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GSU report: Public Health to support 146 new jobs
Business study finds Jiann-Ping Hsu College will add $17 million to economy by 2020
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    Over the next 15 years, the Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health will have a major impact on southeast Georgia's regional economy, according the Bureau of Business Research and Economic Development (BBRED) at Georgia Southern University. By 2020, the college-one of eight at Georgia Southern-will support 146 new jobs, resulting in an estimated $7.3 million in additional goods and services produced. It will create an additional $10.7 million in personal income.
    "Needless to say, this is good news," said Dr. Charles Hardy, founding dean of the J.P. Hsu College of Public Health. "We continue to build toward accreditation by recruiting new faculty and staff each year, and look forward to reaching our enrollment goal of about 200 students." Because the College of Public Health serves only graduate-level students, 200 is a reasonable target number, Hardy added.
    Dr. Linda Bleicken, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, was encouraged by another aspect of the report. "This report indicates that the Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health will bring innovation in the form of new ideas, products, and processes to the economy," she said. "That innovation will raise awareness of Georgia Southern University's positive impact, as a research university, on the quality of life in south Georgia."
    The BBRED economic forecast was commissioned by Karl Peace, a Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Cancer Scholar, professor of biostatistics in the Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health (JPHCOPH), and a Georgia Southern alumnus who has given both his time and money to benefit the University. Peace endowed the College to honor the memory of his wife, Dr. Jiann-Ping Hsu, and has created 11 scholarship endowments at Georgia Southern.
    "As a major investor in Georgia Southern, I was curious about the economic dynamics of my investments for the greater good of the University, the region, and the state," Peace said. "I believed the results of this study would be positive, and would lead to a positive impression of the work being done by the entire faculty and staff of JPHCOPH to move the college forward."
    In considering the college's economic impact, researchers looked at three main areas of direct economic impact: student spending; payroll and operating expenditures; and the annual BASS (Biopharmaceutical Applied Statistics Symposium) Conference. They used Regional Economic Modeling Inc. (REMI), a dynamic economic impact model that can analyze multiple impacts geographically and over time.
    "Taking a conservative approach, this study did not attempt to measure some of the other very real economic benefits the Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health will have on state and local economies," said Jeremy Hill, assistant director of BBRED, who prepared the report. "For example, this type of graduate program will directly benefit labor productivity and the labor supply in southeast Georgia. With increased labor productivity and output, the region can expect to see increased profits."
    "It has been a pleasure to work with Jeremy Hill and BBRED," said Peace. "He did a superb job in producing this study, and I am personally thankful to him for his efforts.
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