Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School Again Tops U.S. News & World Report Ranking

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has again been named the top public health school in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. The School has held the #1 spot since the publication began ranking schools of public health in 1994.  

This year’s U.S. News & World Report ranking includes 67 schools of public health and 133 public health programs accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health. 

“We are grateful for this honor made possible by our School’s remarkable, dedicated faculty, students, staff, alumni, and friends who work diligently every day to unleash the lifesaving power of public health in Baltimore, the U.S., and the world,” said Dean Ellen J. MacKenzie, PhD ’79, ScM ’75. “Throughout the pandemic, our faculty have remained dedicated to training the next generation of public health leaders who will guide the future.” 

The nation’s oldest and largest school of public health, the Bloomberg School was established at Johns Hopkins University more than a century ago. It currently has more than 2,600 students and 1,600 faculty members. Last year, the School graduated its largest class ever: 980 students representing 59 nations. 

With $475 million in annual research funding, more than 26,000 alumni, and work in more than 60 countries, the School is fortunate to have unique impact and reach. 

The Bloomberg School is guided by its five-year strategic plan, The Power of Public Health, launched in 2018, with five core themes of education, science, partnerships, people, and advocacy. The plan has helped the Bloomberg School respond nimbly to the current pandemic while also allowing pursuit of long-range goals for the School and public health.  

The School’s Response to the Pandemic and Pursuit of Public Health Goals 

“In the past year, the entire field of public health stepped up to address the greatest public health crisis in our lifetime,” said Dean MacKenzie. “The Bloomberg School and others are also working to build the political will to reinvest in our country’s public health system and to provide evidence-based, equitable solutions to the challenges we face.” 

In a sign of renewed interest in public health, applications to public health schools and programs have surged. At the Bloomberg School, applications are up by 35% for 2021–2022. 

“We have a new generation of public health leaders in the making. The future of public health depends upon providing these students with the knowledge and skills they’ll need to respond to lingering effects of this pandemic and the threats to come,” said Dean MacKenzie.  

The School’s response to the pandemic included:  

• A free contact tracing course on Coursera that enrolled more than 1 million learners from 150 countries, 575,000 of whom have earned a certificate. 
   
• Dozens of faculty-led COVID-19 research and practice initiatives, including COVID-19 vaccine trials, evaluating convalescent plasma, developing saliva-based assays to detect SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, and launching large epidemiological studies.  
   
• Launch of a daily podcast, “Public Health On Call,” a COVID-19 Expert Insights hub and newsletter, and the Novel Coronavirus Research Compendium to provide trusted analysis of newly published research, among many other resources.   

At the same time, the Bloomberg School has recommitted itself to purposeful action to address racism. With leadership from the School’s new Office of Inclusion, Diversity, Anti-Racism, and Equity (IDARE), the School has developed an action plan that lays out recommendations for dismantling systemic racism and advancing anti-racist policies, programs, and practices within the School, the community, and the field of public health.  

The School has made important strides in faculty diversity: 36% of full professors are women—up from 25% in the past decade. Twenty-five percent of the School’s assistant professors are underrepresented minorities—up from 16% in 2009.  

“The pandemic and social unrest have changed how we conduct our research, how we educate our students, how the public perceives what we do, how we share our findings and communicate our guidance—everything,” said Dean MacKenzie. “Of utmost importance is the impact of deep-seated racism on health that has only been underscored by the pandemic. It is our job to steer these changes in positive directions that advance public health and society.”   

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Media contacts: Robin Scullin at rsculli1@jhu.edu and Carly Kempler at ckemple2@jhu.edu.

Editor’s note: 

The U.S. News ranking survey, which was sent to leaders of the accredited schools and programs, is based on a single question about the academic quality of each school or public health program. In February 2019, the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health, along with deans of several leading schools of public health, including the Bloomberg School, called for more in-depth statistical criteria to be used for future rankings.