Public Health Specializations and Concentrations

Specialty’s Focus: The collection, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data that affects health and health outcomes.
Education Levels: Masters & Doctorate
Program Outcomes: Ability to design studies, manage and analyze health data, apply statistical and biostatistical methods, interpret findings, and communicate results to scientific and public audiences.
Common Work Environments: Academia, pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, independent research groups, public health organizations, and government agencies.

Specialty’s Focus: The health and well-being of women, infants, children, adolescents, and families, including the social, behavioral, environmental, and systems-level factors that shape health outcomes.
Education Levels: Masters & Doctorate
Program Outcomes: Ability to examine biological constituents of an individual’s and family’s health, along with the geographical and socioeconomic factors that may play a role in maternal and child health. Plus, design and implement health programs targeting soon-to-be mothers, mothers, infants, children, and families.
Common Work Environments: Hospitals, healthcare centers, local health departments, nonprofits, and social services agencies

Specialty’s Focus: Improving health at the community level through education, prevention, outreach, program development, and partnerships that address population needs and health inequities.
Education Levels: Bachelors, Masters, & Doctorate
Program Outcomes: Ability to assess community health needs, develop and implement health programs, evaluate outcomes, and use education and outreach to support prevention and healthier behaviors.
Common Work Environments: Community centers, health and wellness clinics, state and local government agencies, health departments, non-profit organizations, and academia.

Specialty’s Focus:  Human health and the health of the environment as it affects the general well-being of the population.
Education Levels: Bachelors, Masters, & Doctorate
Program Outcomes: Build a foundation in environmental exposures and health risks, including toxicology, occupational and environmental hazards, air and water quality, and the ways physical, social, and geographic environments shape population health.
Common Work Environments: Academia, companies involved in chemicals or pharmaceuticals, and environmental protection agencies at the local, state, and federal level.

Specialty’s Focus: Study of disease, illness, and the associated risks in the population.
Education Levels: Masters & Doctorate
Program Outcomes: Ability to apply epidemiologic and statistical methods to study the distribution and causes of disease, design and evaluate research, interpret findings, and communicate results clearly in written and oral formats. Preparation to investigate patterns and causes of disease and other health outcomes in populations and to support prevention and control efforts in public health and research settings.
Common Work Environments: local, state, and federal government agencies that are concerned with Public Health, research laboratories that work to solve influential health problems, academia, or pharmaceutical research.

Specialty’s Focus: Provides broad training in the foundational areas of public health, including biostatistics, epidemiology, environmental health, health policy and management, and social and behavioral sciences.
Education Levels: Bachelors, Masters, & Doctorate
Program Outcomes: Ability to understand and apply core public health concepts and methods, analyze population health issues, and support evidence-based practice, programs, and policy.
Common Work Environments: Government agencies, research facilities, and nonprofits.

Specialty’s Focus: Ecology, global economy, the differences between cultures and countries, and how those relate to human health and wellness. Provides an informed perspective on potential solutions to widespread health-related issues.
Education Levels: Bachelors, Masters, & Doctorate
Program Outcomes: Ability to analyze global health challenges, design and implement evidence-based programs and policies, and work across cultures and systems to improve health outcomes in diverse populations.
Common Work Environments: Government agencies, research facilities, and non-profit organizations.

Specialty’s Focus: Understanding and addressing health disparities and the social, structural, and systemic factors that shape health outcomes across populations.
Education Levels: Bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate
Program Outcomes: A deep understanding of health disparities and social determinants, as well as the ability to identify opportunities and design, implement, evaluate and monitor interventions and policies to advance health equity.
Common Work Environments: County and state health departments and nonprofits.

Specialty’s Focus: Preparing students to support individual and community well-being through human services, case management, program coordination, advocacy, and interdisciplinary service systems.
Education Levels: Bachelors, Masters, & Doctorate
Program Outcomes: Ability to support clients and communities through case management, advocacy, crisis response, service coordination, ethics, and program planning within health and human services systems.
Common Work Environments: Health departments, hospitals, mental health facilities, and nonprofits.

Specialty’s Focus: Research and application of scientific principles to human health.
Education Levels: Bachelors, Masters, Doctorate
Program Outcomes: Build a foundation in health science concepts, research methods, healthcare systems, data interpretation, and the application of scientific knowledge to improve human health.
Common Work Environments: Hospitals, local, state, and government agencies, research institutes, and community health organizations.

Specialty’s Focus: Research and the prevention of widespread illness and disease.
Education Levels: Masters & Doctorate
Program Outcomes: Understand how infectious diseases emerge, spread, and are controlled; analyze surveillance and outbreak data; and support prevention, research, and public health response efforts.
Common Work Environments: Local, state, and federal agencies, hospitals, and research institutes.

Specialty’s Focus: Leadership, management, strategy, systems thinking, and decision-making in public health organizations and programs.
Education Levels: Master’s and doctorate
Program Outcomes: Build skills in leadership, management, communication, strategy, and organizational decision-making to lead public health programs, teams, and systems effectively.
Common Work Environments: Various sectors in public health.

Specialty’s Focus: Nutrition across the life course, including the role of food, diet, and nutrition in health promotion, disease prevention, and population health.Education Levels: Bachelors, Masters & Doctorate
Program Outcomes: Skills in nutrition counseling & clinical practice, community education and health promotion.
Common Work Environments: Hospitals and healthcare systems, schools and universities, community health organizations, government agencies, nonprofits, and public health or nutrition programs.

Specialty’s Focus: Protecting worker health and safety by identifying, evaluating, and controlling occupational and workplace hazards through policy, prevention, and health programs.
Education Levels: Masters & Doctorate
Program Outcomes: Ability to identify and assess workplace hazards, support prevention and safety programs, and improve worker health through evidence-based occupational health practice.
Common Work Environments: Commercial and retail organizations, regulatory and governmental organizations, insurance carriers, petrochemical companies, and heavy and light industries.

Specialty’s Focus: Understanding how behavior, culture, and social conditions influence health, health decisions, and public health outcomes.
Education Levels: Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctorate
Program Outcomes: Ability to examine how behavior, culture, and social factors shape health outcomes, and to design, implement, and evaluate interventions that improve public health.
Common Work Environments: Government agencies, non-profit organizations, organizations dealing with mental health, and academia.