2024 - 2025 Undergraduate Catalog
Public Health
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View the Public Health Minor Coordinators.
Public Health Program
The goal of Public Health is to protect, preserve, and promote the health of communities and populations. Public Health problems can best be solved through a full understanding of the complex relationships between disease processes and the social determinants of health, and such an understanding depends on concepts and skills drawn from many different liberal arts disciplines.
The Public Health Minor includes a number of different tracks from which students can choose. The Public Health Fundamentals track provides a broad based introduction to Public Health issues and core areas, and is well suited for students with a general interest in Public Health, or for students who intend to pursue post-graduate work in a health-related field. Additional tracks provide options for students who wish to do more targeted exploration within Public Health’s core areas, or at the intersection of Public Health with related disciplines. These tracks include: 1) Global Health; 2) The Environment & Public Health; 3) Health, Wellness, & Society; 4) Data & Public Health; and 5) Health Equity & Justice.
Descriptions of tracks are below.
All Public Health Minor tracks include required courses in Public Health and Epidemiology. In these courses, students explore the ways social, political and economic forces influence the health of populations, and develop skills that facilitate analysis of disease distribution in populations. All students also complete a culminating seminar, and participate in an experiential learning activity. The experiential learning activity must be approved by a Public Health Minor coordinator.
Public Health Minor tracks:
Public Health Fundamentals: This track provides a broad-based foundation in the core areas of Public Health and the disciplines that inform it. This track is well suited for students who wish to complement their major course of study with a comprehensive introduction to the theories, tools, and concepts of Public Health.
Global Health: The coursework in this track introduces students to international health and development issues through a Public Health lens. Students will investigate the social, economic, political, and environmental determinants of global health inequity, and the programs and policies used to address it.
The Environment & Public Health: This track supports the exploration of environmental issues as they relate to human health and disease, with an emphasis on Environmental Health and climate change. Students have the opportunity to blend foundational courses in Public Health with courses related to environmental policy, ethics, and science.
Health, Wellness, & Society: This track emphasizes the multidimensional nature of health, with a focus on the social, cultural, and behavioral determinants of human health. Students will explore personal and community-based practices that promote health, and the theoretical underpinnings of these practices.
Data & Public Health: This track introduces students to the foundations of Public Health and Data Science, and is appropriate for students interested in the intersection of health, computing, and statistics (the three pillars of Health Data Science, a growing field).
Health Equity & Justice: This track introduces students to issues in health equity and health opportunity. Students will learn about the intersectionality of health with wealth, race/ ethnicity, gender, disability, and other axes of identity. Elective courses will provide additional foundation in these critical social issues.
Declaration Process: To declare the Public Health Minor, students will meet with one of the coordinators to discuss the track requirements, and to complete a declaration form. The declaration form will require students to specify which track they will complete. Students are encouraged to declare this minor as early as possible, to ensure they complete all requirements in sequence.
Programs and Course Descriptions
ProgramsCoursesPublic Health
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