Courses

The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular semester. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the MyBU Student Portal for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

• SPH MC 820: Managing Public Health Programs and Projects
  During this course we will focus on developing skills in both program and project management using the basic tenants of management theory, implementation, budgeting, and quality improvement. The class emphasizes professional development through a team approach. Students will employ a group process to analyze an existing program or organization and create tailored deliverables for a real public health client. The class is run like a work environment with an expectation that each student will come prepared to be an active and responsible team member. A portion of class time will be allocated for team meetings, which will allow for the simulation of workplace practices including: agenda setting, meeting facilitation, workflow management, peer evaluation, and oral presentation. Individual skills will be developed through the use of teaching cases and homework assignments. The approach is interactive and student- centered, with a focus on individual growth as it relates to collective work Students are expected to have completed the Leadership and Management Core before taking MC820.
• SPH MC 840: Women and Health Policy: Gender, Evidence, and Politics
  Graduate Prerequisites: SPH PH720 or instructor permission.
  This course provides an opportunity to link theory, experience, and policy- making in the field of women's health. Topics explored during the first half of the course include: what women in the U.S. need, want and receive with respect to health care services and preventive education; the role of women as health activists, consumers and providers; the meaning of gender, race, class, and culture in the provider-patient relationship; the assumptions and agendas that have shaped the field of women's health; and the implications of that history for policy-making today. During the second half of the course, case studies are used to consider whether or not the questions currently being asked in women's health are the right questions and whether or not resources are being directed appropriately. Topics examined in depth include mammography, lesbian health, hormone replacement therapy, physical disability, depression and aging. Students complete the course with sharpened skills for making arguments and promoting their ideas orally and in writing to audiences as diverse as legislators, the media, private foundations, public health policy-makers, and the general public. This class carries SB concentration credit.
• SPH MC 845: Perinatal Health Services
  Graduate Prerequisites: MC725
  This seminar will focus on the contribution of perinatal health services and policies to improving birth outcomes and maternal well-being and reducing racial/ethnic disparities. This seminar will not address the identification of underlying causes or risks for poor birth outcomes, but rather the amelioration of known risks through organized public health programs and policies. A sample of current prenatal health initiatives will be examined, including the CDC's preconception and health care initiatives; comprehensive prenatal care (including home visiting) and centering pregnancy initiatives; community-based Healthy Start initiatives and collective impact models; the March of Dimes prematurity prevention campaign; intrapartum care interventions and models of maternity care; women's health and MCH life-course initiatives. The special emphasis of this course will be on the practical implementation and delivery of efficacious perinatal health services
• SPH MC 871: Advanced Topics in MCH
  Graduate Prerequisites: MC725 or equivalent.
  This course addresses timely topics in maternal and child health at an advanced level. It allows students to build on their prior coursework and/or experience and knowledge of the field, focusing on a particular topic in more depth than is available in introductory courses. Topics vary each semester; for information regarding the current offerings, please refer to the print or web-based School of Public Health schedule.
• SPH MC 931: Directed Studies in Maternal and Child Health
  Directed Studies provide the opportunity for students to explore a special topic of interest under the direction of a full-time SPH faculty member. Students may register for a 1, 2, 3, or 4-credit directed study by submitting a paper registration form and a signed directed study proposal form. Directed studies with a non-SPH faculty member or an adjunct faculty member must be approved by and assigned to the department chair. Students are placed in a section by the Registrar's Office according to the faculty member with whom they are working. Students may take no more than eight credits of directed study, directed research, or practica courses during their MPH education.
• SPH MC 932: Directed Research in Maternal and Child Health
  Graduate Prerequisites: SPH PH720 or instructor permission.
  Directed Research provide the opportunity for students to explore a special topic of interest under the direction of a full-time SPH faculty member. Students may register for 1, 2, 3, or 4 credits. To register, students must submit a paper registration form and signed directed research proposal form. Students are placed in a section by the SPH Registrars Office according to the faculty member with whom they are working. Students may take no more than eight credits of directed study, directed research, or practica courses during their MPH education.
• SPH MC 940: Maternal and Child Health Culminating Experience
  Graduate Prerequisites: SPH PH720 or instructor permission
  All Maternal and Child Health concentrators must complete an integrative paper. Students must meet with their advisors to plan the experience, submit a signed Culminating Experience Approval form, and complete the drafts and final product according to the established deadlines. In addition, MCH Leadership Program students must complete an electronic portfolio by the established deadlines for the MCH Culminating Experience. To document their work on the culminating experience, concentrators must register for SPH MC940, a zero-credit, pass/fail course. For more details on the requirements for the culminating experience, please see the Concentrator Guide.
• SPH MC 941: Maternal and Child Health Culminating Experience II
  Graduate Prerequisites: SPH PH720 or instructor permission.
  All Maternal and Child Health concentrators must complete an integrative paper. Students must meet with their advisors to plan the experience, submit a signed Culminating Experience Approval form, and complete the drafts and final product according to the established deadlines. Should the deadline not be met, MCH concentrators must register for SPH MC941, a zero-credit, pass/fail course, in the next semester, summer included. For more details on the requirements for the culminating experience, please see the Concentrator Guide.
• SPH OM 700: Online MPH Launch
  Students are introduced to the program's learning platforms, tools, and resources to support their success in an online learning environment. Students learn the foundations of public health, including public health history, its core functions and disciplines and biological and social factors that affect health.
• SPH OM 701: Data, Determinants, and Decision-Making for Health Equity
  In this module, students learn about public health approaches for health and health equity, including social determinants of health. Students learn fundamental quantitative skills to analyze, synthesize, and apply data to inform decisions, and improve population health outcomes. Students develop skills in data collection, population health needs assessments, budget and resource management, managing conflict, and leadership.
• SPH OM 702: Policy, Programs and Public Health Communication
  In this module, students learn about policymaking, globally, and culture- and context appropriate communication and advocacy strategies to improve health in diverse populations. Students learn to design theory- and evidence-based policies programs and interventions, understand ethics, evidence, and local and global politics in policymaking's, and assess health care and regulatory systems.
• SPH OM 703: Applied Methods in Population Health Science
  In this module, students develop both quantitative and qualitative research design and analysis skills to identify and address sources of health inequities. Students develop skills in epidemiologic methods, exposure assessment, health impact assessment, big data management, data visualization and translation, coding and thematic analyses.
• SPH OM 704: Public Health Policy, Advocacy, and Community Organizing
  In this module, students learn strategies to address public health challenges affecting their communities. Students learn to translate knowledge into practice by use of effective communication and education strategies to integrate different perspectives, audiences, and sectors. Students develop skills in stakeholder engagement, public health advocacy, resource-mapping, coalition building, community health organizing, and policy evaluation.
• SPH OM 705: Applied Public Health Practice
  In this practice-based module, students learn to apply research skills in real- world settings to improve health outcomes of individuals, communities, and populations. Students gain real-world experiences in areas such as: community health needs assessments, intervention design, implementation, and cost estimation, and monitoring and evaluation of programs for impact and implementation fidelity.
• SPH OM 706: Integrative Seminar
  In this final capstone module, students demonstrate the skills and knowledge they gained throughout the program in the form of a high-quality written product. Students address the ways that structural bias and social inequities undermine health and they design strategies to communicate evidence-based findings to diverse audiences.
• SPH PH 506: Global Health and the World Health Organization
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: For undergraduate students in Geneva Internship Program only. Does not carry SPH graduate credit.
  Global Health and the World Health Organization is designed for students with an interest in the theory and practice of health management in developing countries. There are no prerequisites: students with a background in international relations, politics, and economics will all find that the course touches on issues relevant to their main field of study. The course is divided into six topics, including nutrition, maternal and child health, and infectious diseases. Policy issues involving research into the causes of illness and the treatment of disease in the developing world will also be discussed. The course will be directed and partly taught by Dr Philip Jenkins, who has worked on public health issues at the World Health Organization for eighteen years. There will also be many specialized guest lectures by international experts from the World Health Organization or other health-care organizations based in Geneva and field-trips to some of these organizations. This course is for undergraduates enrolled through the Geneva Internship Program only.
• SPH PH 507: Controversies in Global Health
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: For undergraduates in Geneva Internship Program only. Does not carrySPH graduate credit.
  This course introduces students to the global health organizations active in the field of public health by examining the international character of health, particularly with the emergence of HIV/AIDS, multinational droughts and famine, humanitarian crisis?, and the threat of infectious pandemics. This course will place an emphasis on issues involved in best coordinating the efforts of agencies involved to achieve the greatest benefit for afflicted people. Through a series of lectures with international health specialists and structured visits to international aid institutions students will learn about the administration of international health organizations, the international difficulties arising from third party relief work, social determinants of health, healthcare and gender issues, and global pharmaceutical trade. For students in Geneva Internship Program only. Does not carry graduate credit at SPH.
• SPH PH 510: Essentials of Public Health
  Students will gain an understanding of public health as a broad, collective enterprise that seeks to extend the benefits of current biomedical, environmental, social, and behavioral knowledge in ways that maximize its impact on the health status of a population. The course will provide an overview of the public health approach including epidemiology, disease surveillance, sustainable solutions, social determinants of health, and disease prevention. Through active learning, students will learn skills in identifying and addressing an ever-expanding list of health problems that call for collective action to protect, promote and improve our nation's health, primarily through preventive strategies. Specific topics will include: food safety, toxics reduction, HIV/AIDS & COVID-19, vaccines, and tobacco control and prevention. PH510 is a requirement for obtaining an undergraduate minor in public health. It is appropriate for undergraduates and others who are not in an SPH degree program. It does not carry degree credit for MPH students. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Ethical Reasoning, Social Inquiry II, Critical Thinking.
  BU Hub Learn More

  • Ethical Reasoning
  • Social Inquiry II
  • Critical Thinking
• SPH PH 511: Pathogens, Poverty, and Populations: An Introduction to Global Health
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: Not for SPH graduate credit. Students who take PH511 may not take GH703 for MPH degree credit.
  Graduate Prerequisites: Students who complete PH511 may not take SPH GH703 for MPH degree credit.
  This course will introduce students to issues of public health importance in developing countries. For each disease or public health problem considered, the class will explore its epidemiology, natural history, risk factors and contributing causes, and responses of the public health community at local, national, regional, and international levels. The course includes six sections: Core Concepts, Child Health and Nutrition, Infectious Diseases, Women?s Health and HIV/AIDS, Chronic and Non-communicable Diseases, and Concluding Sessions. PH511 is appropriate for undergraduates and others who are not in an SPH degree program. Students who complete PH511 as undergraduates should not also take IH703.
• SPH PH 700: Foundations of Public Health
  Effective public health requires expertise from many disciplines, and students in public health sciences need to have a broad foundation of knowledge across these diverse disciplines in order to collaborate effectively with other health professionals. PH700 Foundations of Public Health is an online course designed to provide students with foundational knowledge in the profession and science of public health and factors related to public health. PH700 (0 credits) meets the foundational knowledge criteria (as outlined by CEPH) for all MPH and DrPH students.