Data and Analysis:

• Explain qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods and policy analysis research and evaluation methods to address health issues at multiple (individual, group, organization, community and population) levels.
• Design a qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods, policy analysis or evaluation project to address a public health issue.
• Explain the use and limitations of surveillance systems and national surveys in assessing, monitoring and evaluating policies and programs and to address a population’s health.

Leadership, Management, and Governance:

• Propose strategies for health improvement and elimination of health inequities by organizing stakeholders, including researchers, practitioners, community leaders and other partners
• Communicate public health science to diverse stakeholders, including individuals at all levels of health literacy, for purposes of influencing behavior and policies.
• Integrate knowledge, approaches, methods, values and potential contributions from multiple professions, sectors, and systems in addressing public health problems.
• Create a strategic plan.
• Facilitate shared decision making through negotiation and consensus-building methods.
  Create organizational change strategies.
• Propose strategies to promote inclusion and equity within public health programs, policies and systems.
• Assess one’s own strengths and weaknesses in leadership capacities, including cultural proficiency.
• Propose human, fiscal and other resources to achieve a strategic goal.
• Cultivate new resources and revenue streams to achieve a strategic goal.

Policy and Programs:

• Design a system-level intervention to address a public health issue.
• Integrate knowledge of cultural values and practices in the design of public health policies and programs.
• Integrate scientific information, legal and regulatory approaches, ethical frameworks and varied stakeholder interests in policy development and analysis.
• Propose interprofessional and/or intersectoral team approaches to improving public health.

Education and Workforce Development:

• Assess an audience’s knowledge and learning needs.
• Deliver training or educational experiences that promote learning in academic, organizational or community settings.
• Use best practice modalities in pedagogical practices.

The School's DrPH program requires students to complete 48 credits of coursework. Courses are focused on needs assessment, health economics, public health management, implementation science and strategy, ethics, communication, research, and data interpretation Our coursework is fully in-person and students must be present in Boston to complete their classes. Full-time students can complete coursework in Boston in 3 semesters (fall, spring, fall); part-time students complete coursework within three years of matriculation. After students complete coursework, residence in Boston is not required to complete program requirements. See the DrPH Guidebook for detailed information about course offerings and requirements.

Students also complete:

• A professional practicum of at least 150 hours;
• A written qualifying examination following the completion of coursework;
• A public health practice dissertation; and
• A public presentation of the final dissertation.

Dissertation

Each candidate will work closely with a faculty mentor and committee to prepare a dissertation portfolio demonstrating the ability to analyze and solve complex, practice-based problems in public health. The dissertation should reflect the variety of perspectives needed to meet major public health challenges and should include explicit, population-based policy and practice implications. produce at least one publishable manuscript and as well as two additional practice-oriented products of high value for public health professional applications. The practice-oriented products are drawn from engagement with practice professionals in the student’s area of interest and are intended for immediate application in real-world situations. Students are required to include either primary or secondary data collection and analysis in their projects.

Appropriate practice  products may include:

• Program evaluations;
• Policy or political assessments;
• Community-based needs assessments;
• Quantitative or qualitative data collection and/or analyses;
• Substantial legislative analyses;
• Comparative analyses by region, population, or implementation strategies
• Development of an educational module targeting a specific population or need;
• Development of a novel index for policy application;
• Public health outreach and communication strategy;
• Practice implementation plan or strategy

Alanna Kate Cruz

Alanna Kate Cruz recently moved to Boston from her hometown of New York City. Her professional background has primarily consisted of clinical work in maternal, child, and newborn health and experience as a public health practitioner working in non-profit settings, academic research institutions, and in healthcare management. She currently works as the Program Manager for the Center for Health Equity, Education, and Advocacy (CHEEA) at Cambridge Health Alliance. Her current role has offered me the opportunity to coordinate with institutions across the United States to collaborate with physicians and public health leaders using community organizing and advocacy approaches to address critical issues in public health, including climate health, asylum medicine, advocacy among physician groups, LGBTQIA+ health, and racism in medicine. Her clinical background has been as a Pediatric Speech-Language Pathologist with a focus on feeding and swallowing/dysphagia, with a recent work experience at Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation at NYU Langone Health, and she has recently become an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant. Additionally, Alanna Kate serves as a Teaching Assistant at Harvard Medical School in the Media, Medicine, and Health Program and Assistant Editor with the Journal of Human Lactation. She has served as a Governing Councilor for the Maternal and Health Child Section at the American Public Health Association since 2022.

Previously, she worked as a Program Manager for Partnerships and Volunteer Services at HIAS NY (a refugee resettlement agency) and managed public health-focused projects in New York City, including an ongoing study examining healthcare access and segregation in hospitals to inform policy and planning at the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Her long-term career goals are to lead public health interventions as a clinician, researcher, and public health practitioner focused on interventions to support public health, including conducting needs assessments, program management, and research and evaluation, with a specific focus on maternal, child, and newborn health and health equity, on local community and global scales.

Sara L. Rodriguez, MPH

Sara L. Rodriguez currently serves as the Data Quality and Program Evaluation Specialist in the Public Health Division at Fenway Health, where she leads initiatives to improve data quality, strengthen program evaluation, and support evidence-based decision-making. In this role, she works closely with program managers and directors to enhance data integrity and reporting across prevention programs. This work helps ensure the organization understands and effectively reaches the populations we serve.
Previously, Sara spent five years in clinical research and public health initiatives focused on improving health outcomes for peple living with HIV and addressing social determinants of health.

Sara serves on the Advisory Board for the Integrated HIV Prevention and Care Committee and the Clinical Quality Management Committee at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. She holds a Master of Public Health from Dartmouth College, Geisel School of Medicine, with a concentration in Health Policy and Clinical Practice. She was honored with the Practicum Award and Social Justice Award and inducted into the Delta Omega Public Health Honor Society.

Sara’s interests include advancing health equity, reducing health disparities, cross-sector collaboration to address complex health challenges, leadership development in public health, and integrating data-driven approaches to strengthen public health systems.

Amma Ababio, MPH

Amma Ababio (Ah-mah, she/they), or simply "A," has a non-traditional public health background. For over 10 years, she has been committed to improving educational outcomes, especially for our most vulnerable students. As a K-12 educator, she taught history and science exclusively in low-income and under-resourced schools.

In 2019, she expanded her reach from 30 to 6+ million students at education-technology companies. She held various positions in these companies. She quickly realized there were more talented people than her doing direct (service) work; her talents are best used to improve internal operations. As an educator, she was not blind to the effects of health on her students' academic outcomes and emotional development. In 2020, she decided to go to BUSPH to give herself a more holistic understanding of the social determinants of health, with a particular focus on education and mental well-being.

A year later, in 2021, she ventured into teaching in higher education by joining her first teaching team at BUSPH. Since then, she has been on the instructional teams for 10+ courses in the Global Health Department. She prides herself on bringing joy and laughter to all her classrooms. She has grown tremendously in these teaching positions; her students have taught her the power of compassion, kindness, and grace (to oneself and others).

Amma has a degree in History and Science from Harvard College, focusing on the history of psychiatry and psycho-neuroscience. In 2022, she graduated from BUSPH with a Master's in Public Health, focusing on program management and global health. In her doctoral studies, she plans to study management further to improve educational and health outcomes for students.

Amma is also a professional mixed-media artist. She started her organization, AQ Creations Studio, to increase the representation of Black women in fine arts. Her paintings have been featured in personal collections, art shows, and charity auctions.

Isabel Redman, MPH

Isabel received her BS in Political Science and International Relations from University College London and her MPH from Columbia University. With ICAP at Columbia, Isabel worked on over 50 global health data projects, contributing to epidemiological data collection and analysis, developing standard operating procedures and providing technical guidance to global partners. In 2024, Isabel shifted her focus to community health work with Boston University. Isabel currently manages a portfolio of mental health related projects, ranging from substance use recovery research to the evaluation of the Mental Health Advocacy Program for Kids. Isabel is pursuing her DrPH with BUSPH to further develop her skills in designing and evaluating upstream, community-informed interventions that translate research into impact, and advocating for policies that promote population mental health.

William McCollum, MPH

Will McCollum’s global health career began in Nepali eye hospitals in 2017, where he volunteered for the Seva Foundation. Since then, he has completed internships at the Carter Center and the Task Force for Global Health to support networks of field epidemiologist training programs during the COVID-19 pandemic. He also implemented community engagement strategies for the Emory Vaccine Center's clinical research studies that advanced HIV treatments and Meningococcal B vaccine efficacy.

Will earned his Bachelor of Science in Medical Sociology, and attended Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health for his MPH degree in Global Health and Community Health Development. His masters thesis focused on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, and he was the President of Emory Global Health Institute's Student Advisory Committee. He drew inspiration from his conversations with Bill Foege and Larry Brilliant after attending their lectures, and he was selected as a global health scholar for the Gates Notes Deep Dive on Pandemic Prevention.

Over the past 3 years, Will has worked as a Surveillance Officer at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and a Sr Research Coordinator JHU’s School of Medicine. His background encompasses areas that include COVID-19, HIV, MRSA/MSSA, NTDs, blinding diseases, cancer, and mental health. His primary interests are in epidemic preparedness and response, immunization policy, and vaccine delivery to vulnerable populations.

Yilan Gao, MPH

Yilan Gao is a Research Fellow in the Department of Global Health at Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH), where she has worked for 4 years on clinical trials and observational studies in tuberculosis and post-tuberculosis lung disease across multiple countries. She holds an MPH from BUSPH with certificates in Epidemiology & Biostatistics and Infectious Disease and brings prior experience in program evaluation where she evaluated educational and vocational initiatives with Udayan Care in India and worked with the Infection Control and Prevention Department at Boston Medical Center on healthcare-associated infections. Beyond her research, Yilan facilitates the Fairer Partnerships in Global Health working group and serves on the BU Staff Senate representing Global Health.

In pursuing the DrPH, she aims to develop leadership and implementation expertise to lead and advance infection control and outbreak preparedness through sustainable global surveillance networks and effective tiered partnerships, with a commitment to health equity.

Jason Chen, MPH, MA

My name is Jason (Xiaoxin) Chen is. I consider myself a public health data scientist dedicated to addressing the systemic challenges of global aging and rising healthcare costs. Currently, Jason is working within the actuarial department at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, leveraging large databases and advanced analytics to improve healthcare affordability, enhance case management, and combat medical fraud. Prior to this experience, he worked for leading healthcare providers like Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Kaiser Permanente for nearly a decade. His work there focused on optimizing operational efficiencies and improving surgical outcomes. Seeing the challenges from both the payor side and the provider side, he learned that long-lasting changes require a blend of rigorous evidence-based discipline, building trust among stakeholders, and a deep commitment to serve others beyond what my job requires.

Jason holds a master’s degree in mathematics from Boston University and an MPH degree from Brown University. As a DrPH student, his aim is to design, enhance, and implement affordable care models that can offer support and dignity to older adults, their families, and direct care workers. He is interested in developing disability-related prevention and intervention strategies, as well as researching innovative health policies for the aging population. By combining expertise in data science with public health leadership, Jason hopes to bring clarity and comfort to seniors navigating serious illnesses while ensuring job efficacy and satisfaction among direct care workers.

Full-Time Students: 53%
Part-Time Students: 48%
International Students: 29%
Graduate Employment Rate: 100%

Carlos Felipe Ruiz

Investigating Access to HIV Prevention Services in the San Diego County Bi-National (United States - Mexico) Border Region

Mohammed Abba-Aji

Mental Health and Resilience Following Violent Incidents in Nigeria (MaRVIN): Instrument Validation, Epidemiologic Burden, and Trauma–Stress Interactions Among Violence-Exposed Populations

Omonyêlé L Adjognon

End-user Centered Dissemination: Using Co-design to Advance Evidence-based Behavioral Health Practice in the Veterans Health Administration

Jennica Allen

Democratizing Systems Thinking for Public Health Professionals: A Tool to Support Systems-based Decision Making in Public Health

Edima Ottoho

Enhancing Women’s Leadership in Global Health: Investigating Mentorship Models for Women in Global Health and Developing a Framework for Effective Implementation in Low-and-Middle-Income Countries (LMICs)

Martine Chase

The Rural Response to Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: A Case Study of the Prevalence and Programming Implications of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) in Zambia

Charl Bezuidenhout

Assessing the Acceptability, Feasibility, and Cost-Effectiveness of In-Home Point-of-Care Tuberculosis Testing During Household Contact Investigations in South Africa

Anisa Saleh

Sustainability and Scale-up of KenyaEMR: A Mixed-Methods Needs Assessment of an HIV-Related Digital Health Solution Beyond Donor Support in Kenya

Christian Mazimpaka

Evaluating Coverage of Rwanda's mass drug administration (MDA) program for schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiasis and assessing the program’s capacity for sustainability

Laura Housman

Establishing an Empowerment Measure for Massachusetts Boards of Health and Assessing Impact of Board Empowerment on Tobacco Retail Density: A Mixed-Methods Study

Zandra Levesque

Bridging the Gaps: A Mixed Methods Study of Migrant Perinatal Experiences and the Role of Doulas and Home Visitors in Creating Integrated Systems of Care

Karen White

Strengthening the Massachusetts Local Public Health Workforce Pipeline: Lessons Learned and Recommendations from a Mixed-Methods Evaluation

Santhi Hariprasad

HIV Treatment Engagement Interventions for Men in Malawi: A Mixed-Methods Economic Evaluation

Mohammed Abba-Aji, MD, MSc

Over the past decade, Mohammed has worked as a physician in the Nigerian military and rose in rank as a senior officer. During the course of his career, he held several leadership roles managing health teams in conflict zones, disaster situations, and highly unstable environments. His last appointment was as Commanding Officer of the 119 Composite Group Medical Wing of the Nigerian Air Force.
These roles have given him tremendous professional experience and insight into the realities of balancing urgent public health needs with the dangers of extreme crises and conflict situations. He came to see firsthand, the power imbalances that arise when working locally with international health actors and, the importance of balancing a carefully thought out plan, with the urgent necessities of an emergency situation.
He is acquiring a DrPH to develop the leadership and managerial skills necessary to organize diverse stakeholders with conflicting goals to address health inequities and advance his ability to create and communicate compelling visions for the future of Nigerian, regional and global health systems. Mohammed joins the school as a Research Fellow in the Department of Epidemiology under the mentorship of Dean Sandro Galea.

Martine Chase, MSc

Within 3 years of completing undergraduate studies at the University of the West Indies in Barbados, Martine pursued an MSc in the Control of Infectious Diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Since 2007, she has worked in several aspects of public health program design, management, and implementation including 7 years as the Strategic Information Team Lead for the U.S. CDC’s Caribbean Regional Office, where she led the implementation of research, surveillance, and M&E system strengthening initiatives across 12 countries supported by the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) program.

Through Martine’s experience in global health programming, she has seen how the absence of data hampers the allocation of adequate resources and timely refinement of programs. She has also seen the value of innovative, cost-effective solutions that enhance data systems and enable programs to deliver services to those that need them most and is therefore passionate about strengthening routine data systems, participatory research methods, and using strategic information to design and implement programs for underserved populations.

Charl Bezuidenhout, DrPH

Charl Bezuidenhout obtained his bachelor’s degree in business management in 2010 from Stellenbosch University, South Africa. In 2013, he graduated with his master’s degree in Business Management with a concentration in Industrial/Organizational Psychology.

In 2014, Charl passed the board exam and became registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) as a registered Industrial Psychologist. Additional credentials include completion of an Advanced Health Management Program (AHMP) certified by Yale School of Public Health in 2014 and a Lean/Six Sigma Black Belt certification obtained through Lean Sigma Corporation in 2020.

Charl has been working for The Foundation for Professional Development (FPD) for the past 8 years. He started his career in public health in the capacity of Human Resources Technical Coordinator providing strategic human resources support to health departments across the Eastern Cape, South Africa as part of health systems strengthening. In 2016 Charl was appointed as Project Manager for FPD’s Research Centre and later promoted to Head of Operations. His passion lies in the strategic management of projects and programs that offer novel tools, instruments and practices aimed at curbing the burden of diseases, especially in resource constraint settings. He decided to pursue a DrPH to further develop his skills and competencies as a leader in public health allowing him to affect greater change on a larger scale. The DrPH program at SPH most closely resonated with his interests, emphasizing a practice orientated approach to learning.

Christian Mazimpaka, DrPH, MS

With a career devoted to improving the health of mothers and children in Rwanda, Christian joined the DrPH Program at Boston University to hone his research and leadership skills and to introduce best management and public health education practices into the field in his home country. Since 2014, Christian has applied his skills to bridging the clinical and public health worlds in service to the Rwandan Ministry of Health and as a senior administrator in various Partners in Health programs (known as Inshuti Mu Buzima in Rwanda). Prior to matriculating at SPH, he served as the PIH Clinical Director for the entire Kayonza District, where he oversaw the implementation and evaluation of all clinical programs at all levels of that district’s health sector, encompassing all community clinics, health centers, and hospitals.

Upon obtaining the DrPH degree, Christian plans to return to Rwanda to conduct high-level research and develop evidence-based, system-level interventions for the Ministry of Health.

• Salma Abdalla, Assistant Professor, Washington University, St. Louis, MO
• Paul Ashigbie, Manager, Global Health Programs at Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Cambridge, MA
• Craig Andrade, Director, Bureau of Family Health & Nutrition, Massachusetts DPH
• Tamara Calise, Director, JSI Healthy Communities, John Snow Inc., Boston, MA
• Brittany Chen, Director, Policy and Practice, Health Resources in Action, San Francisco, CA
• Corinna Culler, Director of School-Based Programs, BU School of Dental Medicine
• Amanda Dennis, Executive Director at The Society of Family Planning, Denver, CO
• Sara Donahue, Director of Clinical Analytics, Boston Children's Hospital Integrated Care Organization
• Gampo Dorji, Technical Officer, Noncommunicable Disease Management,WHO, New Delhi, India
• Rebecca Drewette-Card, President, Public Health Partners, Topsham, ME
• Karen Errichetti, Director of Health Research and Evaluation, Health Resources in Action, Boston, MA
• Cherrie Evans, Director, Helping Mothers Survive, JHPIEGO, Baltimore, MD
• Elaine Fitzgerald Lewis, Senior Project Director, Education Development Center, Waltham, MA
• Jordana Frost, Director, MCH and Government Affairs, March of Dimes Connecticut & Rhode Island
• Susan Garfield, Principal, EY, Wayland, MA
• Lauren Wier Guilhardi, Director, Health Services at CVS Health
• Duc Ha, Secretary to Minister of Health, Ministry of Health, Vietnam
• Ramón Hernandez, Associate Director for the Center for Community Health, University of California, San Diego, CA
• Kristin Johnson, Global Director for Monitoring, Evaluation, and Research, Last Mile Health, Boston, MA
• Caroline Karutu, Chief of Party, Regional Health Integration to Enhance Services in Eastern Uganda at IntraHealth
• Danielle Lawrence, President, L & G Research & Evaluation, New York, NY
• Jennifer Mattera, Executive Director, Center for Outcomes Research & Evaluation & Lecturer, Yale University, New Haven, CT
• Marion McNabb, Co-Founder & CEO, Cannabis Community Care and Research Network, Boston, MA
• Rachel Mitrovich, Director, Global Vaccines Public Policy Development, Merck, Boston, MA
• Arundati Muralidharan, Manager for Policy, WaterAid India, New Delhi, India
• Reshma Naik, Sr. Policy Analyst, Population Reference Bureau, Washington, D.C.
• Nathan Nickerson, Executive Director, Konbit Sante, Cap Haitian, Haiti and Portland, ME
• Umakant Panwar, Secretary to State Government (IAS) at State Government of Uttarakhand, India
• Samatha Panati Riley, Senior Analyst, National Institute for Children’s Health Quality, Boston, MA
• Evelyn Sakeah, Deputy Chief Research Officer, Navrongo Health Research Centre, Ghana
• Roberta Singal, Project Director, Ariande Labs, Boston, MA
• Michele Sinunu-Menzies, Assistant Director of Academic and Strategic Initiatives, Harvard H. T. Chan School of Public Health
• Jennifer Turgiss, Vice President, Behavioral Science & Analytics, Johnson & Johnson Health & Wellness Solutions, New York, NY
• Stacey Zawacki, Director & Clinical Assistant Professor, BU Sargent Choice Nutrition Center