Jo Fairbanks, Ph.D., is Professor emeritus with a doctorate in Community Health Education, and has more than 20 years of experience as a public health practitioner in New Mexico. She is also the Director of the Public Health Outreach Education Program (PHOEP), which provides off-campus education in the basics of public health agencies and communities throughout the Southwest. Dr. Fairbanks is very active in community based projects including efforts to build local public health capacity through grants in education and training. She provides courses in Rural Health Issues, Public Health Program Planning and Proposal Writing, US/ Mexico Border Health, and the Final Integrative Experience course to the university, agencies, etc. She co-authored two public health books: The Public Health Primer and Case Studies in Community Health, and has authored several articles on health professional shortages and health care utilization on the border. She developed a web based course in the fundamentals of public health for MCH students that can be accessed through the University of Utah.
Case Studies in Public and Community Health presents 14 classroom-tested case study scenarios, including background information and discussion questions. The overall purpose of the book is to help students understand that public health practice occurs in a social content, and is subject to all the complexities of a social environment. The book can be used as a textbook supplement to Jo Fairbanks William H Wiese's, The Public Health Primer (SAGE, 1997); it can also be used on its own, or as a supplement to other textbooks in the field.
