The Industrial Hygiene program has gone through a few changes, including a new name with a separate degree, and the addition of new faculty.
The launch of a separate Occupational Hygiene major was recommended by the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH), during its most recent accreditation of the School of Public Health in 2022. The recommendation was based on the high credit requirement for students focusing on Industrial Hygiene due to the need to comply with ABET accreditation requirements, along with the competencies for Industrial Hygiene that are distinct from degrees in Environmental Health. Positive aspects of this change include the ability to market the new degree to potential applicants and the ability of the new major to fully establish that graduates have received specialized, rigorous training specifically in occupational hygiene.
Tran Huynh, PhD
Dr. Tran Huynh joined the Occupational Hygiene Faculty in August 2023 as an Associate Professor. Dr. Huynh received her PhD in Environmental Health, Industrial Hygiene track, at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health in 2014. She has been an Assistant Professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences and in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health.
Dr. Huynh describes her passion as her community-based participatory research with the underserved Vietnamese nail salon community. While at Drexel, she worked with immigrant nail salon workers and business owners in Philadelphia to implement interventions to reduce exposures to chemicals in nail care products. Dr. Huynh plans to continue this line of research in Minnesota. Since beginning her new position, Dr. Huynh has been named as the Outreach Director for the Midwest Center for Occupational Health and Safety (MCOHS).
