merges clinical and environmental testing with fundamental, applied and translational research.
1991
- Jotham Musinguzi, the first Master of Public Health (MPH) graduate, returned to Uganda and became a major factor in the nation waging the most effective national response to AIDS of any African country. He became an international voice on reproductive health, family planning, and HIV/AIDS.
- Over 100 stations on National Public Radio carried UAlbany’s Public Radio Health Show. The radio show was hosted by founding dean of the School of Public Health, David Carpenter, and discussed new developments and research in public health.
1993
- SSW’s Shirley Jones became the University's first African American woman to be awarded the rank of distinguished service professor, a designation for eminent faculty conferred by the State University of New York Board of Trustees.
1994
- Public health courses expanded to undergraduates. 20 students enrolled in the first “Introduction to Public Health” course, designed to foster an interest in public health careers.
1995
- The Axelrod Fellowship was created to support future public health professionals. The Axelrod Fellowship, still available to students today, was created in memory of David Axelrod and is a full tuition scholarship for the first year of UAlbany’s Master of Public Health (MPH) program. The first recipient of the fellowship studied access to health care services in Mongolia, along with stress and its relationship to the onset of disease in the Mongolian population.
- Distinguished Professor JoEllen Welsh received initial funding from the National Institutes of Health to study vitamin D and cancer, leading to 25+ years of funding. As a leader in vitamin D and cancer research, JoEllen Welsh has extensively characterized the impact of vitamin D and the vitamin D receptor, a protein found within most cells, on breast cancer development and progression.
1998
- Research from the School of Public Health showed that Methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) contamination in private wells near gasoline stations in upstate New York was a significant problem. The research was used as part of the justification for the adoption of a drinking water standard by the NYSDOH in the early 2000s.
1999
- West Nile Virus was first detected in New York. Professor Millicent Eidson, the State Public Health Veterinarian and Director of the Zoonoses Program at the NYSDOH, was a part of the core team that investigated West Nile Virus and its spread. Lessons learned from this response have been used to teach generations of public health students.
Social work students and faculty began collaborating with South Korean colleagues. A formal “study tour” exchange began, in which students from UAlbany and Hallym University in South Korea spend one-to-two weeks at the other university to better understand different approaches to service delivery and social work practices.
- UAlbany was selected to prepare gerontological social workers. The Internships in Aging Project was developed with initial funding from the John A. Hartford Foundation as an innovative model to provide students with a solid foundation of social work skills within an aging specialization.
- Local public health directors noted a lack of available quality public health education opportunities. In response, the Center for Public Health Continuing Education worked with the New York State Assocation of County Health Officials, the New York State Nurses Association, and the NYSDOH’s Office of Public Health Practice to initiate what was then called the “Third Thursday Breakfast Broadcast (T2B2),” originally transmitted via satellite uplink.
2001
- Al-Qaeda carried out the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil, resulting in the collapse of the World Trade Center towers. After the attacks, Research Associate Professor Lloyd Wilson worked closely with colleagues at the NYSDOH on environmental issues from 9/11 and concurrent anthrax attacks. Wilson’s account of his air sampling work following 9/11 is preserved in the Library of Congress.
- SPH faculty received the first biomonitoring planning grant from the CDC. This led to the establishment of a world class biomonitoring program within UAlbany’s Department of Environmental Health Sciences.
2003
- The School of Public Health launched the university's first major community-engaged effort to understand disparities in diabetes using a socio-ecologic approach. Under the Albany Prevention Research Center, David Strogatz, Mary Gallant, Akiko Hosler, and Ben Shaw launched a diabetes health survey and built environment assessments in rural and urban underserved communities in the Capital Region.
- The NYSDOH and UAlbany trained professionals on epidemiology related to terrorism. More than 70 public health practitioners from across the state gathered at UAlbany to learn from NYSDOH and UAlbany faculty on communicable disease surveillance and outbreak investigations, including those caused by terrorism and emerging health threats.
2004
- The Center for Public Health Continuing Education was recognized for quality online and video productions by those within the television and online video industry. The Center won their first of 9 Telly Awards for Public Health Live!, a webcast for public health and health care professionals interested in furthering their knowledge on current public health issues.
- School of Public Health researchers showed that farmed salmon contained higher concentrations of persistent organic pollutants than wild salmon.
- Cardiac Services Program researchers addressed inequities in access to heart health services. School of Public Health and NYSDOH researchers found in 1999 that African American cardiac patients were recommended at a significantly lower rather for angioplasty and coronary artery bypass graft surgery than other patients. Their 2004 study reviewed recommendations from referring cardiologists to determine if the recommendations were in line with national guidelines to improve service equity.
2005
- Hurricane Katrina caused devastation across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and western Florida. From 2006-2008, students and faculty made trips to Louisiana to assist their health department with prevention, surveillance, service and evaluation projects, particularly in areas known to be centers for high-risk behavior. Of note, they conducted a survey to assess the ability of people to access health and medical services in the poorest neighborhoods.
2006
- The public health infrastructure was strengthened in New York by a commitment in the governor’s executive budget. The NYSDOH recognized UAlbany as the leader in public health higher education, leading to the creation of the Public Health Leaders of Tomorrow Program, which offers tuition assistance for State and Local Health Department employees to take academic coursework at UAlbany.
- Researchers examined street walkability in Western New York. This was the Albany Prevention Research Center's second round of core projects to investigate the rural built environment and its effects on chronic disease risk factors.
2007
Professor Kurunthachalam Kannan in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences was the first to develop a method to extract and analyze persistent organic pollutants in dried blood spots, collected from the state’s newborn screening program. The method was later applied to the NIEHS funded Upstate KIDS study to determine chemical exposures in newborn babies across New York.
2008
- UAlbany and the NYSDOH partnered to track the growth, motor, and social development of children. The Upstate KIDS Study examined associations with parental medical conditions and characteristics, including infertility treatments, environmental exposures and other concerns. Over 5,000 mothers and their 6,000+ children across New York were enrolled, and data from the study continues to be used to generate scientific knowledge on child development.
- Research was conducted on mouse strain and sex to enhance genetics research. As they can easily be used to screen for genetic variability, inbred mouse strains are a valuable tool in behavior genetics research. Researchers found robust inbred strain differences in terms of anxiety, learning and memory, motor coordination and social behavior. Sex differences were also evident in almost all behavioral assays. This work was particularly important for mouse tests related to behavior and autism.
2009
- A new H1N1 virus—often called swine flu—began causing human illness and became a pandemic. UAlbany students secured fellowships from the CDC to embed within the NYSDOH to help develop H1N1 preparedness efforts to minimize outbreaks.
- Obesity prevention interventions were executed in Rensselaer, New York, providing parents with the skills to support healthier lifestyles. UAlbany’s public health researchers collaborated with Head Start, a federal program that supports children's growth from birth to age 5 through services centered around early learning, development and health.
2010
- Investments were made in public health preparedness by national agencies. UAlbany received $4.68 million from the CDC for the school’s Center for Public Health Preparedness to develop a preparedness and emergency response learning center. Another grant of $3.25 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration established the Empire State Public Health Training Center, which helped strengthen the state’s public health infrastructure through distance trainings to professionals.
- Students began visiting Costa Rica annually through UAlbany's Center for Global Health. The Comparative Health System Exchange Program in partnership with the University of Costa Rica enabled students from each university to visit the other country and learn about their respective health care system.
2011
- The Social Workers live talk radio show launched on 90.9 FM. The UAlbany-based show highlights current social work topics, including trends and services.
- Tailored diabetes interventions were developed for Guyanese residents in Schenectady county. A high prevalence of type 2 diabetes and challenges in diabetes management among Guyanese immigrants in Schenectady were revealed by a series of research projects directed by Akiko Hosler. Information from this work led to community-based diabetes interventions tailored for Guyanese residents in partnership with Schenectady County Public Health Services.
2012
- School of Public Health expertise was called on by local YMCAs. 38 YMCAs worked with Associate Professor Christine Bozlak to promote healthier vending machine options and Healthy Eating and Physical Activity (HEPA) standards for childcare programs in YMCAs across the state. Bozlak also conducted analyses on childhood obesity prevention-related initiatives.
- Professor Janine Jurkowski was nationally recognized for her community-based efforts. She received the Tom Bruce Award at the American Public Health Association’s annual meeting for her community-based work.
2014
The Schools of Social Welfare and Public Health unveiled new online health care courses aimed at building New York’s workforce. The courses extended the undergraduate field placement program in social work to regions of New York targeted for workforce growth and added a healthcare analytics track in public health continuing education.
- Annual field trips began to expose students to local public health history. Organized by the Center for Global Health, students visit the Trudeau Institute and the Saranac Laboratory Museum to learn about tuberculosis research and response.
2015
- Medicaid’s delivery system reform incentive program was launched to reduce the cost of care and improve health outcomes for more than five million New Yorkers. From 2016-2021, UAlbany led a team to conduct an independent evaluation of the program and determine its success.
- Professor Katharine Briar-Lawson received the International Rhoda G. Sarnat Award from the National Association of Social Workers. This prestigious award is given to an individual, group, or organization that has significantly advanced the public image of professional social work.
2016
- Legislation was signed enacting a Paid Family Leave program in New York State. UAlbany researchers, in collaboration with the NYSDOH, found in 2023 that the law was associated with more equitable and increased use of paid leave after childbirth, increased breastfeeding among Black women, and an increase in timeliness of a firstborn child receiving all recommended vaccinations.
- Harmful algal blooms, most commonly found in New York freshwater lakes and streams, had increased due to nutrient loading from human activity exacerbated by climate changes such as microbursts of rain and warming temperatures. SPH researchers tracked the spread of exposure to harmful algal blooms using hospital visit records across the state.
2017
- Joachim Frank won the Nobel Prize in chemistry. Frank was one of three scientists awarded for developing cryo-electron microscopy, which simplifies and improves the imaging of biomolecules, allowing the image generation of everything from proteins that cause antibiotic resistance to the surface of the Zika virus. As a scientist at the Wadsworth Center at the NYSDOH, Frank held an appointment in UAlbany’s Department of Biomedical Sciences from 1985 to 2008.
- Photography was used by the SPH to examine public health issues through participatory art research. PhotoVoice is a community-based participatory research approach in which community members take and submit photos around a public health topic and submit them along with a brief text. Submissions for the annual PhotoVoice Project were put on display to open a dialogue between community members and community stakeholders in New York’s capital region.
2018
- A recommendation was made by a UAlbany student to save children across the globe. DrPH student Kathryn Mishkin developed a policy for the American Public Health Association - a not-for-profit widely regarded as the only public health organization that influences federal policy in the U.S. The new policy, aimed at curbing childhood diarrhea, was adopted by APHA’s governing council in 2018.
- The threshold for heat advisories in New York was modified based on SPH faculty work. In 2016, Assistant Professor Tabassum Insaf’s team found that the threshold for heat advisories in New York was too high when issued at 100 degrees Fahrenheit, a threshold developed based on national data. Using New York data taken from satellites, their work led the heat advisory criteria in the state to be lowered by five degrees.
Research helped medical professionals to better predict which patients can be spared aggressive breast cancer treatment, in addition to identifying new potential therapeutic entry points. Associate Professor Jason Herschkowitz of the Cancer Research Center identified the short pieces of DNA that can regulate broad gene expression patterns, called enhancers, that are critical to defining cell identity and function but that can also lead to malignancy.
- The School of Social Welfare received $24 million to lead the National Child Welfare Workforce Institute for the next 5 years, led by the school since 2008. The institute helps child welfare agencies recruit and retain skilled workers.
2019
- Temperatures continued to rise, causing concerns about health impacts. A research team led by UAlbany found that rising temperatures will exacerbate pregnant women’s exposure to extreme maternal heat and result in as many as 7,000 additional congenital heart defect cases from 2025-2035.
- Mathematical modeling work predicted the answers to important public health questions and assisted decision making at the national, state and local levels. The Coalition for Applied Modeling and Prevention, a network of epidemiologists, economic and infectious disease modelers, physicians, economists and health department representatives – working in partnership with leaders at the CDC – became based out of UAlbany.
2020
COVID-19 became a worldwide public health threat. UAlbany researchers and the NYSDOH developed the first comprehensive epidemiological report on the emergence of COVID-19 from a U.S. state in a peer-reviewed publication. The University’s partnership with the state health department enabled faculty, staff and students to embed within the state’s team, providing technical assistance on studies and helping generate timely knowledge.
- The newly established Axelrod Prize in Public Health drew in significant nominations from across the nation. Now each year, an outstanding public health practitioner is recognized for contributions to the public health field in line with David Axelrod’s vision for close collaboration between academia and government.
2021
- The rapid spread of misinformation and disinformation in relation to COVID-19 presented challenges for vaccination rates. The Center for Public Health Continuing Education worked with the NYSDOH Bureau of Immunization on the Public Health Live! webcast, “Addressing Influenza and COVID-19 Immunization Health Inequities.”
2022
- According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Black Americans were 30 percent more likely to die from heart conditions than people identifying as non-Hispanic white. UAlbany’s Kai Zhang was awarded $2.17 million to study how social determinants shape biological mechanisms underlying cardiovascular disease and racial disparities linked to poor heart health.
2023
- A new initiative was launched to support research and collaboration on Amazon Basin issues. Associate Professor Beth Feingold was selected as one of 16 inaugural scholars to participate in Fullbright Amazonia.
2024
- Assistant Professor Edward Valachovic created a new statistical method. The Variable Bandpass Periodic Block Bootstrap (VBPBB) helps to create more precise estimates when looking at regularly occurring changes within data collected across time – commonly called time series data.
- The Global Center for Artificial Intelligence in Mental Health was created at UAlbany to use AI and deep learning technology to identify social determinants of health and related risk and protective factors, better understand the biological mechanisms behind mental health disorders, identify differences across the life course and develop strategies to help fill critical mental health care gaps globally. Associate Professor Ricky Leung was selected as the Interim Co-Director.