East Tennessee State University has joined Harvard, Yale, Emory and more than 40 other universities in the country with a college of public health fully accredited by an organization affiliated with the U.S. Department of Education. ETSU officials say accreditation can have a bearing on the number and size of federal research grants received by the school. ETSU is the first university in Tennessee to earn accreditation for its public health school. Dean Randy Wykoff calls it a milestone for ETSU and a steppingstone to improve Tennessee’s low overall state health rankings.