2024-2025 Academic Catalog

Public Health, PhD

Overview

The PhD program in Public Health is an interdisciplinary research degree intended to prepare graduates for practice-based research. Upon completion of the degree, students will be able to:


● Explain key concepts across the spectrum of public health disciplines, including epidemiology, biostatistics, health systems, social/behavioral sciences and environmental health.
● Formulate public health research questions that are informed by theory, literature review, data, and community needs.
● Select appropriate study designs to address specific public health research questions.
● Collect, analyze and interpret data (obtained either prospectively or retrospectively) to address public health research questions.
● Communicate findings and implications of public health research through multiple modalities to diverse audiences.


The minimum residency requirement for the PhD program is three years of full-time study. Students must earn a grade of “B” or better in every required course. Students are expected to complete at least 36 semester credit hours from formal graded courses. 108 semester credit hours are required in total, to include pass/fail courses and dissertation work.

Degree Requirements

Complete the following:

PMO 599Introduction to Risk Communication

1.5

PMO 504Biostatistics II

3

PMO 1030Introduction to Data Management

0.75

PMO 513Advanced Epidemiologic Methods

3

PMO 531Program Planning and Development

2.25

PMO 541Advanced Environmental Health

2.25

PMO 661Current Topics in Preventive Medicine and Biostatistics

0.75

PMO 971PMB Doctoral Student Journal Club

0.75

PMO 502Introduction to SAS

1.25

PMO 512Epidemiologic Methods

3

PMO 523Fundamentals of U.S. Health Policy

2.25

PMO 508Biostatistics III

3.75

PMO 608Doctoral Student Seminar

0.75

IDO 704Scientific Ethics and the Responsible Conduct of Research

1.5

PMO 691Teaching Practicum

4.5

PMO 527Principles of Health Care Management

2.25

Or

PMO 598Introduction to Healthcare Economics

2.25

Electives

Total Credit Hours:108

Students must also take a course in scholarly writing (NURS 8885 or equivalent), a course in grant writing (NSO 905, NURS 8882, or equivalent), and one of the following leadership coursesPMO 998, PMO 1010, or OPMS 5003  Students must complete a minimum of 108 credit hours which includes required prerequisites, repeated courses, elective and research courses not shown above.