Course Descriptions

The Gillings School MPH Core and Practicum

  • This course prepares students for public health practice by introducing fundamental leadership skills necessary to advance equity, collaborate in interprofessional practice, and recognize and address bias in organizational settings.

  • This course provides support for students as they search, select, and plan for the practicum. It awards credit to required pre-practicum assignments.

  • This course awards credit to required post-practicum assignments.

  • This introductory course is part of the MPH core curriculum and focuses on the biostatistics and analysis methods commonly found in public health. Students will learn to produce, interpret and use straightforward data analyses. Read more about SPHG 711.

  • This course introduces epidemiologic concepts and how to quantitatively describe population patterns of health, inequities, and their determinants. Read more about SPHG 712.

  • This course introduces students to systems thinking approaches to understand the complex and interconnecting factors that underpin current public health issues. Read more about SPHG 713.

  • This course introduces students to the health systems and the U.S. health system in particular. It provides an introduction to the role of health policy in addressing public health problems and advancing health equity, and how evidence, law, and ethics play a role in policy-making. It provides students with the skills to communicate information about public health problems and solutions to diverse audiences and introduces them to concepts of public health advocacy. Read more about SPHG 721.

  • Students will identify, analyze and prioritize potential public health solutions. In addition, students will learn to adapt evidence-based solutions, engage with stakeholders and disseminate solutions. Read more about SPHG 722.

MPH Applied Epidemiology

  • An intensive introduction to epidemiological concepts and methods from a perspective of causal inference. This course is for students intending to lead, engage in, collaborate in, or interpret the results of epidemiologic studies. Some familiarity with biomedical concepts may be needed.

  • This course is a combined lecture/live session format where students get hands-on experience in the analysis and interpretation of data from cohort and case-control studies.

  • This course provides the conceptual foundations and practical skills for designing and implementing surveillance systems and for using surveillance data for the conduct and evaluation of public health programs and research.

  • This course will focus on epidemiological methods required to investigate urgent public health problems. It will cover the skills and tools needed to conduct outbreak investigations and communicate findings to the public.

  • This course provides students with an overview of public health informatics and includes in-depth discussions on informatics approaches used in developing today’s public health information systems.

MPH Health Policy

  • This course provides an introduction and overview of leadership, management, human resources, and organizational behavior, with the goal of aligning these with the organization’s strategy and mission.

  • This course teaches financial concepts for students seeking leadership roles in the non-profit and government sector, including business planning, budgeting, accounting, performance management, and resource blending and braiding. Students will develop a business plan and learn key strategies and evaluation tools.

  • This course is designed to provide students with an overview of the structure, systems, and policies of health care delivery in the United States. The goal is to increase students’ knowledge and abilities to analyze and address health care issues from both management and policy perspectives.

  • This course gives students a greater understanding of programs available to serve underserved populations, and how the ACA (or any replacement) will impact the care provided to underserved populations. The course is designed to help students think critically about the impact of policy changes on different populations.

  • This class will provide students with an opportunity to learn about health policy analysis and advocacy processes in the United States. Students will gain an understanding of the different ways in which health policies are made by the legislative, regulatory and judicial systems. Students also will learn how to identify and analyze different policy options to address health problems, conduct a stakeholders’ analysis and design an advocacy campaign.

MPH Leadership in Practice

  • Using powerful tools from engineering and management, this course equips students to conceptualize, design, and analyze public health and health care delivery systems for successful implementation.

  • Overview of continuous quality improvement (CQI) applications in public health in local and global settings, including its important relationship to leadership. Focus on practical skills and tools with sufficient theory to understand the origins of the philosophy and describe/analyze processes encompassed by CQI. For working public health practitioners with current or future management/leadership responsibilities within their organizations and for individuals interested in applied CQI in their personal lives worldwide. The competency covered in this course is for students to a: Apply appropriate methodologies to integrate research with practice-based evidence to elevate public health practice in diverse contexts.

  • This course will provide students with the knowledge and skills to develop policies that address public health challenges, with an emphasis on improving health equity, promoting social justice, and creating systems in which the human right to health is given full effect.

  • This course introduces students to a basic understanding of how public health leaders can apply principles of community organizing, community engagement and community building as a necessary approach to improve health. With the course’s design grounded in public health practice, you will complete the course with an understanding of how to build and champion multisector collaborations that support efforts to improve health.

  • Students are introduced to leadership frameworks, principles and practices applicable in a variety of public health contexts, and produce a personal leadership philosophy, a pathway to change for a public health problem, and a partnership agreement to promote shared accountability.

MPH Nutrition, Food Systems & Health

  • This course explores the fundamental scientific premises of human nutrition. We will cover the basic concepts of macro-and micronutrients, food sources, and the evidence-based requirements for a healthy diet. This course integrates nutritional needs of populations, with an emphasis on nutrition-related diseases, including over- and undernutrition.

  • This course covers nutrition during the life cycle. Units include women during preconception, pregnancy, and lactation; infancy; childhood; adolescence; and older adults (65+). Nutrient and energy needs, assessment of nutritional status, and cultural and socioeconomic barriers are discussed for each phase.

  • This course teaches the future nutrition professional the art and science of communicating with individuals, groups, and the public. Students will explore the role of nutrition in different cultures and how to frame nutrition messages for mass media including social media. The course will also focus on nutrition justice and nutritional health equity.

  • This course provides graduate students with competencies to assess factors that influence the nutritional status of the population; identify community resources to promote and support nutrition and health; conduct community assets and needs assessments; and design, implement, and evaluate public health nutrition programs.

  • This course introduces basic methods of dietary assessment, reviews various topics in nutrition epidemiology, and teaches the skills needed for critical evaluation of the nutritional epidemiologic literature.

  • This course focuses on food and nutrition policy on federal, state, local, and organizational levels. Topics covered include legislative and regulatory processes, policy evaluation, advocacy, agencies/organizations involved with food and nutrition policy/advocacy, how research informs policy, and ways to engage with food and nutrition policy/advocacy efforts. Key food and nutrition- related legislation and current public health nutrition policy examples from the US and globally will be discussed.

MPH Electives

  • This course is intended to be the most effective and efficient way for students to establish a foundation in the R programming language, RStudio IDE, and functional programming modalities. Special attention is given to R topics and packages relevant for epidemiological data management, analysis, and visualization.

  • An introduction to the study of the health effects of environmental exposures, based on the principles of epidemiologic study design. Fundamental concepts such as bias, confounding, and measurement error are applied to the critical evaluation of published literature in the field.

  • This course introduces the major issues affecting the health and well-being of women during the reproductive years, infants, children, and adolescents in domestic and international settings.

  • This course will provide an overview of global food systems drivers, elements, and activities; key players; key problems, and potential solutions. We will consider health, environmental, and economic aspects. Students will explore these challenges worldwide, gaining insight into the design, implementation, and impact of programs, policies, and interventions aimed at addressing them.

  • This class will provide students with an opportunity to learn about implementation science and to apply relevant methods and tools to improve population health outcomes. Students will develop an understanding of implementation science frameworks and approaches. Students will also gain an understanding of the importance of implementation science for addressing public health concerns and the role implementation science can play in bringing public health practice and research closer together. This course will draw on concepts and practices related to public health leadership, quality improvement, systems and design thinking, and community engagement, among others.

  • This course provides an overview of knowledge and skills required for effective project/team leadership and management. Includes modules on leadership, management techniques, application of continuous quality improvement, and project management as well as organizational designs that complement team-based organizations.

  • This course offers an introduction to law and ethics in public health and health care organizations. It provides an overview of the authority of federal, state, and local government to regulate in order to protect public health, including the regulation of health care providers and payers. It also explores ethical and legal issues related to health care delivery and public health data and surveillance, research, and global health.