Department of Community Medicine

Rachel Abraham, MD, MPH

Dr. Rachel Abraham, Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Community Medicine, West Virginia University School of Medicine, directs the WVU Office for Public Health Practice, which she designed.

The mission of this new WVU Office for Public Health Practice is, to bridge the gap between medicine and public health by identifying community-based learning opportunities that can serve as classrooms for a new generation of health science professionals based on the model detailed in the 2002 Institute of Medicine Report, “Who Will Keep the Public Healthy.”  Dr. Rachel Abraham developed and directs the new program for West Virginia University School of Medicine, the Public Health Track MD/MPH program. In this new program, public health is integrated in to the medical school curriculum.

Dr. Rachel Abraham has also been instrumental in developing and coordinating the WVU Department of Community Medicine Continuing Education Program, the CMED Public Health Grand Rounds (CMED PHGRs), which is integral to the educational efforts of the School of Medicine, the MPH program and continuing education for all healthcare professionals. http://www.hsc.wvu.edu/som/cmed/ophp/grandRoundsArchive.asp

Dr. Abraham was a key member of the team that developed the first accredited West Virginia Masters in Public Health Program.  She has been instrumental in helping to develop programs and curricula for threat response. Dr. Rachel Abraham was a Subject Matter Expert (SME) for the Bioterrorism Training and Curriculum Development Program (BTCDP), “West Virginia Cares.”  Dr. Abraham has been active in working with the other project participants and is coordinating a cross-border public health preparedness conference with West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio as well as working with a BTCDP spin-off project that is working to raise awareness and preparations for caring for people with disabilities during mass evacuations. She has developed new on-line continuing education programs in threat preparedness as well as the new course for the West Virginia University MPH program, “Public Health Response to Disasters.” Dr. Rachel Abraham is also faculty for the new PhD in Public Health Sciences at West Virginia University.

Dr. Abraham is also an Adjunct Associate Professor, Dept. of Family & Community Health, Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine. She represented Marshall University School of Medicine in the organization of the Prevention Self Assessment Analysis conducted by the Association of Teachers of Preventive Medicine & Health Resources and Services Administration.

Rachel Abraham, a physician with a dedicated interest in rural underserved populations, received her Masters in Public Health from Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. Dr. Abraham completed a post doctoral fellowship in Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.   Dr. Abraham teaches Community Medicine MPH courses to West Virginia on-campus as well as off-campus MPH students. She also participates in externally funded initiatives to identify public health training opportunities for West Virginia health sciences students, the learning needs of health department personnel, as well as coordinate training and workforce development in West Virginia.

List of Publications

Public Health Grand Rounds 

MD/Public Health Track MPH Program

WVU School of Medicine: MD/Public Health Track MPH Program

AAMC link: http://www.aamc.org/meded/mdmph/va/wv.pdf

http://www.hsc.wvu.edu/som/cmed/ophp/

rabraham@hsc.wvu.edu