Program Description
Fellow positions become available periodically in response to partner needs and funding availability. Interested persons should inquire with the program coordinator to ascertain current or upcoming openings. Placements are located at the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) Central Office in Columbia, South Carolina. The Public Health Practice Postgraduate Program is administered through the South Carolina Public Health Consortium (the Consortium) as an outreach of the Arnold School of Public Health (Arnold School) Office of Public Health Practice (OPHP). Fellows are hired as employees of the University of South Carolina USC. These temporary appointments are eligible for the typical USC benefits. The Public Health Practice Postgraduate Program is the only program of its kind in the United States.

Partners
The Arnold School is the only accredited School of Public Health in South Carolina, includes six academic departments, and offers masters and doctoral degrees in the corresponding six disciplines: Communication Sciences and Disorders; Environmental Health Science; Epidemiology and Biostatistics; Exercise Science; Health Services, Policy and Management; and Health Promotion, Education and Behavior. In addition, a bachelor's degree in Exercise Science is offered. The School currently enrolls approximately 560 graduate and 530 undergraduate students. There are 110 faculty members of whom 60 are in the tenure track.

The Arnold School along with the School of Medicine, College of Nursing, College of Social Work, and the South Carolina College of Pharmacy comprise the University's Division of Health Sciences. The School is one of the University's leading research units and in FY07 the faculty generated over $24 million in extramural funding. The School recently expanded into the new Public Health Research Center, a 105,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility. The School enjoys a longstanding and productive relationship with the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC).

The University, founded in 1801, is a fully-accredited eight-campus state-supported system. The University of South Carolina-Columbia, the flagship campus, has strong undergraduate and graduate programs in a wide range of disciplines and professions. The Carnegie Foundation lists USC as a research institution of "very high research activity," a designation granted to only 62 public and 32 private research institutions. About 26,000 students are enrolled on the Columbia campus and more than 40,000 throughout the system. The Innovista Research Campus, an urban research park, is in current development and will transform both the University campus and central Columbia.

South Carolina Department of Health & Environmental Control provides the public health practice setting for this unique program. DHEC was created in 1973 from the merger of the State Board of Health and the Pollution Control Authority. The agency's commissioner manages the day to day operations of the agency. The Board of Health and Environmental Control is responsible for overseeing DHEC's operations. Each of the board's seven members is appointed by the governor with the advice and consent of the Senate. Besides the offices in Columbia, DHEC operates health and environmental regional offices, as well as local health departments and clinics, to ensure that the many programs and services provided meet the needs of local areas.

South Carolina Public Health Consortium
The South Carolina Public Health Consortium bridges the major academic and practice public health entities in the state. The Consortium works to improve public health practice by providing structure and organization to academic/practice partnerships through the following activities:

• Facilitating an organizational structure to coordinate, formalize, and stimulate academic/practice collaborations
• Addressing barriers to successful collaborations
• Exploring new models of collaboration
• Sharing lessons learned about the collaboration process and outcomes

The Consortium provides key leadership to South Carolina’s public health community. Dr. Lillian Smith, Director of the Arnold School Office of Public Health Practice (OPHP), serves as the Consortium Director.

Office of Public Health Practice
The Arnold School Office of Public Health Practice provides administrative and supervisory support to the postgraduate program. This office is located on the Columbia campus of the University of South Carolina at 800 Sumter Street, Suite 207.

Location
The City of Columbia is the state capital and has a metropolitan area population of approximately 700,000. Columbia is a center for finance, government, education, and technology development in the state. The community has a rich historical and cultural tradition, and is located within easy driving distance of both the mountains and coastal beaches.

Professional Development Focus Areas
The Public Health Practice Postgraduate Program nurtures fellows in the development of practice-based research and academic public health practice while providing evaluation and epidemiology services to practice partners. Currently fellows work within the DHEC Bureau of Community Health and Chronic Disease Prevention which affords exposure to issues such as heart and stroke disease, obesity, tobacco, diabetes, etc. Upon entering the program, fellows participate in a self-assessment and professional development planning process focused in the areas of evaluation, epidemiology, and supervision. The outcome is an individual development plan to guide the fellow as they garner resources and opportunities to enhance their skills and professional identity.

Training Philosophy
The Consortium and the Office of Public Health Practice stress a strong commitment to training academic public health practice professionals. The Public Health Practice Postgraduate Program provides an organized, planned, programmed training experience for fellows to develop the capacity to function successfully, independently, and collaboratively in various public health employment settings. To attain this goal, the fellows integrate academic and practice public health principles including theoretical, research, and ethical/legal issues into their conceptualization, provision, and production of public health services and products. Fellows will be given opportunities to develop a specialization in public health program evaluation.

Several models are incorporated into the training experience.

• Practitioner-scholar model
• Community-engaged scholar
• Mentorship model
• Participatory research

Training Experiences and Methods
Supervision is based on a developmental approach to learning. Educational and work goals are individualized to integrate the fellow’s strengths and interests with the practice setting needs and scholarship agenda. Mutual collaboration is an integral part of the program. The postgraduate program provides a minimum of two hours per week of regularly scheduled, face-to-face individual supervision with the specific intent of reviewing the services rendered by the fellow and the development of scholarship products. Supervisors share responsibility for outcomes and products produced by the fellows. Fellows meet weekly as a group and are encouraged to work collaboratively with peers and mentors.

For more information contact:
Dr. Donna Rhoades, Program Coordinator
drhoades@gwm.sc.edu
(803) 777-0999