Cara Pennel, DrPH, MPHAssociate Dean for Academic Affairs
Associate Professor
Department of Population Health and Health Disparities
School of Public and Population Health
Dr. Pennel is an Associate Professor in the Department of Population Health and Health Disparities and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the UTMB School of Public and Population Health (SPPH). She received her Master of Public Health (MPH) in Social and Behavioral Health from the Texas A&M University School of Public Health. After working in the public health field for seven years, she returned to Texas A&M for her doctorate, where she completed her Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) in Health Promotion and Community Health Sciences.
Broadly, her interests and expertise include community health assessment, program planning and evaluation, community engagement, and improved integration of research/scholarship, teaching, and practice. Her educational development and scholarship goals include innovation in practice-based teaching, application of public health knowledge and skills into practice, and engagement in community- and service-based learning. She is a member of the Association of Schools and Program of Public Health (ASPPH) Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Advisory Group. In 2019, she was the Delta Omega Honorary Society in Public Health Innovative Curriculum Award Runner-up . Also in 2019, she received the Teaching Excellence Award for the UTMB Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Preventive Medicine and Population Health and, in 2022, received the Graduate Student Organization (GSO) Teaching Award. She was awarded the Suzanne Brown Logan Endowed Professorship for 2022-2024.
Her research areas include academic public health, community health assessment and community health improvement planning, and projects that build community and academic partnerships using Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) approaches. Dr. Pennel and her community partner were selected as members for the 2017-2018 cohort of the CBPR Partnership Academy through University of Michigan and the Detroit Urban Research Center. Dr. Pennel leads SPPH educational efforts and is involved in public health accreditation through the Council on Education for Public Health as a site visit chair and preliminary self-study reviewer.
Dr. Pennel was inducted into the Academy of Master Teachers in 2019.
Learner Types: SPPH - Master's/Doctoral', JSSOM - Medical Students - Pre-Clerkship, JSSOM - Medical Students - Clinical Years, JSSOM - Residency/Fellowships, GSBS Master's/Doctoral, Continuing Ed/Professional Development.
Curriculum: Curriculum Design,
Curriculum Evaluation, Curriculum Mapping.
Educational Leadership: Education Administration.
Instructional Methods: Blackboard Courses, Case-Based Teaching, Flipped Classroom, Experiential Learning, Interactive Teaching - Small Group.
Scholarship - Ed
Research or Curriculum Innovation: Abstract Development, Grant-Writing, Qualitative Research Methods, Survey Design.
Special Content: Faculty Development - Teaching Skills, Interprofessional Education.