Kristine Tollestrup, PhD, MPH

tollestrup

Kristine Tollestrup, PhD, MPH serves as the Director of Education for the College of Population Health at the Health Sciences Center, University of New Mexico. She was one of the founding faculty for the first MPH program in the state of New Mexico in 1994 and has guided the development and growth of the epidemiology concentration since then. Before her current position, she served as MPH Director, Interim Director of the BSPH Program and Director of Graduate Programs when the College of Population Health was created in 2016. Dr. Tollestrup has worked for over 35 years as an educator and epidemiologist in both public health departments and academic settings. She has always felt it extremely important to bring applied experience and current techniques to the teaching of public health in a way that supports
creative and critical thinking. Dr. Tollestrup received funding from both the New Mexico Department of Health and HRSA to train the public health workforce in the foundations of public health and epidemiology, and to create a graduate public health certificate for maternal child health practitioners working in rural and underserved areas.

Dr. Tollestrup holds bachelor’s and doctoral degrees in zoology/behavioral ecology from the University of California, Berkeley. She earned her MPH degree in epidemiology from the School of Public Health at the University of Washington.