Dr. Maurice Pincoffs

The University of Maryland School of Medicine became the first U.S. Medical School to teach preventive medicine when Dr. Robley Dunglison (who had been recruited by Thomas Jefferson to be the founding faculty member of the University of Virginia School of Medicine) accepted the new chair of Materia Medica, Therapeutics, Hygiene and Medical Jurisprudence in 1833.

Dr. Dunglison published the first U.S. textbook of preventive medicine from this school in 1835. Preventive medicine continued to be an important part of the medical curriculum through changing department configurations.

Dr. Maureen Henderson

In 1954, Dr. Maurice Pincoffs became the first chairman of the new Department of Public Health and Rehabilitation. In 1958, Dr. George Entwisle succeeded Dr. Pincoffs as chairman of the department. Dr. Entwisle was in turn succeeded by Drs. Maureen Henderson, Irving Kessler and Paul Stolley. Dr. J. Glenn Morris became chair in 2000. He stepped down in 2007 to accept a position with the University of Florida at Gainesville. Jay Magaziner, PhD is now chair of the department.

The EPH pioneered the development of collaborative randomized clinical trials in the United States, and such trials have continued to represent a major methodological emphasis.

In 1972, the EPH became the first department in the country to accommodate both coordinating centers and clinical centers of federally funded collaborative trials.