MPH in Health Equity

The fully online Master of Public Health (OL MPH) program offers a skills-based curriculum focused on health equity that prepares graduates to solve real-world public health problems. The 42-unit program can be completed in 24 months. Students will build expertise and skills to find evidence-based, sustainable solutions to the health problems affecting their communities, and to engage in practices of improving the health of populations and eliminating inequities.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the program, graduates will be able to:

Evidence-Based Approaches to Public Health

• Apply epidemiological methods to the breadth of settings and situations in public health practice.
• Select quantitative and qualitative data collection methods appropriate for a given public health context.
• Analyze quantitative and qualitative data using biostatistics, informatics, computer-based programming, and software, as appropriate.
• Interpret results of data analysis for public health research, policy, or practice.

Public Health & Healthcare Systems

• Compare the organization, structure, and function of healthcare, public health, and regulatory systems across national and international settings.
• Discuss the means by which structural bias, social inequities, and racism undermine health and create challenges to achieving health equity at organizational, community, and systemic levels.

Planning & Management to Promote Health

• Assess population needs, assets, and capacities that affect communities’ health.
• Apply awareness of cultural values and practices to the design, implementation, or critique of public health policies or programs.
• Design a population-based policy, program, project, or intervention.
• Explain basic principles and tools of budget and resource management.
• Select methods to evaluate public health programs.

Policy in Public Health

• Discuss the policymaking process, including the roles of ethics and evidence.
• Propose strategies to identify stakeholders and build coalitions and partnerships for influencing public health outcomes.
• Advocate for political, social, or economic policies and programs that will improve health in diverse populations.
• Evaluate policies for their impact on public health and health equity.

Leadership

• Apply leadership and/or management principles to address relevant issues.
• Apply negotiation and mediation skills to address organizational or community challenges.

Communication

• Select communication strategies for different audiences and sectors.
• Communicate audience-appropriate (i.e., non-academic, non-peer audience) public health content, both in writing and through oral presentation.
• Describe the importance of cultural competence in communicating public health content.

Interprofessional and/or Intersectoral Practice

• Perform effectively on interprofessional teams.
• Integrate perspectives from other sectors and/or professions to promote and advance population health.

Systems Thinking

• Apply systems thinking tools to visually represent a public health issue in a format other than standard narrative.

Health Equity

• Design an intervention that incorporates findings of a community health needs assessment integrating multiple data sources and community priorities to identify health inequities and their sources.
• Utilize evidence of health impacts associated with climate change and the environment to improve health and reduce inequities.
• Develop a monitoring and evaluation plan to improve or scale a public health intervention, program, service, or policy.
• Create an evidence-based strategy for community organizing and advocacy to create more equitable health systems or policies related to a public health issue.
• Design a communication strategy that translates evidence-based findings for policy, advocacy, or public health practice that are tailored to diverse audiences, including the general public and the media.

Program Requirements

Students complete six modules in addition to a 0-unit orientation module. These six modules are taken one at a time and must be completed in sequence—a student must successfully complete a module before taking the next module.

• SPH OM 700 Online MPH Launch (0 units)
• SPH OM 701 Data, Determinants, and Decision-Making for Health Equity (8 units)
• SPH OM 702 Policy, Programs and Public Health Communication (8 units)
• SPH OM 703 Applied Methods in Population Health Science (8 units)
• SPH OM 704 Public Health Policy, Advocacy, and Community Organizing (8 units)
• SPH OM 705 Applied Public Health Practice (8 units)
• SPH OM 706 Integrative Seminar (2 units)

The minimum grade for OL MPH modules is a B–. If a student earns below the minimum grade, they will not earn degree units for the course and they will need to retake the course the next term the course is offered. OL MPH students who receive a deficient grade will be subject to Academic Probation. OL MPH students who receive two deficient grades will be subject to Academic Dismissal. OL MPH students must make appropriate academic progress to remain enrolled in the program. Students admitted in the fall term need to successfully complete SPH OM 701 by the end of the following fall term. Students admitted in the spring term need to successfully complete SPH OM 701 by the end of the following spring term. Students who do not make appropriate academic progress are subject to removal from the program. For full details, read the complete Academic Standing policy.