Center for Public Health and Disasters

The Center for Public Health and Disasters was established in 1997 to address the critical issues faced when a disaster impacts a community. The center promotes interdisciplinary efforts to reduce the health impacts of domestic and international, natural and human-induced disasters. It facilitates dialogue between public health and medicine, engineering, physical and social sciences, and emergency management.

This unique philosophy is applied to the education and training of practitioners and researchers, collaborative interdisciplinary research and service to the community. The multidisciplinary center staff and participating faculty have backgrounds that include emergency medicine, environmental health sciences, epidemiology, gerontology, health services, social work, sociology, urban planning and public health.

The center has recently been named as one of 15 Academic Centers for Public Health Preparedness by the Centers for Disease Control. The goal of these national centers is to improve competencies of front-line workers in public health to respond to public health threats.

Mission

The Center for Public Health and Disasters promotes interdisciplinary efforts to reduce the health impacts of domestic and international, natural and human-generated disasters.

Projects & Programs

Center News

Aliso Canyon
November 1, 2022
UCLA awarded $21 million grant to study health impacts of gas leak in Aliso Canyon, California

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has selected a multidisciplinary team of renowned UCLA scientists and healthcare practitioners will conduct the Aliso Canyon Health Research Study.

Source: UCLA Newsroom Read Full Article
October 10, 2022
"California doesn’t know how many people died in record summer heat wave"

The Los Angeles Times interviewed Dr. David Eisenman, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of community health sciences, about how California tracks mortality during extreme heat events.

Source: The Los Angeles Times Read Full Article