Course Descriptions
Year One
HSERV 531: Population Health & Community Development
Credits: 6
This course presents a big-picture view of population health, encouraging you to consider the basic elements that determine the health of populations and ask the difficult question of why the richest and most powerful country in world history is so unhealthy. You'll be challenged to question your innate views of health and what produces it by comparing the United States with other rich and poor countries over time, looking at structural factors affecting health in each. Recognizing the power of communities to advance the public's health and well-being, this course emphasizes specific skills and actions in examining three challenges: 1) recognizing and describing public health problems, 2) assessing the health status, needs, wants and resources of communities, and 3) building community and organizing for social action.
HSERV 533: Analytic Methods – Epidemiology & Biostatistics
Credits: 6
In this course you'll learn how to measure adverse health outcomes such as disease rates and mortality and risk factors such as environmental exposure, and examine the causal relationships between them. Special emphasis is given to learning how to read and evaluate scientific literature, analyze public health data and clearly present complex quantitative information.
HSERV 534: Health Behavior, Health Promotion & Environmental Health
Credits: 6
This course provides an overview of the theories behind and practice of planning, designing, implementing and evaluating public health promotion programs. It examines the theoretical basis for health-related behaviors, with an emphasis on issues related to understanding and modifying these behaviors. This includes theoretical and practical content on identifying and involving target audiences in program development, selecting and designing effective interventions based on health behavior theory and community needs, program implementation and health communication strategies. It also provides an overview of the baseline scientific principles and practices in the field of environmental public health. Using case studies, you'll examine the burden of disease from environmental and occupational exposures and how these outcomes can be modified, reduced and eliminated by various control practices.
Year Two
HSERV 537: Health Policy
Credits: 6
This course focuses on how public health policy is developed and who develops it. Topics include the many stakeholder interests involved in public health policy and the relationship between these public decisions and the workings of the marketplace. You'll explore the complex array of factors that affect public policy, how science and community values intertwine in health policy development, and how context (including ideology, culture and history) influences the structure of and changes to a nation's health system.
HSERV 538: Participatory Evaluation & Community Engagement
Credits: 6
This course builds on the basic concepts of evaluation that you were introduced to in the first year of the program and brings in new concepts, analytic tools and skills for program evaluation and health policy development. Case studies will explore issues related to program evaluation in both the United States and developing countries. You'll develop a real or fictional program evaluation by reviewing various evaluation designs and methods, collecting and analyzing relevant data, drawing conclusions, reporting findings and making use of the evaluation results.
HSERV 540: Management & Leadership
Credits: 6
This course focuses on the role of managers and the competencies and skills they need to carry out their responsibilities. Case studies will examine the breadth, depth and complexity of the managerial role, reflecting the manager's responsibilities within an organization and how it relates to its environment. These cases are generally, but not always, set within the broader context of a functioning health department. You'll conclude the course by spending several weeks assembling your personal public health portfolios.