 The school was founded by the now defunct College of Health and Urban Affairs of Florida International University, honoring faculty member Robert R. Stempel.Stempel joined the faculty in the Department of Public Health in 1991 and was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 1995.He was responsible for developing most of the courses in the Master of Public Health epidemiology track and was well known and respected for his graduate-level courses on AIDS Epidemiology, Behavioral Epidemiology, and International Public Health.