Peter A. Muennig, MD, MPH, of Mailman School’s Department of Health Policy and Management, Receives 2008 ASPH/Pfizer Award

October 25, 2008 -- The Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH) and Pfizer presented its 2008 Early Career in Public Health Award to Peter A. Muennig, MD, MPH, assistant professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Dr. Muennig was one of three public health professors selected to receive an award for service and achievements in cultivating the public health leaders of the future. These annual honors are intended to recognize graduate public health faculty members from full ASPH-member, accredited schools of public health who are notable for their teaching and practice excellence. The award was presented at ASPH’s annual reception held in conjunction with the American Public Health Association’s Annual Meeting.

Since his first year as a faculty member at the Mailman School, Dr. Muennig has made the list of professors who are rated “extremely effective” by at least 70% of students in their classes. He has repeated this rare accomplishment every year, placing him among the top-rated faculty regardless of rank.

In presenting the award, it was also noted that Dr. Muennig’s lectures deliver a narrative arch with a complete example of an interwoven problem that is resolved at the end. This resolution is then brought back into question either via class debates or via a separate worked case study that contradicts the theory presented in the lecture. His readings are drawn from across the ideological spectrum. Dr. Muennig’s writing assignments are iterative; students provide feedback on each other’s work until it is perfected.

Dr. Muennig’s success extends beyond the classroom and his textbook has far outsold others in its field. His website, which provides worked examples using national datasets, is visited by students worldwide. He has a strong record of matching students to internships and is widely sought after for lectures in the academic community. Dr. Muennig takes his teaching mission seriously, recognizing that mentoring matters for students’ future success.

His nominator, Sherry Glied, PhD, professor and chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Mailman School of Public Health wrote that, “Peter’s tenure file is filled with notes of gratitude from individual students and entire classes alike.”

“These awards recognize the vital roles that teaching and mentoring play in developing the public health leaders of tomorrow. Each of these award recipients has brought passion, curiosity, and commitment to the study of public health, as well as its practice,” states Patricia Wahl, dean, University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine, and chair of the ASPH Board of Directors.

The 2008 ASPH/Pfizer Awards are sponsored by the Association of Schools of Public Health and Pfizer’s Public Health and Government Group. They honor faculty members in schools of public health who embody the finest qualities of a public health professor, and who serve as mentors to public health leaders of tomorrow. ASPH represents the 40 Council on Education for Public Health accredited schools of public health and promotes the efforts of schools of public health to improve the health of every person through education, research and policy.

About the Mailman School of Public Health
The only accredited school of public health in New York City, and among the first in the nation, Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health provides instruction and research opportunities to more than 1000 graduate students in pursuit of masters and doctoral degrees. Its students and more than 300 multi-disciplinary faculty engage in research and service in the city, nation, and around the world, concentrating on biostatistics, environmental health sciences, epidemiology, health policy and management, population and family health, and sociomedical sciences. www.mailman.hs.columbia.edu