The MPH Initiative seeks to develop the infrastructure and coursework to offer a 2-year Master’s in Public Health degree at UCF. The MPH will draw on the expertise of faculty throughout the UCF colleges that make up the Academic Health Sciences Center, including the College of Medicine, College of Nursing, and College of Health Professions and Sciences, as well as faculty in the College of Sciences and the College of Community Innovation and Education.
The MPH degree will provide students with the foundation in core public health competencies (e.g., epidemiology, biostatistics, health behavior) that will allow it to become fully accredited by the Council for Education for Public Health (CEPH). However, consistent with the population health focus of both the Population Health Council and the Department of Population Health Sciences at COM, this coursework will emphasize the newer population health focus that will include coursework in social determinants, health disparities, population health management, and population-level research and analysis. In addition to the emphasis on population health, the UCF MPH program will be distinctive from existing MPH programs in Florida and nationwide that offer degrees in historically important public health disciplines like epidemiology, biostatistics, health policy, or health behavior. We plan to offer students MPH degrees in five areas of public/population health that will be critical in the 21st century: 1) Digital Health; 2) Cancer and Chronic Disease; 3) Infectious Diseases; 4) Community and Global Health; 5) Health Equity. In addition to fulfilling critical needs for the future public health workforce, these areas build on existing teaching and research expertise in the UCF faculty. Likewise, these 5 degree programs will benefit from the other Population Health Council strategic plans (e.g., Cancer, Community Engagement, Digital Health, Global and Infectious Disease) such that the success and growth of these initiatives will also benefit our students.
For more information, contact initiative leader:
Eric Schrimshaw, PhD, Chair, Department of Population Health Sciences, Professor of Medicine