Wilmington College is offering new major in public health and logistics and supply chain management starting this fall.

Public health will be taught in a hybrid modality by a combination of Wilmington College faculty and instructors nationwide.

President Corey Cockerill said the college is, “Absolutely thrilled to engage these new academic opportunities for our students.”

Representatives from the faculty, Office of Admission and a team of data analysts worked together to identify several new academic programs that align well with the mission, vision and core values of the institution, as well as job market demand, she noted.

“The goal of the incubator approach is to test and evaluate the demand for these programs over time to ensure they are in the best interest of Wilmington College students,” Cockerill added. “This approach also gives us the chance to add full-time faculty positions in high-demand career fields.”

The college is partnering with Rize Education, which specializes in online education programs. This dynamic allows the college to establish and cultivate new and emerging academic programs.

The field of public health involves the art and science of helping improve a population’s health. It ranges from headline-grabbing infectious disease response to the utilitarian world of seat belt laws, and from fresh air and fresh drinking water to the fight to decrease infant mortality rates. The curriculum features courses taught in classrooms on the main campus that are complemented by online classes instructed by experts from The World Health Organization and others with expertise on the real-world problems facing our planet. These courses will be taught using state-of-the-art and project-based coursework.

Careers in public health include health education specialists, health care administrators and public health advisers. With experience, those positions could evolve into health and safety engineers, health services managers and epidemiologists.

Dr. Nicole Wilkes, assistant professor of criminal justice, said studying public health equips students with a broad spectrum of interdisciplinary knowledge and hands-on skills essential for addressing contemporary public health issues.

Pamela Walker-Bauer serves as health commissioner for the Clinton County Health District. She was “excited and hopeful” to learn about the college’s new concentration. She cites a critical need for public health professionals now and into the future.

Another new major concentration is logistics and supply chain management. It will be taught in a hybrid modality by a combination of Wilmington College faculty and instructors nationwide.

Logistics and supply chain management represents the entire process of turning raw materials into products, goods and services — and delivering them to customers. The chain moves through six steps: procurement, inventory, manufacturing, quality control, sales and distribution.

Dr. Angela Mitchell, area coordinator and professor of business administration, said positions in the industry are expected to grow more than 30 percent by the year 2030.

“As e-commerce has exploded over the last several years, so has the need to move products in a timely and efficient manner,” she said, noting that a degree in logistics and supply chain management prepares the student for a wide variety of positions in this industry. These positions could include purchasing manager, distribution specialist, supply chain manager or inventory analyst.

Graduates of WC’s program will be highly employable commanding better-than-average salaries in industries ranging from manufacturing and health care to retail and transportation. Across the country, statistics indicate that 93 percent of graduates in logistics and supply chain management find a job within three months.

The College is partnering with Rize Education, which specializes in online education programs. This dynamic allows the college to establish and cultivate new and emerging academic programs.

Submitted by Randall Sarvis, senior director of communications, Wilmington College.