Master of Public Health (MPH)
The Master of Public Health Program mission: The Master of Public Health program fosters health equity by educating dynamic public health leaders, conducting justice-focused health research, and serving the global city of Chicago.
The Master of Public Health Program vision: Fostering public health leaders to achieve an equitable urban landscape.
The Master of Public Health program has two concentrations, community health practice and social epidemiology. The program provides a collaborative, applied approach to education, focusing on health promotion and disease prevention with individuals, families, communities, and organizations. The objective of the program is to provide students with the professional knowledge and practical skills they will need to identify and address community health needs as a working public health practitioner.
MPH in Community Health Practice
The community health practice concentration prepares students to be leaders, innovators, and advocates in addressing community health problems and reducing health disparities. This concentration applies an interdisciplinary approach to problem solving and focuses on skill development around community health assessment, program design, and program evaluation. Students learn to appraise community health needs and design, implement, and evaluate interventions to address those needs. The objective is to provide students with the professional knowledge and practical skills to become effective public health leaders.
MPH in Social Epidemiology
The social epidemiology concentration prepares students to be public health leaders that use the methodological approaches of biostatistics and epidemiology to investigate and reduce health inequalities. This concentration focuses on social determinants of health as causes of health disparities and examines the role of concepts such as power and social context. Students learn to use data to inform research, policy, and intervention efforts that lead to effective action aimed at eliminating health inequalities.
Applied Practice Experience
During the final year of instruction, students gain real-world experience working in the public health field while completing the required practicum. The practicum includes nine months of professional practice and provides students with a structured and integrated application of their coursework. There are a variety of practicum site opportunities available to students that represent a range of settings (e.g. governmental agencies, community-based organizations, health care delivery systems) and public health topics (e.g. sexual/reproductive health, childhood nutrition, refugee and immigrant health). Students choose from an approved list of opportunities and are matched to a practicum site based on their interests and career goals.
During the practicum, students work on a project that address a need or fills a gap at their practicum site. Students receive mentoring and guidance on their project from their site supervisor (public health professional at the practicum site). This work culminates in the preparation of a two-item portfolio, and reflection on the competencies acquired in the course of the work.
Integrated Learning Experience
Working with a faculty advisor, students address a current health issue of their choice in a priority community through the capstone thesis. The capstone is written in a series of chapters during a two-course series in the final year of study, and tailored to the concentration of the student.